skeptomai

"I'll be back" or how I gave up and learned to love celebrity candidates

NPR interviewed an advisor from Ahnold's campaign Tuesday morning.
The NPR host asked when we'd see Arnold on the 'real' established
political talk shows. The campaign guy said "Why? When he's on Oprah
or whatever he gets about 25% of the population of California watching
that night and these are average, smart folks. They'll see what Arnold's
about. He doesn't need the sound bites."
Let's deconstruct this from the top.

• Arnold is a celebrity, being interviewed by celebrities soft on political savvy and long on questions like "So, Arnold, what's the first thing you do when you get the key to the governor's mansion?"
• Arnold's not really a politico- maybe he can't answer serious questions, posed by political experts, even conservatives.
• Sound bites? Evening shows like Oprah, et. al. are all about sound bites. Who is this guy kidding?

This sounds like a creative dodge by an astute guy (or his advisors) playing to his strengths and deftly masking his weaknesses. Unfortunately, it sounds like he's short on real content. I hope he steps up to prove me wrong. I hear he's got real talent like Warren Buffett and George Schultz on his economic team. I originally missed (thanks G.) the comment about 25% of the average Californians being smart. Whah-hoo, what a laugh. I guess that means Arnold just might win if these 'smart' people are watching Oprah and make their political choices accordingly. Bottom Line: California is going to get what it deserves. Posted by cbrown at August 22, 2003 9:02 AM | TrackBack