Sick Stigma
BG writes in with an observation (and curious ploy) appropriate to a topic much on our mind lately:
Great and Wondrous and (Regrettably, Apparently Lonesome) Czar –
There is another meme out there, which was on display on the cover of Newsweek, featuring that wild-eyed photo of Michele Bachmann. That shot is an attempt to clue the illiterati in on the emerging vicious meme that Bachmann is “batshit crazy.” Googling “Bachmann batshit crazy,” I get 83,900 hits this morning. Then google “Obama batshit crazy”; you get a lot more hits but if you read the descriptions, you discover they all refer to Bachmann.
We need to get another google-meme going: “Obama feckless dumbass.” I’ve done my part.
The Czar is happy to let you start a meme here on our site, especially if the phrase “Obama feckless dumbass” catches on with Google. Which it may not, as there is some circumstantial evidence that Google stultifies anti-Obama search phrases. Like “Obama feckless dumbass,” but not like sex milking.
But the bigger topic is what happened to Congresswoman Bachmann. Search as much as you like, but there is not much positive going on for Newsweek’s childish stunt. Certainly, none of Newsweek’s fifteen readers fell for it. In fact, the press about the Newsweek cover has been uniformly bad—even the ultra-liberal National Organization of Women condemned it, and Jon Stewart skewered it substantially. A reasonable sign of guilt is that the usually hyper-defensive Newsweek has failed to issue any substantial statement about their journalistic whatever-passes-for-integrity-these-days. Nada.
They got caught in a juvenile stunt, and know it.
Moreover, this weekend, Michele Bachmann gave three television interviews to highly liberal news network organizations; in all three, she was given curveball questions and manipulative topics, but crushed all three with straight answers difficult to spin away. Let us sincerely hope she has learned a powerful lesson from Sarah Palin—be extremely careful with what you say, because they will twist and distort it every which way they can to make you look stupid.
And while the media certainly appears to be running the conservative-womens-is-dumb playbook, Michele Bachmann has defied all attempts to convince voters she’s a ditzy broad. In fact, the more press they give her, the higher her numbers tick up. That is practically the opposite of Palin, who started out with high numbers but let the liberals in the media trip her up to lower popularity.
Keep it up, Representative Bachmann. You can beat them at their own game; just remember that it is a game and they have no experience with someone who uses their tricks back at them.
In fact, Bachmann could follow the Obama strategy well here. Never get angry, insulting, or haughty in front of a friendly reporter. Answer the question indirectly, and appear gracious. Then have thousands of your followers publish letters and e-comments minutes later accusing the questioner of being sexist, against women, and fearful of change. “Typical chauvanism from a white male,” they could write. Doesn’t matter what the question is: build the meme that anyone who questions her is scared of a woman, because women represent something good. Just don’t do what Palin did and complain about it yourself—then you look dumb, paranoid, and whiny. Just like Obama never called anyone a racist to their face, you have your legion of followers do it. Everywhere. Constantly.
After all, if you don’t vote for Bachmann, it’s because you are probably a male who can’t abide a woman president, living in the stone age, and hating women.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.