Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Mitt Romney Treads Water in his own Ocean

This campaign commercial illustrates both what I like and dislike about Mitt Romney.


First, I totally agree with him. In my previous post I wrote about my own very recent enlightenment that my media consumption deeply colors my blogging. People, and not just children, are affected by the culture that surrounds them. It's the nature of our brains to form internal patterns to recognize and categorize the familiar, making the culture we expose ourselves to normal and things outside of our experience strange.

The government and the president, outside of a media campaign to educate us, has very little to do with this. The children that Mitt discusses in his ad are primarily impacted by parenting. Electing one candidate or another will have very little effect on this if we don't change our attitudes towards parenting. It could be argued that the government changed national attitudes towards smoking, so perhaps this isn't so far-fetched. I'm just very leery of any candidate that wants to tackle problems almost completely beyond the reach of the government. (See also: costs, health care.)

Lastly, Mitt's speech pattern is weird. Like Hillary's or Obama's or most of the rest of them, he's got that strange, halting speech pattern you'd use if you were talking in a foreign language. It's like he's having to translate the words before he speaks. It completely wrecks the message for me. He's not a friend having a conversation, he's some nut who thinks he has to talk down to me.

The only candidate who doesn't do this is Fred Thompson. His speech is natural and unforced. If he's scheming and plotting as he talks, it doesn't show. Unlike, say, Hillary Clinton, the mistress of duplicity, Fred seems utterly genuine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you are mostly right. The President doesn't directly dictate the culture, but trends since the Clinton presidency indicate that behavior in the White House has cultural implications. Even if the issue comes strictly down to parenting (and I think you are 95% right) then which husband and father/wife and mother in the race would you rather have as the standard for others to emulate? In my mind, not withstanding his funky speach pattern, Romney stands head and shoulders above the others.
CMC in CA

Anonymous said...

Most parents would like it to be easier to control the content their children are exposed to. What’s surprising is how pro-cesspool the Democrats are showing themselves to be.

Kelly the little black dog said...

Fred better be able to speak - he's been acting long enough.

Anonymous makes a good point about leading by example. I'm afraid anyone of either party who makes it this far in the game is going to be hard pressed coming off as a good role model.

Anonymous said...

Yeah...Romney is a great guy, and a great candidate.... he offers an appealing "vision" of leadership supported by a decidedly non-populist platform...here he is:
www.tmz.com/media/2007/07/0720_brookshire_obama.jpg

and here is Fred Thompson's background:

Fred Thompson....1994 pickup truck driving senate candidate and "man of the people...

"Not only was the truck rented, but Thompson didn't even deign to drive the thing himself."

Only in the tiny worldview where Mitt or Fred our viewed as compelling presidential candidates, this is puzzling:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289566,00.html
'None of the Above' Leading GOP White House Contenders in New Poll

Tuesday, July 17, 2007