POLITICS

For those of us that find civilized life boring, there is the saving grace of politics, when a slip of the tongue can define a candidate. The N Y Times reported that during a debate in Massachusetts for a senate seat, the democratic candidate, Elizabeth Warren, when asked how she supported herself in school, answered, “By keeping my clothes on.” It was a clear dig at her opponent, the Republican Senator, Scott Brown, who posed naked in the Cosmopolitan magazine when he was going to school, earning money as a model.
Elizabeth’s will be branded as an elitist, while Scott, whose retort to her comment, “Thank God,” will be called a sexist. Such shenanigans are far more interesting than the plans each candidate has to save the economy, but the degree of distraction caused by those comments could be fatal to one of the candidates
Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican candidate for President, was tagged as the man who wanted to start a nuclear war with Russia. Some believe it was a death knell for his chances, having lost to the incumbent, LBJ, by a huge margin.
Now that Mitt Romney has been branded a cultist by some popular evangelical pastor, it remains to be seen how that moniker will hurt him. The same pastor indicated that he supports Gov. Rick Perry, calling him a true Christian. Perry’s brand of Christianity allows him to ignore the Thou Shall Not Kill Commandment, allowing him to brag about the number of convicted felons he’s put to death during his reign.
Brands are powerful. How often we pick the brand item over the generic. Politicians can be labeled in addition to elitist and sexist as out-of-touch, pretty boy, radical, pompous, boorish. Snob, extreme, airhead, fanatic, smug, chauvinist, egg-head, milquetoast, liar, feminist, insensitive, sound-biter, naysayer, do-nothing, bigot and more