I do remember a speech given by
Richard Milhous where he talked
about growing up on a farm watching
trains go by as a kid--want to ride
one of those trains into history... I
remember his voice... a little quaver
in it as he spoke.
later, as Bill Saphire recalls, R.N. asked
him "hey, what did ya think of that speech?"
Saphire" "Not bad."
R.N. :"Not bad?! What did ya think of that
little quiver I put in there, near the part about
'riding that train to history'? I think that's
the part that got 'em!" Proud R.M.N.
Also remembering how Bill C. was
coached by his TV friends on how to
emote during the giving of televised
testimony...
These people are ruthless and,
like any other pitchmen, can learn
to cry on queu...
Gerald Schwartz
> To be fair, Hilary - on the day before the NH primary with her election
> fate looking more than a bit horrific - did take off what most often seems
> a steel shield against feelings to reveal what I thought was her authentic
> motivations and feelings under the repetitious 'robtony' of stating her
> "policy" positions on one issue or another. I saw the TV passage -as no
> doubt some of us here - where she literally broke up about wanting a
> government that would not leave anyone behind. She sounded to me,
> actually, like a 20 year old telling her parents why she wanted to get
> into the hell fires of politics in the first place.
> I know it is easy to be cynical and think that her campaign managers had
> spent the night 'rolphing' her and playing Cry A Little Tenderness and
> slicing hot onions under her eyes. But I think it was that moment of
> springing 'the heartfelt response' on TV that got her the surprising
> comeback response from the voters in the Granite State.
> Who knows, maybe the critique that she has been running 'middle of the
> road' was a premature rehearsal for the Presidential election - when they
> think she will have to do so - is what has set her way back in the
> polls.
> (Many of my friends here in California feel most secure with John Edwads -
> not Obama or Hilary).
>
> If it comes down to McCain's heart versus Hilary's, Oh do get ready for
> the McCain ad that will have him crying while he recounts his years of
> imprisonment in Vietnam. To be followed - so as not to be left out of
> history as war criminals - we will have George W and D Cheney crying their
> hearts out in front of the wounded in Walter Reed Hospital and before the
> troops in Iraq and the coffins coming down out of the cargo planes
> arriving back in America. As all we Americans should - with the exception
> that George W and Dick Cheney and their war planning colleages will be in
> handcuffs.
>
> Stephen V
>
>
>
>
> Joseph Duemer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Heart / belly is of course
> important. Same thing? Let's remember that GWB
> famously governs from his "gut." So I'm a little distrustful of these
> appeals to emotion. So much of the electorate is butt-ignorant on the
> issues, though, that I guess liberals have to consider themselves lucky
> this
> time around that there is a politics of the heart being played out among
> the
> major candidates. The right, too, has a heart candidate: the
> fundamentalist
> preacher Mike Huckabee.
>
> jd
>
>
>
> On Jan 9, 2008 9:36 AM, Frederick Pollack wrote:
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Mark Weiss"
>> To:
>
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 9:24 AM
>> Subject: Re: "Poetry" versus "Prose" in New Hampshire
>>
>>
>> > Gore's 2000 image was invented by relentless Republican repetition.
>> > Likewise Clinton's ice maiden aura. In each case a countervailing
>> > image--Bush the reformed reprobate good old boy, Obama the prophet,
>> > flatter national fictions .Obama, at any rate, is probably benign (it's
>> > his competence that's in question), but the heart is a questionable
>> guide.
>> > Think of Bush looking into Putin's heart. As one of the columnists
>> > recently noted, Putin was a KGB agent, he had no heart. And in choosing
>> > leaders I prefer the head. The heart gave the world Reagan and lots
>> > worse--Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini. Best to use one's head to cut
>> through
>> > the pretty stories we're all prone to and the machinations of the
>> > propaganda machines that feed them.
>> >
>> > I realize that I speak as the veteran of several marriages. One tries
>> > to
>> > learn.
>> >
>> > Mark
>> >
>>
>>
>> Mark, your last few e-mails have made excellent points. My only cavil is
>> Napoleon. A substantial intellect. Fine mathematician. Remember the
>> scientists he took on the Egyptian campaign. Thought strategically on
>> the
>> largest scale (and made the largest errors). "Head" vs. "heart" is a
>> crude
>> distinction, but N's besetting vices were intellectual: opportunism ("I
>> saw
>> the crown of France in the gutter and I picked it up") and contempt.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Joseph Duemer
> Professor of Humanities
> Clarkson University
> [sharpsand.net]
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