Posted on 08/15/2004 1:14:32 PM PDT by mingusthecat
If you are one of those cherished unaligned voters, you may decide to align not on the basis of the wit and wisdom of the candidates, but on your predisposition as a dog or cat person.
If you are a dog person, the pull of John Kerry will be at play. He is canine by disposition and in performance. In appearance, there are hints of the Irish wolfhound; lean and imposing, yet deferential. His eyes cry, "Love me for what I am, and what I have done."
By contrast, George W. Bush is essentially feline - purring in the company of his choosing and aloof when he wishes to be. Ever seen Bush talking to the Christian right? He is light and nimble, quick to retreat into his own comfort zone when he is not approving of company.
My way or the highway is the Bush way. It is also the way of all cats.
While dogs wish to convert all people, to seek approval from all and to offer obeisance to many, cats select.
While cats do not tolerate those who are not of their persuasion, dogs haplessly crave approbation.
Self-confidence comes and goes with dogs. A kind word and a loving touch - and, instantly, rapture.
Not so with cats. They select those from whom they will accept approbation - on their time and in a place of their choosing.
Ask any White House reporter about Bush's relationship with the media and they will tell you about his feline ways: his reticence to get close and his sense of a higher, feline, calling. The world on his terms is the Bush way.
There is something plaintive about Kerry: a dog among strangers. Even when his script says something else, Kerry's eyes and his body plead: "If only you knew me, you would love me. Can I bring you my bone? Let me lick your hand."
Bush, buttressed by the innate sense of nine lives, swaggers on, sure of where he is going and indifferent to those who are not going with him. While Kerry wishes to share his world with the voters, Bush expects the voters to qualify for it.
Unlike a dog, Bush caught in the act is not repentant. There are no repentant cats. That loveable pet caught killing a small bird is indifferent to remonstration. Dogs, though, tremble at the raised voice, the pointed finger, and will suffer remorse for hours: victims of their masters' opprobrium.
When Bush was asked by reporters whether there was anything he regretted or any mistake he had made, he could think of none. That was Bush the Cat. But dog-like Kerry has been trying to explain his votes on the war in Iraq and his post-Vietnam peace activities.
Kerry sniffs out ideas and paws at them. Bush pounces on an idea - anyone's idea - and makes it his own, as he did with Kerry's call for a national intelligence director.
When it comes to the vice-presidential contenders, there is Sen. John Edwards, the puppy-man, doing his tricks. "Would you like a paw, or would you like me to roll on my back?" By contrast, Vice President Cheney is the ultimate cat who walks by himself: cantankerous, furtive and mean in an alley fight.
Where Edwards exudes a desire to be loved, and is ready to reciprocate, Cheney is stealthy and taciturn. Only his wife can tell us if he ever purrs.
The pollsters should go forth and establish whether the undecided voters are cat or dog people. When they separate out those who love cats and dogs equally, they will have identified the real swing voters.
If your heart belongs equally to Puss and Fido, you are one of the few who will decide the next election.
Sheesh, I guess every lazy columnist is going to opine on this matter. Beats working for a living.
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Kitty Ping List alert!
[Freepmail me to get on or off the Kitty Ping List.]
Hey, Slings! According to the Stat Counter I use for Mingus' website, there are 3 hits from Hyannis, Massachusetts......
During the Democrat convention, a "story" was added to the website featuring Mingus commenting on Ted Kennedy's speech.......
Well, isn't that something? I expect the next Lanny Davis-James Carville smear campaign will be on Mingus' catnip addiction.
This is going to reeeally irritate my co-workers...LOL!
This guy is trying to blow smoke in our eyes to keep us from noticing the obvious: Kerry has a hamster. Do we want a National Hamster? I say no. I do not want our foreign enemies to see pictures of the President of the United States getting off of Marine One on the White House lawn, being greeted by a hamster.
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