"The message is pure propaganda".......read all about it on Bloomberg:$$$$$$$$$At Republican Convention, Image Is the Message: Paul Alexander
By Paul Alexander
Philadelphia, Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- ``Planned'' and ``scripted'' do not adequately describe the proceedings as they have unfolded this week at the Republican National Convention.
Elizabeth Dole was scheduled to arrive at center stage for her speech Tuesday night at 10:21. The program was only four minutes behind as she hit her mark. Because of this, Arizona Senator John McCain played to a peak audience as the evening's main speaker, who was given a generous 18 minutes to urge independent voters to back the man he had harshly criticized in the primaries, Republican presidential nominee, George W. Bush.
But the cavalcade of speakers isn't the only thing about the convention that's being controlled. So is the message, which is not so much presented by the party as by the campaign of Texas Governor Bush.
That message is being fashioned as carefully and as stridently as any message ever put out by a political organization -- American or otherwise.
The message is pure propaganda, bathed in the feel-good images of women in pastel dresses talking about Bush's vision for the future, or minorities insisting they are not being used as tokens.
New Party
The message is clear. George W. Bush's Republican party is determined to be mainstream, inclusive, open to people who have not traditionally voted Republican.
Gone are the faces of the angry white youth who cheered rabidly as Pat Buchanan delivered his diatribe of hate at the 1992 convention. Instead we have, on Monday night alone, a sermonette by a black minister beamed in from a nearby church, and a performance by a black gospel choir. Then, retired General Colin Powell, perhaps the nation's most respected African American, defended Governor Bush's record on minority issues in Texas.
``He has been successful in bringing more and more minorities into the tent by responding to their deepest needs,'' Powell said. ``Some call it compassionate conservatism. To me, it's just about caring for people.''
He punctuated his comments by saying, ``He will bring to the White House that same passion for inclusion. I know he can help bridge our racial divides.''
Aborted Protest
The compassion continued Tuesday night. When Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona, who is openly gay, appeared before the convention to talk about trade policy, the Texas delegation didn't walk out in protest as they had threatened, after the Bush campaign had warned them not to. This gesture was meant to show that Bush really is a compassionate conservative, a term he likes to use.
Naturally, no one in Philadelphia has mentioned that it was Bush who helped defeat the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act in Texas -- a bill, named for the man who was dragged to death in Jasper, Texas because he was black -- or declined to take a position on whether South Carolina should fly the Confederate flag atop its state capitol. But these facts tend to undercut the spectacle being staged by the Bush campaign. They tend to support accusations by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for Senate from New York, that the Republican convention is just one long, contrived photo opportunity -- all image, no substance.
The image is the message. Or so it seems to be at this year's Republican convention. This tightly scripted lovefest may ultimately succeed spectacularly in what it is meant to do -- return a Bush to the White House. |
