Norquist: Romney Will Do As Told—David Frum - The Daily Beast

Norquist: Romney Will Do As Told—David Frum - The Daily Beast:

(Via www.thedailybeast.com)

All we have to do is replace Obama. …  We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.

The “have a beer with” test is essentially a narcissistic one. We see ourselves in our leaders; we like to imagine that we could fill their shoes, or that we could have been them, had our lives played out differently.

The beer test essentially asks, “Is this person enough like me that I can still spend intimate time with him? Do I still trust him?”

This is why no one - no one - wants a weak puppet in charge. A puppet is not his own man. He has unknown debts to shadowy people. And, worst of all, he cannot be trusted  to lead when the time calls — he must forever get the approval of some outside agency.

That man is a waste of beer.

What Norquest has outlined is a losing strategy, as far as winning the Presidency is concerned.

What Komen just did

Before the weekend, Komen issued a statement to its affiliates, some of whom had already declared that they were ignoring the injunction to sever ties with Planned Parenthood.

The statement. I’d link directly to Komen, but they’ve taken the statement down. Such is their courage.

This is the worst possible decisions Komen could have made. First, they abandon their motivated donors and besieged partner, exposing conservative convictions. Which is fine — donors respect convictions. That’s why they donate. This trail could have been blazed. It would have necessarily created a rift between liberal and conservative donors, but there is plenty of money on the conservative side.

But now Komen has rescinded its decision, the organization looks like it lacks the courage of its convictions.

If a non-profit can’t be counted on to have the courage of its convictions, why would anyone give them money?

If you worked for or with Komen, would you now trust them?

Candi-duel: You Gotta Hand it to Him

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(From TPM)

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(From International Business Times)

When we talk, we use our hands to communicate. More so if you are giving a speech. Grabbing someone’s hands is about silencing them, without speaking.

The current Republican party isn’t so much about ideas as it is about posture. Gainsaying the President, as Monty Python pointed out so many decades ago, isn’t an argument. It is simply posture. And Perry has the best posture.

Or, as Charlie Rangel said in New York.

“He’s tall and he’s from Texas”

Candi-duel: Perry/Romney Edition

Body language is king. It effects and the affects the emotional content of a message, critical to all messages, but especially to a speech.

Here, Perry is speechifying:

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Open body language - head forward, crotch forward and open. Not afraid to display these vulnerable spots, which reads as confidence. The mic hand is canted just enough to seem open, and his left hand is making a welcoming gesture. The just-between-you-and-me cocked head is what makes this intimate.

Romney, handling a heckler:

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His center line is covered by the mic hand (held the same way you hold a club, in a power grip), his head is held back (a persistent Romney problem). The bent knee separates him from the audience. His hand is using the same gesture you would use to pat a child’s head, or to tell someone to sit down.

Romney needs to welcome everyone in the audience, even his attacker. Where openness is key to charisma, this is closed and combative. In fact, this is so combative that it’s a Wing Chun pose:

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