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On the Cognitive Style of the Second Debate (posted 10 October 2004)
Watching Bush overcompensate during the second debate, I couldn’t help but think of another famous debate, which I think pretty much sums up the whole Bush debate strategy against Kerry:
(Bugs Bunny is standing on stage, imitating Theodore Roosevelt)
I speak softly, but I carry a big stick!
(Yosemite Sam storms the stage, pushing Bugs Bunny away from the mic, with a plank in his hand)
Well, I speak LOOOOOOOUD, and I carry a BIIIIIIIIIIGGER stick! And I use it, too!
(Sam thwacks Bugs Bunny with the plank)
—Ballot Box Bunny, 1951
Come to think of it, maybe there’s a metaphor there for the cognitive style of the Bush re-election campaign as a whole.
Further reading
The talking-points buzzword from the Republicans following the debate was dominated
(I heard Republican campaign zombies repeat the claim that Bush dominated the debate
three or four times in a row in the space of fifteen minutes). Of course, the point of a debate is to get at the truth, not to dominate, but the press strategy was pretty clearly tuned ahead of time to Bush’s strategy of overcompensating for last week’s meandering performance. In any case, for actual commentary on the content of the debate, you might want to check out feministe’s morning-after fact check or Cleis’s live-updated post).
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