I’ve mentioned it before, but one piece of advice given to me in law school was to always be careful about accepting the way the other guy frames an argument. Scott Lemieux makes a similar point about the ridiculous “debate” among the talking heads about whether Obama’s Hawaii vacation was too “elite.”
The proper response is not to engage in an argument about whether or not Hawaii is “American enough.” The proper response is to either ignore it (which I have not done) or to point out how ridiculous it is to be talking about whether Obama is “too elite” compared to a guy with eight houses.
Of course, the whole “regular guy” fetish we seem to have in our electoral politics is probably not helpful to start with.
I say if it’s good enough for the Brady Bunch to vacation there, it’s good enough for presidential candidates. The real truth about Hawaii is that the U.S. illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Hawaii, as Bill Clinton apologized for. We should begin dismantling the US empire, starting with granting Hawaii independence and the rank of a sovereign nation once again. 50 states! Subtract Hawaii and add D.C.
I’m not going to pretend our hands are entirely clean on Hawaii. But Hawaii for D.C.? That doesn’t seem like a fair trade.
Besides, THEY KILLED CAPT. JAMES COOK – the greatest navigator OF ALL TIME. (Never mind that he quite possibly was going insane at the time of his death.)
This is a tardy reply, but I’m thinking John Kerry showed how disastrous it can be to ignore the frame. Obama has responded by identifying a frame as such, and then returning to points in his own position. That seems a lot more centered than what we’ve seen others do — trying to ignore a pack of attack dogs, or stooping to the same level by answering back in yips and yaps.
I think his commercials recently — the Hands one where it’s uplifting and seems to say we can make the change necessary – was very Reaganesque. And the one where he hits McCain on the economy –the Book — tying him to Bush.. very direct and focused. But I really liked the one where McCain and Bush are hugging– made me LMAO.