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To Our Readers
I really enjoy a good punch line, sometimes to my wife's annoyance. The last one I got hooked on was from the stock-trading Web site commercial starring Stewart, the redhead geek: "Let's light this candle!" Put slogans
in a lockboxI tried sticking it into conversations at appropriate moments. The first time it got a laugh. By the third time the same evening, I got "the look" from my wife. You know, the look that says "say that again and you'll be truly sorry."
Apparently, Tipper wasn't able to give Al "the look" at the debate the other night. Accordingly, not only does just about everybody know where Gore plans to put the Social Security trust fund, but we're really tired of hearing him talk about lockboxes. We're so tired, in fact, that the prospect of four years of hearing him beat similar catch phrases into the national front-of-mind awareness is daunting.
Afterwards, Democrat spin-doctors gave the vice president points for tediously repeating his Social Security message. They say people don't sit through an entire debate anymore. To get the point across to viewers used to flipping through the stations looking for something more engaging, repetition is good -- otherwise too many will miss it.
Reiterating brand messages sells beer and soap, so why not apply repetition to selling a president? Unfortunately, mouthing a slogan shows us nothing about how a candidate thinks, reacts or relates to other people and doing it repeatedly turns people off.
It's not just Gore, of course. Opponent George Bush is wearing out his "fuzzy math" line, too.
Using such canned phrases must be a product of the storied presidential debate rehearsals and the immense pressure on the protagonists.
By contrast, Thursday's contest between vice-presidential hopefuls Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman showed us two relaxed, engaging, humorous and persuasive men intelligently articulating differences of opinion and giving voters a clear choice without mentioning lockboxes or fuzzy math.
Makes you wonder, are the wrong guys running for the top job? Let's light that candle!
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 525-8612, fax to 523-8509, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.