Ignorant Speech of the Decaying Republican (R) Brand

With the most recent uproar over AnnCoulterSpeech, I thought it would be productive to emphasize what this type of speech is doing to tarnish the Republican (R) brand.

Junglered1 diaried an excellent list of Coulter's quotes at:  Ann Coulter is worse than you think.

Branding is vital to establishing a service or product in the cluttered world of marketing and advertising.  Corporate America spends millions of dollars to create, market and protect their individual brands.  

Branding should therefore uplift a service or product in order to make customers want to associate themselves with that service or purchase that product.  There's a whole sub-specialty of companies who specialize in disaster management of goofs that could impact a brand's good name.

It's my contention that the flurry of ignorant speech by Republican (R) blowhards is slowly but surely tarnishing their brand.  The message is being identified with the messenger which is being identified with Republican (R).

It's therefore becoming less and less cool to be a Republican (R) and we should do everything in our power to nudge this along.  And, it's relatively easy.  We don't have to make anything up.  We don't have to embellish anything.  All we have to do is repeat repeat repeat their own words and connect these words with the Republican (R) brand.

If these were isolated incidents, then maybe they would blow over.  But, as my training and experience in Advertising and Marketing for the past 36 years tells me, the Republican (R) brand has "jumped the shark".  We therefore need to hang these words around the brand of the Republican (R) Party.

Many of these comments sound as if they come from the mouths of petulent 3rd graders (with apologies to 3rd graders) and not from supposedly educated adults.

The following is alphabetized for your protection.

George W. Bush (R-Iraq)

"And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it."

--George W. Bush (R), interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

Laura W. Bush (R-WisteriaLane)

"This is their opportunity to seize the moment—ahhh—to build a really good and stable country. And many parts of Iraq are stable ahh..now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody."

--Laura Bush (R), interview on Larry King, February 27, 2007

Dick Cheney (R-Meantown)

"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al-Qaida strategy.  The al-Qaida strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."

--Dick Cheney (R), ABC News interview in Tokyo, February 21, 2007

Ann W. Coulter (R-Space)

"I'd say something about John Edwards, but if you use the word 'f*ggot', you have to go to rehab."

--Ann Coulter (R), CPAC Convention, March 2, 2007

Jerry Falwell (R-Hell)

The Reverend Jerry Falwell says global warming is "Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus" from evangelism to environmentalism.

Falwell told his Baptist congregation in Lynchburg yesterday that "the jury is still out" on whether humans are causing -- or could stop -- global warming.

--WRIC Richmond News and Weather, 2007

Coverup Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley (R-WalterReed)

"My concern that the issues in Building 18 — which were clearly unacceptable, clearly unacceptable, and were a failure of leadership at the junior level in that building."

--Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley (R), House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, March 5, 2007

Rush Limbaugh (R-Ozone)

"since [Sen. Barack] Obama [D-IL] has -- on his mother's side -- forebears of his mother had slaves, could we not say that if Obama wins the Democratic nomination and then wins the presidency, he will own [Rev.] Al Sharpton?"

--on his radio show, March 2, 2007

Michelle Malkin (R-Freeperville)

"So you’re behind this Passengers’ Bill of Rights move. I have to tell you, in general, I’m skeptical of anything that has Bill of Rights tacked on to it."

--Michelle Malkin (R), The O'Reilly Factor, February 16, 2007

John McCain (R-Pandering)

"Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be.  We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives."

--Sen. John McCain (R), Late Show with David Letterman, February 28, 2007

James Nicholson (R-VA)

"We will stay focused on the problems until they are fixed, and we will take direct and immediate action to address and alleviate affected people's concerns. With greater control, comes greater accountability. Mr. Chairman, I remain cognizant that we are accountable not only to Congress, but also to our nation's veterans and our men and women who are wearing the uniform today. It is my pledge to you that I am, and will remain, guided in my leadership of VA by what is best for our veterans."

--STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE R. JAMES NICHOLSON (R) SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, June 8, 2006

Condoleezza Rice (R-DC)

"There are conflicting intelligence reports all the time. That’s why we have an intelligence system that brings those together into a unified assessment by the intelligence committee of what — community of what we’re looking at. That particular report (Defense Intelligence Report in 2002) I don’t remember seeing."

--Condoleezza Rice (R), Fox News Sunday, September 10, 2006

Pat Robertson (R-Hades)

"Well, the other thing I felt was that evil men, evil people, are going to try to do evil things to us and to others during the last part of this year. I don’t know whether it’ll be in the fall or September or later on, but it’ll be the second half, somehow, of 2007. There will be some very serious terrorist attacks. The evil people will come after this country. And there’s a possibility that—not a possibly, a definite certainty that chaos is going to rule, and the Lord said that the politicians will not have any solutions for it. There’s just going to be chaos. And, of course, we saw chaos in the Gulf after Katrina. The politicians had no answers."

--Pat Robertson (R), 700 Club, January 2, 2007

Tony Snow (R-LaLaLand)

"Our primary concern is to make sure the system gets fixed. I don't know if that implies that there are going to be other personnel changes, or not. I know that makes for, sort of, saucier reporting, but it's much better to get into the real and important business of ensuring that the people who have risked their lives and have been wounded in service to their country receive first-class treatment from the moment they're in, through the rest of their lives. That's what they're promised; that's what they deserve."

--Tony Snow (R), Press Briefing, March 5, 2007

This will be a recurring series, as I'm sure that these (and other) big mouths can't bring civil discussion to the table and I'll have plenty of future fodder for your amusement.

Every time we write their names, we need to reinforce the Republican (R) brand by putting it alongside their names.

As my Mom always said:  "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all."

Chat away, and submit your entries.