On frames...
For 99% of America 'frames' involve either bowling and pictures of your kids.
'Framing' is something carpenters do when building a new house.
Stipulating that I think George Lakoff is preaching "Liberal Propaganda for Dummies", there is no bigger GOP-"frame" than saying Democrats are "Kumbaya" singers.
Time.com, 10/22/06 (10 days before the election):
Example: the Republican ad deemed "too hot" for TV--a spoof depicting a clownish Madeleine Albright singing Kumbaya with Islamic terrorists--that was "obtained" by the Drudge Report and shown via YouTube.
This is a rant...
Here's the YouTube clip produced by the GOP:
Funny, huh? Democrats as capitulating, inept, and soft. Yuk, yuk, yuk.
Maybe there is some exception for using these "frames" when you are losing and desparate but I don't really know the framing rules well enough to say. Help me out here people. Did my rented shoes go over the line? Did I leave too much space between the studs? Is my framezizzle fashizzle?
Please tell me oh wise Frank Luntzes of the left. How do these framing violations work?
*****
On fighting...
Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens. It's a dumb question... skip it.
Look, we all want fighting balls-to-the-wall fighteroos in the Democratic Party, right?
It's a strategy that always works! Except when it doesn't.
Versatility made greatness possible for Holyfield. He could move, punch and box. But in the Holmes/Cooper/Moorer/Riddick Bowe fights, Holyfield became a predictable fighter whose only defense was offense. He stopped moving and dared to fight even bigger men toe to toe. His tactics properly were denigrated as foolish, even suicidal. They certainly were not the tactics that once promised greatness for an intelligent fighter.
What went wrong? Visible symptoms suggested ego's domination of reason.
Ego's domination of reason? Sounds like some people I know. Hint: Ome-say Etroots-nay Eaders-lay.
Having a desire to go toe-to-toe doesn't make you a good fighter. Brave maybe but drinking a 6-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon will make you brave. What it doesn't make you is smart. What beer muscles and cockiness DON'T give you is a STRATEGY. The purpose of politics is not to engage in conflict in and of itself, it's to prevail in the conflicts that need winning. And sometimes the best strategy for those conflicts is NOT to go toe-to-toe.
Why the hell is it a good strategy to go toe-to-toe with oil companies, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies who have BILLIONS of dollars at their disposal? Nothing like legitimizing the attacks of your opponents by excluding them from the process of their own government. I guess that is much smarter than letting them in the process, watching them closely, and then allowing their own bad faith to be revealed in a fair and open setting, thereby killing the credibility of their all but certain multi-million dollar propaganda campaign against the people's interests.
Involving bad actors in an open process gives them the rope to hang themselves. You don't get to puff out your chest and look bad-ass like some bratty kid picking a fight but you get to WIN the fight.
Which is more important - the satisfying hissy fit or the victory?
Hard core fighters PICK their fights at the TIME and PLACE of their choosing.
Only a fool gives away their plan and therefore the initiative.
Michael Corleone: There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Paraphrasing Michael Corleone: "The Tattalgias and Barzinis will get a seat at the table, but they won't get to buy every chair."
Capiche?
*****
On undecivas... (undecided + divas = undecivas)
For all you undecivas out there that need to see more from the candidates or need more time, hold a tag sale, take the proceeds, buy a Magic 8-ball, shake it, and make a damn decision. Do you need a map to find a clue or what? Google up some knowledge and make a freaking choice. I don't care if it's for Mike Gravel or Harold Stassen but it's time. Decide already.
Signs point to...Kucinich is better than whatever the hell process you are using. You may rely on it.
If you get pee shy whipping out your endorsement in public that's OK, you can go in private and not tell anyone. Just know people are tired of watching you hop around on one leg. It's not good for your kidneys to hold it and everybody knows your kinda sorta dribbling a little bit of pee on yourself while you are hopping around.
And that's just gross.