Hildabeast dodging sniper fire in a war zone in a pant suit, Obama saying there are 57 states and disrespects Marines everywhere by his pronunciation of "corpse man". Michael Dukakis sits on top of the tank looking like a bobble head.
Dan Quayle misspells "potato" on a chalkboard
What is the difference between all these things??
The difference is scandal management. Take the Dan Quayle scenario. Did any on the left jump up and down and make a spectacle about it? Not really. It was talked about, and the incident has been remembered as a demonstration of a known fact. But it never turned into a big deal. By that point, everyone knew that Quayle was an idiot. There was no real question about it. Nobody tried to turn the molehill into a mountain, and it's remains nothing more than a dim memory of an ultimately irrelevant occurrence.
Contrast that to the 57 states gaff. So much ado over nothing made those who tried to 'champion' the whole thing into a big deal look like idiots. And rightfully so. Obama never believed we have 57 states. Accidentally supplanting "forty" with "fifty" is the type of meaningless mistake that every single one of us has encountered a thousand times in our lifetimes. Whether it's accidentally saying "fifty" when you mean "forty" or saying "eighty" when you mean to say "eighteen" or even the occasional "twen-teen" when you mean to say "twenty." When you try to make mountains out of molehills all you get is your fake mountain crashing down on you.
That brings us to Dukakis on a tank. This was actionable. This was useable. But it had to be done
correctly. The right didn't make a grand spectacle and try to cram a conclusion down the public's throat. To the contrary, it was handled with delicacy and sophistication. Bush's campaign used it to create insinuation and suggestion. The hint was picked up, and the public did the rest on their own.
The younger Bush did a very similar thing during the 2000 campaign. One of Bush's campaign platforms was that he would "restore honesty and integrity" to the Presidency. By taking a more delicate and sophisticated approach, he successfully generated public approval for himself, leveraged from disapproval for Clinton, and by association Gore. He gave the public two and two, and they put the 'four' together on their own.
When you come off too strong, you look pathetically weak. When you handle things gently, you look powerful. By trying to present a shallow front of fake strength, Carson has made himself look 10x weaker. By keeping their mouths shut, his opponents (Republican and Democrat alike) are allowing Carson to self destruct. They are biding their time, letting the self destruction come to its own fruition. In allowing that to happen, they are exacting the greatest attack on him they can hope to realize. If they continue to manage this properly, all it will take to provide the final blow will be some light allusions.
's can all fall back on HER INTERPRETATION of this event!
