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Presidential Politics: The feline vs. the canine
The Sun Herald ^ | 8/15/04 | LLEWELLYN KING

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush; cats; dogs; kerry; president
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This editorial writer is CLEARLY biased against Pres. Bush (and cats), but I would still rather have a "cat personality" looking out for me than a "dog personality".

http://members.cox.net/mingusthecat

1 posted on 08/15/2004 1:14:33 PM PDT by mingusthecat
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To: mingusthecat
This is about as canine as sKerry is:


2 posted on 08/15/2004 1:16:48 PM PDT by NDJeep
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To: mingusthecat

This is b.s. The writer could have reversed the names in the piece and been just as accurate.


3 posted on 08/15/2004 1:19:36 PM PDT by MNnice
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To: mingusthecat
As a dog person, I find the analogy to be completely ass-backwards. If your home were invaded, who would you rather have defending it: man's best friend, who would go for the throat of the invader and chase him down the road with a chunk of buttcheek clenched in his muzzle, or a cat, which would hiss and go hide in the closet at the first sign of conflict?


4 posted on 08/15/2004 1:20:11 PM PDT by Viking2002
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To: mingusthecat

and he has a misguided notion about the characteristics of cats and dogs.


5 posted on 08/15/2004 1:21:54 PM PDT by MNnice
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To: Slings and Arrows

ping


6 posted on 08/15/2004 1:23:14 PM PDT by mingusthecat (Mingus has again opined. Like any cat, she doesn't really care what YOU think.)
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To: mingusthecat

What drivel.


7 posted on 08/15/2004 1:23:25 PM PDT by gramho12 (Saute the Frenchurian candidate in November)
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To: mingusthecat


I think Kerry is a Rat.


8 posted on 08/15/2004 1:27:29 PM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: mingusthecat

Okay, I'll play...

Taking the media as the animal abusers they are, Bush is a smart cat who stays out of reach. Kerry, the Heiress Hound, humps the medias leg every day, looking for love in all the wrong places.


9 posted on 08/15/2004 1:29:37 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
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To: mingusthecat

Feline or canine? How about asinine? Not just Kerry, but the author of this article


10 posted on 08/15/2004 1:38:22 PM PDT by Salman
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To: Viking2002

LOL--or the kitty I used to have, who would most certainly have had a portion of a buttcheek in his teeth if someone had appeared menacing to me. Beethoven weighed 25 pounds of pure muscle and could out-dog most dogs. He used to walk me to the bus-stop, and he'd be there waiting when I got home from work in the evening. But he was, without a doubt, a cat.


11 posted on 08/15/2004 1:39:37 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: mingusthecat

There is a pejorative name for felines and wimps I'd rather not use
but rest assured it is an accurate term...for both..

A dog can be a fierce loyal protector...there is a good reason there are guard dogs...search and rescue dogs....herding dogs hunting dogs retrieving dogs guide dogs assistance dogs
therapy dogs etc etc etc...dogs are loyal trustworthy protective

and then there are the cats.... cat burglars....catastrophes....cataclysms...catacombs....catatonics...cat o nine tails....catabolisms..catlectic...catamites...catamenia...catalepsy...catarrh (yuck)...catcalls..catastasis...and cataplasia.....
etc etc etc....cats will sell you out in a heart beat and pee on every inch of your house and furniture....but they are better mouse catchers than most dogs...


12 posted on 08/15/2004 1:41:39 PM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: joesnuffy
Help the Swifties expose the girlie-man wussy Kerry's fraud!

Click the logo to donate to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

13 posted on 08/15/2004 1:44:12 PM PDT by Chieftain (Support the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and expose Hanoi John's FRAUD!)
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To: gramho12

Indeed.
I guess some papers will print anything.


14 posted on 08/15/2004 1:47:43 PM PDT by Ludicrous
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To: mingusthecat
It's an interesting (though anti-Bush) analysis of the two. I never would have thought Bush to be a cat person...it's not in his makeup at all. Bush is focused and loyal, doggedly pursuing his objectives, not worried whether his fur is straight, undistracted by fuzzy things along the way.

I think of Kerry as a dog person too. Just not the kind of dog I would own.

15 posted on 08/15/2004 1:49:41 PM PDT by Sender (First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -Gandhi)
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To: Viking2002
As a dog person, I find the analogy to be completely ass-backwards. If your home were invaded, who would you rather have defending it: man's best friend, who would go for the throat of the invader and chase him down the road with a chunk of buttcheek clenched in his muzzle

No kidding. I don't recall seeing any cats in the OKC rescue or the massive 911 rescue attempts, not to mention the millions of times dogs have thwarted burglaries, assaults, rescues etc......Cats are nice, but basically useless.

16 posted on 08/15/2004 1:53:48 PM PDT by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
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To: Joe Hadenuf

No kidding. I don't recall seeing any cats in the OKC rescue or the massive 911 rescue attempts, not to mention the millions of times dogs have thwarted burglaries, assaults, rescues etc......Cats are nice, but basically useless.





Keeerekt! I always find the inferiority complex displayed by many--not all, so don't yell at me--cat owners amusing--they prefer cats, but claim doglike characteristics to them in order to make them look less wimpy. ;)

Kerry is most definitely a cat--hangs around like the idel rich, lounging on the furniture, picky about the food he gets, may hiss but runs from loud noises...


17 posted on 08/15/2004 2:03:18 PM PDT by Darkwolf377
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To: mingusthecat

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1191938/posts


18 posted on 08/15/2004 2:09:06 PM PDT by pookie18
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To: mingusthecat

The writer is OBVIOUSLY a dog person, and I am DEFINITELY a cat person. Just ask my three precious cats I retrieved from shelters.

Dog have masters, Cats have servants.

I sure don't want my president craving approval from everyone in the world!


19 posted on 08/15/2004 2:44:32 PM PDT by BreitbartSentMe (Now EX-Democrat!!)
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To: mingusthecat

They actually pay this writer for this crap? Pathetic.


20 posted on 08/15/2004 3:57:14 PM PDT by mass55th (We are The Knights Who Say "Ni!" No! Not The Knights Who Say "Ni!" The same!)
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