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GOP's 'anger' strategy has Dems defensive
modbee ^ | 2-8-06

Posted on 02/08/2006 12:15:49 PM PST by LouAvul

NEW YORK - The Republican national chairman created a furor this week when he suggested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is too "angry" to win the White House in 2008. And to hear Republicans tell it, Clinton is just one of many Democrats with an anger management problem.

snip

In recent months, GOP operatives and officeholders have cast the Democrats as the anger party, long on emotion and short on ideas. Analysts say the strategy has been effective, trivializing Democrats' differences with the GOP as temperamental rather than substantive.

"Angry people are not nice people. They are people to stay away from. They explode now and then," said George Lakoff, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His book "Don't Think of an Elephant" has become something of a Bible for Democrats trying to improve their communication with voters.

Political history is dotted with failed presidential candidates perceived by the voters as too angry - think of Howard Dean's famous scream in 2004, or Bob Dole admonishing George H.W. Bush in 1988 to "stop lying about my record." Both parties' most revered figures in recent years, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, projected optimism and hope.

The latest example of the anger strategy came Sunday, when Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman said on ABC that Clinton "seems to have a lot of anger." He cited comments she made in Harlem on Martin Luther King Day in which she likened the Republican-led House to a "plantation" and called the Bush administration "one of the worst" in history.

snip

Some Democrats, in fact, complained that Clinton doesn't get angry enough. Some also denounced Mehlman as mean-spirited, and smelled more than a whiff of sexism in his remarks.

"It's the stereotype of the crone - angry, nasty, but powerful," Lakoff said.

(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: angrydems; hillary2008; mehlman; rnc
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To: ArmyTeach

Hitler at least knew how to work a crowd, no matter how loathsome his message. Hillary can't even make a public appearance that isn't totally scripted and access-controlled, unless she has her sycophant press corps along to edit out the boos from the tape before it's shown on the news. She has simply got to be one of the worst politicians ever, and New Yorkers ought to be ashamed that they're so easily duped.


61 posted on 02/08/2006 3:59:20 PM PST by CFC__VRWC ("Anytime a liberal squeals in outrage, an angel gets its wings!" - gidget7)
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To: Chesterbelloc
"This strategy works because it is true."

Also on a different plane than this! She reminds everyone about all the lousy relationships or screwy marriages they ever had. And EVERYBODY had at least ONE!

62 posted on 02/08/2006 5:00:22 PM PST by BobS
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To: LouAvul

63 posted on 02/08/2006 5:05:38 PM PST by Old Sarge (In a Hole in the Ground, there Lived a Fobbit...)
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To: LouAvul
I might be skewered by the lady Freepers for saying this but it is a well-known truism in radio that you just don't make a commercial in which one has female announcers present a forceful and excited "pitch" for a product or event, such as, say, an auto race.

The reason is that whereas male announcers making a commercial such as this sound forceful and excited just as the "copy" calls for, female announcers with their usually higher-pitched voices, often sound, well, "hysterical."

I think that the same kind of gender differences are what makes Hillary sound so unpleasant when she engages in "forceful oratory."

64 posted on 02/08/2006 5:15:10 PM PST by OldPossum
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To: Old Sarge

Mrs. Bill Clinton.


65 posted on 02/08/2006 5:28:00 PM PST by BobS
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To: LouAvul

Hillary getting mad at Mellman calling her "angry" is as ironic as the violence by the Muslims after showing Muhammed as violent!!! You can't make this stuff up.


66 posted on 02/08/2006 5:31:56 PM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion: The Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience. T)
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To: LouAvul

67 posted on 02/08/2006 5:51:54 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: samadams2000
Hillarys anger will turn to smiles when she frog marches her detractors into the death camps.

Don't count on it.

If you've ever heard or seen her give a speech, its clear she has speaking problems.

She tries to show emotion or act like she really cares, but acting enraged, and it cracks her voice.

She can't do dispassionate or disappointed, only happy or enraged (weird for any kind of politician to be that limited in emotional displayment speaking skills).

68 posted on 02/08/2006 5:52:35 PM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: LouAvul
"It's the stereotype of the crone - angry, nasty, but powerful,"

Well, here's a case when the shoe fits her perfectly. Hitlery's a perfect crone--an ugly, nasty, noisome and noisy witch. As for powerful, I would debate that, and she sould never be put into a position of great power.

69 posted on 02/08/2006 5:53:01 PM PST by Paulus Invictus
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To: Alex Murphy

70 posted on 02/08/2006 5:56:41 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: LouAvul

Hey watch it, that sounds just like the Dims hero, Keating Five McCain.


71 posted on 02/08/2006 5:56:55 PM PST by hgro
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To: Steely Tom

I've been critical of Ken Mehlman but this has been a good move on his part.


72 posted on 02/08/2006 5:58:27 PM PST by DarthVader (Conservatives aren't always right , but Liberals are almost always wrong.)
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To: Sonny M
Excellent analysis.

Hillary does not seem to have the ability to "sincerely" sympathize or empathize with other people in a public speaking situation. She could never bite her lower lip and convince anybody she that she truly "cares". It's not in her.

Most good politicians have the ability to get "choked up" in order to convey to an audience that they are "profoundly effected" by this or that tragedy or death. I have never seen Hillary try that act, but I don't think any audience would be able to restrain itself from laughing out loud if she did. It's interesting how little Hillary is actually seen giving speeches or making statements on TV. She's no Slick, that's for sure.

Regards,
LH

73 posted on 02/08/2006 6:07:22 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Sonny M
This really went over big, didn't it?


74 posted on 02/08/2006 6:10:31 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: LouAvul

If Over-the-Hilary layed an egg at the King Rally, she has no hope! Did she learn the bobble head from Monica??

Pray for W and Our Troops


75 posted on 02/08/2006 6:14:09 PM PST by bray (Conservatives want Keifer Sutherland to fight terrorists while Liberals want his Dad!)
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To: LouAvul

... Bill "the worst economy in 50 years" Clinton revered as projecting optimism and hope?


76 posted on 02/08/2006 7:07:37 PM PST by printhead
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To: LouAvul

Correction:

GOP's 'outing' of angry Democrats has Dems Angry

I dare the Dems to nominate the high pitched shrieking witch. Forget the turnoff among men. She'll turn off my gender more than she'll ever be able to attract for the novelty of the first woman President. Women have a low tolerance level for women with Hill's type of personality. And, we're not politically correct in making our feelings known about them. :-)


77 posted on 02/08/2006 7:07:52 PM PST by Soul Seeker (Mr. President: It is now time to turn over the money changers' tables.)
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To: American Quilter
Come on, Hillary! Get mad! You're going to lose anyway, so you might as well tell us what you really think of us, in your best lamp-throwing style.

The idea that this witch could be in the Senate, let alone running for President is just too sick. God help us.

78 posted on 02/08/2006 7:13:41 PM PST by Jorge
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To: Lancey Howard
This really went over big, didn't it?

It didn't, it got ugly when the liberal media started taking shots at David Cone because he said he had never seen her at a Yankee Game.

What I laughed about was the fact that a local democratic party chairman (now convicted) told me that after the Chicago White Sox won the world series, it was impossible to talk to her (she was in a state of rage).

While she isn't a genuine yankee fan, she is a vicious hater of the white sox (she is actually a cubs fan), the reason she chose the yankees as her adopted new home team.......she hates the mets, and liked the yankees for beating the white sox in the past.

Norman Mailer may have been the king of corruption, but he had no tact and could be quite open when talking about NYS politicians.

FWIW. Rick Lazio (the answer to a trivia question) was an open diehard mets fan.

79 posted on 02/08/2006 9:59:34 PM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: Lancey Howard
Excellent analysis.

Actually, I can't take credit.

It was several of my liberal friends (who are backing her and support her) who noticed it first.

They went to some fundraisers where she spoke and it hit them (they still back her, they just wish she wouldn't give speeches, one of them compared it to nails across a chalkboard....they're teachers).

After they pointed it out, I started listening to her, and realized, they are right.

To go a step further, she can not convey sadness (even if she really is sad about something), she just can't display it publicly, she can only express happiness or rage, her voice cracks on anything else.

On CSPAN, if she talks for more then a few minuits, she looks like she is fumbling and then starts getting desperate.

I know one person who had a family member at the event where she made the infamous "plantation" remark. She didn't say it out of no where, someone was questioning her from the left and she panicked and used the line to get out of it, she can not answer questions in a "q and a" format that are not scripted.

In the primaries in 08, she will win because of the money she raises (which could now be in doubt, her biggest rival in NYS is doing very well in his ambitions) but she will get destroyed in the general elections.

What I can't understand, is her utter failure to hire good handlers or staffers to coach her or prepare her or even do anything to help her.

80 posted on 02/08/2006 10:14:56 PM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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