A real traitor for starters...
Posted on 12/22/2007 7:37:25 AM PST by greyfoxx39
WASHINGTON – It's the word you hear in drafty Iowa gyms where voters gather to shop for a candidate, on the cable news outlets where the analysts ponder the imponderables, in the endless drip, drip, drip of email endorsements.
Authenticity.
It has become the buzzword of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, and the authenticity test appears to be shaping the race.
The next American president will have to be – or perceived by voters to be – the real deal. He or she must be consistent and appear to believe what they are saying, without the political artifice and calculation that savvy voters in Iowa and New Hampshire so easily reject.
Authenticity and character have always been strong drivers of campaign success, but four years ago at this point Iowa Democrats relied on electability above all else when they propelled John Kerry to their party's nomination.
-SNIP-
McCain began airing a campaign ad in New Hampshire Wednesday, trying to play to this strength.
"One man warned us we were failing in Iraq, and told us how we could turn things around," the voice-over says.
"He took a lot of heat, but he stood by what he knew was right. Today that strategy is working."
McCain then says: "I didn't go to Washington to win Mr. Congeniality. I went there to serve my country."
He has picked up a spate of newspaper endorsements, and almost all go to the authenticity issue.
"In an age when too many candidates are driven by polls and focus groups, fashioning and refashioning their `core' beliefs, McCain is a man of unwavering conviction and integrity," the Boston Herald said.
Romney, the man derided as having "anchorman" hair and being a late conservative convert on the road to Des Moines, has big authenticity problems.
In recent days, he has mischaracterized a National Rifle Association endorsement and admitted he didn't really see, as he claimed in a major speech, his late father, former Michigan governor George Romney, march with Martin Luther King.
Maybe that's why the former Massachusetts governor has begun to tear up on the trail, getting emotional on Meet the Press twice in one interview, once discussing the 1978 change in his Mormon religion to allow blacks into the priesthood and again talking about seeing bodies coming back from Iraq.
"I have five boys of my own. I imagine what it would be like to lose a son."
It might be why this week he began running an ad in New Hampshire, recounting his role in the search for a colleague's 14-year-old daughter who went missing in New York in 1996.
But Goldford issues a warning to both Romney and Clinton, who are now trying to prove their authenticity with ads.
"It only works if it doesn't look obvious," he said
Yep.
That’s why I support Fred!
Authenticity Ping.
ditto.
Go FRed Go!
“Authenticity. It has become the buzzword of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, and the authenticity test appears to be shaping the race. “
Snort. The poll numbers say otherwise.
Authentic foot in mouth.
http://a165.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_caa89b6b8bb47522651b6c9da70e0c4c.jpg
Choose Fred or Duncan if you want authenticity. Choose Fred if you also want electability.
That's what I was going to say.
Oops. Talk about foot in mouth. Try this one
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22363300#22363300
Good God if that was true The Witch could not get nominated for dog catcher.
Say what you want about McCain, but he doesn't pretend to be something he isn't.
I'm not sure what McCain is, but whatever it is, its the genuine article.
With Romney, whatever it is... it's fake.
Americans want the real deal, but Clinton’s poll numbers are still high. Don’t know what to believe anymore.
A real traitor for starters...
Authenticity, the new gravitas.
and the majority running for office? Real Squeal!
Maybe an idiot....
but I reserve the word traitor for people like Murtha and Reid and Pelosi.
This also could explain why Huckabee has higher poll numbers. I don’t agree with much of what he’s saying, but I believe he is saying what he thinks.
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