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So, the other day I was looking for something among my books, and came across a book that I had had to read when I was in college. The title, which I will reveal in just a moment, immediately grabbed my attention and brought back a few memories from the late 80's and early 90's, which is when I went to college. Upon reading a few pages, I thought that it would be fun to post some excerpts from it and compare/contrast with the past national election.

"The past national election?", I hear you ask. "What does that have to do with today?" Ah, a very good question. Lesson number one is that elections have consequences. Who you vote for on Election Day doesn't just effect things for the next year, or even the next four years. It can even effect you 20 or even 40 years from when you pulled that lever.

You see, the name of this book that I came across was "The Selling of the President 1968". Joe McGinniss is the author, and in this book he describes the campaign by Richard Nixon for President by changing his image. The author likens Nixon's campaign to a commercial from Madison Avenue. The author sums this up on page 19 and 20. "That there is a difference between the individual and his image is human nature. Or American nature, at least. That the difference is exaggerated and exploited electronically is the reason for this book."

I'll post some excerpts in a series of posts. I've got a number ready right now, but who wants to read all of them at once? Besides, I could make this a nice little continuing series. Even though this is a small little book, it's got some really juicy stuff in it.

Ready for some excerpts? I'll put them all in bright red like this, and any comments I may make in either black or blue.

It is not surprising, then, that politicians and advertising men should have discovered one another. And, once they recognized that the citizen did not so much vote for a candidate as make a psychological purchase of him, not surprising that they began to work together.

[quoting Daniel Boorstein in the book The Image] "We have become so accustomed to our illusions that we mistake them for reality. We demand them. And we demand that there be always more of them, bigger and better and more vivid."
The Presidency seems the ultimate extension of our error. (p. 19, 20)

This sounds like liberals' criticism of President George W. Bush. The thinking is that because he was unable to speak articulately, thus being flawed, he was considered a failure.

A few more; one short, two longer.

Americans have never quite digested television. The mystique which should fade grows stronger. We make celebrities not only of the men who cause events but of the men who read reports of them aloud.

The televised image can become as real to the house wife as her husband, and much more attractive. Hugh Downs is a better breakfast companion, Merv Griffin cozier to snuggle with on the couch.

Television, in fact, has given status to the "celebrity" which few real men attain. And the "celebrity" here is the one described by Boorstein: "Neither good nor bad, great nor petty ... the human pseudo-event ... fabricated on purpose to satisfy our exaggerated expectations of human greatness."

This is, perhaps, where the twentieth century and its pursuit of illusion have been leading us. "In the last half-century," Boorstein writes, "the old heroic human mold has been broken. A new mold has been made, so that marketable human models --modern 'heroes'-- could be mass-produced, to satisfy the market, and without any hitches. The qualities which now commonly make a man or woman into a 'nationally advertised' brand are in fact a new category of human emptiness."
(ellipses in original; p. 21-22)

Let's skip a paragraph here and go to a very pertinent quote.

Television seems particularly useful to the politician who can be charming but lacks ideas. Print is for ideas. (p. 22)

Sound like anybody you know?

Finally, let's wrap up with this:

...Television demands gentle wit, irony, understatement: the qualities of Eugene McCarthy. The TV politician cannot make a speech; he must engage in intimate conversation. He must never press. He should suggest, not state; request, not demand. Nonchalance is the key word. Carefully studied nonchalance.

Warmth and sincerity are desirable, but must be handled with care. Unfiltered, they can be fatal. Television did great harm to Hubert Humphrey. His excesses -- talking too long and too fervently, which were merely annoying in an auditorium-- became lethal in a television studio. The performer must talk to one person at a time. He is brought into the living room. He is a guest. It is improper for him to shout. Humphrey vomited on the rug.
(p. 23, 24)

That's all for this post. The next post on this subject will be the McGinniss' summation of Nixon, and what a President's qualities should be. Let me know what you think and if you want to hear more.

Posted by Kaptain_Krude on 2009-10-31 05:45:55 | Rating: