The attacks turned personal when McCain delivered a sharp jab at Romney's latest strategy of attempting to position himself as the "change" candidate.
"I just want to say to Gov. Romney, we disagree on a lot of issues, but I agree you are the candidate of change," McCain said, a veiled swipe at Romney's new positions on on abortion and same-sex marriage.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
McCain -- Romney
When asked about one of Mitt Romney's attacks in New Hampshire, Mr. McCain responded with a quip: "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty - and the pig likes it."
in politics, no comedian left behind
OrlandoSentinel.com
Chris Lamb
Special To The Sentinel
January 27, 2008
Eighty years ago, humorist Will Rogers said it was becoming harder to tell the difference between politicians and comedians. "Everything is changing," Rogers said. "People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."
His words are at least as appropriate today as they were in his day.Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently told Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, that he owed his popularity to the comedy program.
Huckabee said he gained in the polls among Republican candidates after an earlier appearance on the show."The only reason I'm the front-runner now is because of the Colbert bump," the straight-faced former Arkansas governor said. "Were it not for that I would not be sitting in this chair. I would probably be somewhere serving hamburgers at a drive-in restaurant."
Huckabee, hoping for another bump in popularity, asked Colbert to be his running mate."Yes," Colbert responded, "a thousand times yes."
Huckabee and Colbert were only kidding -- I think.
But as the line blurs between comedy and politics, how soon before we take seriously a Huckabee-Colbert -- or even a Colbert-Huckabee -- ticket?
Colbert was once a presidential candidate himself. When he announced his candidacy last fall, he challenged traditional presidential campaigns. For one thing, Colbert said he was running as a Republican and a Democrat -- or a Republicrat.Second, he said he planned to run only in his home state, South Carolina, testing the old political maxim, "As South Carolina goes, so goes southern North Carolina and parts of eastern Georgia."
Colbert's candidacy was aborted when the state Democratic Party refused to put his name on the ballot. Party leaders groused that Colbert would make a mockery out of the political process. When pressed further, the Democratic Party officials conceded they could make a mockery out of the political process without any help from outsiders.
If Huckabee really were to select Colbert as his running mate, it would, of course, go against tradition. America prefers its vice presidents to be punch lines and not comedians -- at least not professional comedians.
Vice presidents -- such as Dan Quayle -- traditionally make their greatest contribution to humor, not politics.Quayle, who served as President George Herbert Walker Bush's vice president, made it easy for comics. Comics didn't have to come up with their own material; they only had to quote Quayle.
For instance, Quayle famously referred to the National Negro College Fund's slogan of "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" by saying: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind -- or not to have a mind. . . . How true that is." Quayle once defended his verbal gaffes by saying, "I stand by all my misstatements." How true that is.
Will Rogers ran for president in 1928 as the candidate of the "Anti-Bunk Party." But bunk won. Forty years later, in 1968, Pat Paulsen, another comedian, ran for president. But Richard Nixon was elected, and the joke was on us.
Now, 40 years later, given the state of the country, maybe it's time we put a professional comedian in the White House.The future of the country is too important to be put in the hands of amateurs.
Chris Lamb is a professor of communication at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. His most recent book is "I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns, and Ripostes." He can be reached at lambc@cofc.edu. PHOTO: PAT PAULSEN PHOTO: WILL ROGERS -->
Chris Lamb
Special To The Sentinel
January 27, 2008
Eighty years ago, humorist Will Rogers said it was becoming harder to tell the difference between politicians and comedians. "Everything is changing," Rogers said. "People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."
His words are at least as appropriate today as they were in his day.Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently told Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, that he owed his popularity to the comedy program.
Huckabee said he gained in the polls among Republican candidates after an earlier appearance on the show."The only reason I'm the front-runner now is because of the Colbert bump," the straight-faced former Arkansas governor said. "Were it not for that I would not be sitting in this chair. I would probably be somewhere serving hamburgers at a drive-in restaurant."
Huckabee, hoping for another bump in popularity, asked Colbert to be his running mate."Yes," Colbert responded, "a thousand times yes."
Huckabee and Colbert were only kidding -- I think.
But as the line blurs between comedy and politics, how soon before we take seriously a Huckabee-Colbert -- or even a Colbert-Huckabee -- ticket?
Colbert was once a presidential candidate himself. When he announced his candidacy last fall, he challenged traditional presidential campaigns. For one thing, Colbert said he was running as a Republican and a Democrat -- or a Republicrat.Second, he said he planned to run only in his home state, South Carolina, testing the old political maxim, "As South Carolina goes, so goes southern North Carolina and parts of eastern Georgia."
Colbert's candidacy was aborted when the state Democratic Party refused to put his name on the ballot. Party leaders groused that Colbert would make a mockery out of the political process. When pressed further, the Democratic Party officials conceded they could make a mockery out of the political process without any help from outsiders.
If Huckabee really were to select Colbert as his running mate, it would, of course, go against tradition. America prefers its vice presidents to be punch lines and not comedians -- at least not professional comedians.
Vice presidents -- such as Dan Quayle -- traditionally make their greatest contribution to humor, not politics.Quayle, who served as President George Herbert Walker Bush's vice president, made it easy for comics. Comics didn't have to come up with their own material; they only had to quote Quayle.
For instance, Quayle famously referred to the National Negro College Fund's slogan of "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" by saying: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind -- or not to have a mind. . . . How true that is." Quayle once defended his verbal gaffes by saying, "I stand by all my misstatements." How true that is.
Will Rogers ran for president in 1928 as the candidate of the "Anti-Bunk Party." But bunk won. Forty years later, in 1968, Pat Paulsen, another comedian, ran for president. But Richard Nixon was elected, and the joke was on us.
Now, 40 years later, given the state of the country, maybe it's time we put a professional comedian in the White House.The future of the country is too important to be put in the hands of amateurs.
Chris Lamb is a professor of communication at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. His most recent book is "I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns, and Ripostes." He can be reached at lambc@cofc.edu. PHOTO: PAT PAULSEN PHOTO: WILL ROGERS -->
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Obama-Clinton exchange
During a debate between Democratic presidential hopefuls this month, Sen. Barack Obama said he would move U.S. foreign policy in a different direction if elected. He was asked how he would do this because several of his advisers once worked for President Bill Clinton.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, the wife of the former president and the Democratic frontrunner, laughed out loud and said, "I'm looking forward to hearing that."
The comment drew loud laughter from the crowd.
Obama waited for the laughter to subside and then responded, "Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well."
Obama got the last laugh.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, the wife of the former president and the Democratic frontrunner, laughed out loud and said, "I'm looking forward to hearing that."
The comment drew loud laughter from the crowd.
Obama waited for the laughter to subside and then responded, "Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well."
Obama got the last laugh.
Mike Huckabee-Chuck Norris
A few weeks ago, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee jumped from relative obscurity among Republican presidential candidates to become the party's front runner in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Huckabee owes at least part of his rising popularity to a television commercial where he and actor Chuck Norris trade straight-faced characteristics about the other.
"Mike Huckabee is a life-long hunter, who will protect our Second Amendment rights," Norris sternly says. Huckabee then responds, "There's no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard, only another fist." Norris counters with, "Mike Huckabee wants to put the IRS out of business." And Huckabee adds, "When Chuck Norris does a push up, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the earth down . . . Chuck Norris doesn't endorse, he tells America how it's gonna be."
Is Huckabee saying that we should vote for him because Chuck Norris says so? Well, maybe, but probably not.
Huckabee said he wanted the ad to increase interest in his campaign. This has certainly happened. News programs continue to run the ad at no cost to the Huckabee campaign. The ad also has had nearly a million hits on U-Tube. Huckabee also said he wanted to remind voters that presidential campaigns should be fun.
Nothing is undervalued in political campaigning as much as humor - unless it's honesty.
"Mike Huckabee is a life-long hunter, who will protect our Second Amendment rights," Norris sternly says. Huckabee then responds, "There's no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard, only another fist." Norris counters with, "Mike Huckabee wants to put the IRS out of business." And Huckabee adds, "When Chuck Norris does a push up, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the earth down . . . Chuck Norris doesn't endorse, he tells America how it's gonna be."
Is Huckabee saying that we should vote for him because Chuck Norris says so? Well, maybe, but probably not.
Huckabee said he wanted the ad to increase interest in his campaign. This has certainly happened. News programs continue to run the ad at no cost to the Huckabee campaign. The ad also has had nearly a million hits on U-Tube. Huckabee also said he wanted to remind voters that presidential campaigns should be fun.
Nothing is undervalued in political campaigning as much as humor - unless it's honesty.
Orlando Sentinel -- Humor Pulls No Punches
Humor pulls no punches: Campaign ads can tickle political funny bone
Chris Lamb
Special To The Sentinel
December 23, 2007
A few weeks ago, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee jumped from relative obscurity among Republican presidential candidates to become the party's front-runner in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Huckabee owes at least part of his rising popularity to a television commercial where he and actor Chuck Norris trade straight-faced characteristics about the other.
"Mike Huckabee is a life-long hunter, who will protect our Second Amendment rights," Norris sternly says.Huckabee then responds, "There's no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard, only another fist."
Norris counters with, "Mike Huckabee wants to put the IRS out of business."
And Huckabee adds, "When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the earth down. . . . Chuck Norris doesn't endorse, he tells America how it's gonna be."
Is Huckabee saying that we should vote for him because Chuck Norris says so?
Well, maybe, but probably not.
Huckabee said he wanted the ad to increase interest in his campaign. This has certainly happened. News programs continue to run the ad at no cost to the Huckabee campaign. The ad also has had nearly a million hits on YouTube. Huckabee also said he wanted to remind voters that presidential campaigns should be fun.
Nothing is undervalued in political campaigning as much as humor -- unless it's honesty.
Humor can cut through the tedious babble of a campaign. It reduces the distance between the candidate and voters. The Huckabee ad, for instance, makes the candidate appear like he's regular folk. We want our presidents to be honest, fair, confident and decisive. But we also want them to be regular folk.
No president used humor better than Abraham Lincoln. In the television age, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who had little in common with the common people, nevertheless, used their sense of humor to connect with them.
Television commercials offer candidates their best opportunity to connect with voters. Commercials aren't meant to reveal everything about a candidate. They should, however, reveal something distinctive about him or her. Because candidates are paying for the ad, they have considerable control over what impression they want to leave with viewers. But what impression are they leaving?
Some candidates, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, pay a lot of money for commercials. As anyone living in a state with an early primary knows, Romney's commercials take the air more often than planes at O'Hare Airport.
Romney's commercials reveal that the candidate is rich -- or how else could he afford to run so many television ads? From his ads, viewers also learn that he's physically fit, has nice hair, and was once a successful businessman. In his early commercials, Romney, speaking directly to viewers, had little to say; he appeared earnest, but his ideas were predictable, even trite.
Now, as Huckabee has become the front runner, Romney's campaign has gone on the attack. Romney now appears annoyed, defensive, even desperate, and, yes, humorless.
Should we vote for Mike Huckabee for president because he appears to have a sense of humor? No. But we also shouldn't vote for a candidate because her husband was president, because the candidate was a television actor, or because Oprah -- or Chuck Norris -- tells us to vote for a particular person.
Political campaigns tend to be risk adverse, which explains, in part, why there is so little humor in television commercials. There's also a mistaken impression that humor isn't presidential. We can't very well have someone like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan in the White House, can we?
Chris Lamb is a professor of Communication at the College of Charleston. His latest book is I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns and Ripostes. He can be reached at lambc@cofc.edu
Chris Lamb
Special To The Sentinel
December 23, 2007
A few weeks ago, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee jumped from relative obscurity among Republican presidential candidates to become the party's front-runner in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Huckabee owes at least part of his rising popularity to a television commercial where he and actor Chuck Norris trade straight-faced characteristics about the other.
"Mike Huckabee is a life-long hunter, who will protect our Second Amendment rights," Norris sternly says.Huckabee then responds, "There's no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard, only another fist."
Norris counters with, "Mike Huckabee wants to put the IRS out of business."
And Huckabee adds, "When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the earth down. . . . Chuck Norris doesn't endorse, he tells America how it's gonna be."
Is Huckabee saying that we should vote for him because Chuck Norris says so?
Well, maybe, but probably not.
Huckabee said he wanted the ad to increase interest in his campaign. This has certainly happened. News programs continue to run the ad at no cost to the Huckabee campaign. The ad also has had nearly a million hits on YouTube. Huckabee also said he wanted to remind voters that presidential campaigns should be fun.
Nothing is undervalued in political campaigning as much as humor -- unless it's honesty.
Humor can cut through the tedious babble of a campaign. It reduces the distance between the candidate and voters. The Huckabee ad, for instance, makes the candidate appear like he's regular folk. We want our presidents to be honest, fair, confident and decisive. But we also want them to be regular folk.
No president used humor better than Abraham Lincoln. In the television age, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who had little in common with the common people, nevertheless, used their sense of humor to connect with them.
Television commercials offer candidates their best opportunity to connect with voters. Commercials aren't meant to reveal everything about a candidate. They should, however, reveal something distinctive about him or her. Because candidates are paying for the ad, they have considerable control over what impression they want to leave with viewers. But what impression are they leaving?
Some candidates, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, pay a lot of money for commercials. As anyone living in a state with an early primary knows, Romney's commercials take the air more often than planes at O'Hare Airport.
Romney's commercials reveal that the candidate is rich -- or how else could he afford to run so many television ads? From his ads, viewers also learn that he's physically fit, has nice hair, and was once a successful businessman. In his early commercials, Romney, speaking directly to viewers, had little to say; he appeared earnest, but his ideas were predictable, even trite.
Now, as Huckabee has become the front runner, Romney's campaign has gone on the attack. Romney now appears annoyed, defensive, even desperate, and, yes, humorless.
Should we vote for Mike Huckabee for president because he appears to have a sense of humor? No. But we also shouldn't vote for a candidate because her husband was president, because the candidate was a television actor, or because Oprah -- or Chuck Norris -- tells us to vote for a particular person.
Political campaigns tend to be risk adverse, which explains, in part, why there is so little humor in television commercials. There's also a mistaken impression that humor isn't presidential. We can't very well have someone like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan in the White House, can we?
Chris Lamb is a professor of Communication at the College of Charleston. His latest book is I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns and Ripostes. He can be reached at lambc@cofc.edu
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Washington Post, December 15, 2007
From Pericles to Obama
Thursday's Democratic debate added to a long and noble tradition of poltical putdowns.
By Chris Lamb
Saturday, December 15, 2007
12:00 AM
During Thursday's debate among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sen. Barack Obama was asked how he would shift U.S. foreign policy in a different direction, given that several of his advisers once worked for President Bill Clinton. "I want to hear that," Sen. Hillary Clinton chimed in, provoking laughter. Obama waited a moment, and then quipped: "Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well." It was Obama who got the last laugh.
A sharp comeback can be a potent political weapon. But, so far, the current presidential campaign has been long on sound and fury and short on memorable exchanges between politicians.
That wasn't always the case. Here are 10 of the best political comebacks in history, as they've been passed down in the political lore.
1. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is said to have been drinking at a party when he bumped into Bessie Braddock, a prudish political opponent. "Mr. Churchill, you are drunk," Braddock said.
"And Bessie, you are ugly," Churchill said. And then, after a pause, he added: "I'll be sober in the morning."
2. There's also the story about Churchill's encounter with Lady Nancy Astor, who told him: "If you were my husband, I would poison your coffee."
"If you were my wife," Churchill replied, "I would drink it."
3. American presidency scholar Richard Norton Smith likes to cite a campaign-trail exchange between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Douglas claimed that Lincoln had been selling whiskey when they first met.
Lincoln made no attempt to dispute the charge. He agreed that he once worked as a storekeeper. "Many a time have I stood on one side of the counter," he said, "and sold Mr. Douglas whiskey on the other side."
4. In 1921, Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Not all of her colleagues welcomed her. One tried to embarrass her by asking, "Don't you wish you were a man?"
"No," Macphail replied. "Don't you?"
5. When Huey Long was governor of Louisiana, he supposedly told then-Texas Governor James "Pa" Ferguson: "If there had been a back door at the Alamo, there wouldn't have been a Texas."
"But there there was a back door -- and that's why there's a Louisiana," Ferguson said.
6. Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky and Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts were sitting outside a Washington hotel when, according to legend, a man walked by with a pack of mules. "Clay, there goes a number of your Kentucky constituents," Webster said.
"Yes," Clay replied, "they must be on their way to Massachusetts to teach school."
7. Then-Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) once found himself in an elevator with the diminutive -- but self-assured -- then-Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), who puffed out his chest to show off the expensive suit he'd just purchased. "What do you think?" Tower asked.
"It's very nice, but does it come in men's sizes?" Hollings replied.
8. During a 1986 debate agsinst Hollings, challenger Henry McMaster asked his opponent to take a drug test.
"I'll take a drug test if you'll take an IQ test," Hollings responded.
9. In the 5th century B.C., Alcibiades debated his uncle, the Greek orator Pericles. "When I was your age, Alcibiades, I talked just the way you are now talking," Pericles said.
"If only I had known you, Pericles, when you were at your best," Alcibiades said.
10. John Wilkes, an 18th-century political reformer, was involved in a particularly angry exchange with John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, who said to Wilkes, "Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!"
Wilkes responded, "That, sir, depends on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
The writer is a communication professor at the College of Charleston and author of "I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns, and Ripostes."
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Thursday's Democratic debate added to a long and noble tradition of poltical putdowns.
By Chris Lamb
Saturday, December 15, 2007
12:00 AM
During Thursday's debate among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sen. Barack Obama was asked how he would shift U.S. foreign policy in a different direction, given that several of his advisers once worked for President Bill Clinton. "I want to hear that," Sen. Hillary Clinton chimed in, provoking laughter. Obama waited a moment, and then quipped: "Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well." It was Obama who got the last laugh.
A sharp comeback can be a potent political weapon. But, so far, the current presidential campaign has been long on sound and fury and short on memorable exchanges between politicians.
That wasn't always the case. Here are 10 of the best political comebacks in history, as they've been passed down in the political lore.
1. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is said to have been drinking at a party when he bumped into Bessie Braddock, a prudish political opponent. "Mr. Churchill, you are drunk," Braddock said.
"And Bessie, you are ugly," Churchill said. And then, after a pause, he added: "I'll be sober in the morning."
2. There's also the story about Churchill's encounter with Lady Nancy Astor, who told him: "If you were my husband, I would poison your coffee."
"If you were my wife," Churchill replied, "I would drink it."
3. American presidency scholar Richard Norton Smith likes to cite a campaign-trail exchange between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Douglas claimed that Lincoln had been selling whiskey when they first met.
Lincoln made no attempt to dispute the charge. He agreed that he once worked as a storekeeper. "Many a time have I stood on one side of the counter," he said, "and sold Mr. Douglas whiskey on the other side."
4. In 1921, Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Not all of her colleagues welcomed her. One tried to embarrass her by asking, "Don't you wish you were a man?"
"No," Macphail replied. "Don't you?"
5. When Huey Long was governor of Louisiana, he supposedly told then-Texas Governor James "Pa" Ferguson: "If there had been a back door at the Alamo, there wouldn't have been a Texas."
"But there there was a back door -- and that's why there's a Louisiana," Ferguson said.
6. Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky and Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts were sitting outside a Washington hotel when, according to legend, a man walked by with a pack of mules. "Clay, there goes a number of your Kentucky constituents," Webster said.
"Yes," Clay replied, "they must be on their way to Massachusetts to teach school."
7. Then-Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) once found himself in an elevator with the diminutive -- but self-assured -- then-Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), who puffed out his chest to show off the expensive suit he'd just purchased. "What do you think?" Tower asked.
"It's very nice, but does it come in men's sizes?" Hollings replied.
8. During a 1986 debate agsinst Hollings, challenger Henry McMaster asked his opponent to take a drug test.
"I'll take a drug test if you'll take an IQ test," Hollings responded.
9. In the 5th century B.C., Alcibiades debated his uncle, the Greek orator Pericles. "When I was your age, Alcibiades, I talked just the way you are now talking," Pericles said.
"If only I had known you, Pericles, when you were at your best," Alcibiades said.
10. John Wilkes, an 18th-century political reformer, was involved in a particularly angry exchange with John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, who said to Wilkes, "Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!"
Wilkes responded, "That, sir, depends on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
The writer is a communication professor at the College of Charleston and author of "I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns, and Ripostes."
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var article_id = "AR2007121401486" ;
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