In Product Marketing, We Call It Differentiation

"LET'S RUN through this again. Vladimir Putin is not a nice man. The KGB,
with whom the young Vlad earned his reputation as a people person, was not
Russia's answer to the Rotary Club. As a direct consequence, Russian traditions
of democracy remain wafer thin, a cracked veneer that fails utterly to conceal
thuggery, rigged votes, oligarchic mafias, corruption, and the corpses of
journalists. Are we clear? Russia's current identity is composed, meanwhile, of
a volatile mixture of intense nationalism and paranoia. Its rulers, whatever
their labels, take it as read that their country exists under permanent threat
of encirclement by its enemies."
-- Ian Bell on "the new cold war", Sunday Herald, August 25, 2008

Wait! Here's what another professional writer can do with the same boiler plate:

"Let's run through this again. George H.W. Bush Sr. is not a nice man. The
CIA, with whom the young Bush earned his reputation as a people person, was not
exactly the Rotary Club. He and his cronies have created a political dynasty,
and as a direct consequence, U.S. traditions of democracy remain wafer thin, a
cracked veneer that fails utterly to conceal thuggery, rigged votes, oligarchic
mafias, corruption, and the corpses of journalists. Are we clear? The United
State's current identity is composed, meanwhile, of a volatile mixture of
intense nationalism and paranoia. Its rulers, whatever their labels, take it as
read that their country exists under permanent threat of terrorist attacks by
its enemies."
--Bruce on "the new cold war," The River Blog, August 26th, 2008

The "Obama-Clinton Flap"

An article filed by Steve Holland came out today saying, "Clinton-Obama Flap Shifts Race to Negative Tone." The flap referred to was at the YouTube debates, in which Hillary Clinton called Barak Obama "naive" to talk to foreign leaders without preconditions; Obama replied that not talking to them is simply a continuation of the Bush Doctrine. (Which it is.) Holland closes the article out by quoting notorious oppo-researcher Chris Lehane, who unsurprisingly states that Clinton came out ahead by having her foreign policy ideas called "Bush Lite." (Which they are.)

Why is this unsurprising? Oh, I dunno. Maybe because the Clinton campaign is paying its long-time operatives Chris Lehane and his partner Mark Fabiani to dig up dirt on its opponents, most specifically on Barak Obama. If they didn't have a hand in writing the less-than-renowned Steve Holland's article, they weren't doing their jobs. Here's what they dished:

The Obama camp, looking for an opening to use the feud to cut into Clinton's lead in the polls, put up an advertisement on news sites in the early U.S. voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

The ad criticizes the New York senator and former first lady for her initial vote in support of the Iraq war and asks the question, "Ready for a New Direction?"

"It's time to abandon the short-sighted, naive idea that we punish our enemies by not talking to them. It's time to let go of the thinking that got us into Iraq without a plan in the first place," the ad said.

Gee. Isn't that the most outrageous political attack ad you've ever seen? He really rolling Hillary in the hog pen there. Obama must apologize forthwith, or a duel will be demanded to protect Ms. Clinton's honor. Yeah. And here's what pros from both parties have to say about Chris Lehane:

"Chris is the best in the business. If you have damage that needs to be controlled, he's the guy to bring in," said veteran Republican campaign and public affairs consultant Dan Schnur.

Democratic consultant Roger Salazar worked with Lehane in Gore's office and on the 2000 presidential campaign. He called Lehane and his partner, Mark Fabiani, also formerly of the White House, "the masters of crisis communications — they know how to manage an issue and look at it from every conceivable angle, find all of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities."

I've worked with PR professionals doing damage control on some hot potatoes for one of the world's most recognized companies. They knew their art well, were intelligent and devious in the extreme, but they were Queens of the May compared to Mssrs. Lehane et Fabiani. These political assassins' fingerprints are on some of the nastiest leaks and crisis creation schemes of the past 15 years. If a gussied-up difference of opinion over a needed change of direction is all "the best in the business" are coming up with, it's a great sign for Obama.

I despised the Clintons from the first day they took office. I despised Bill. And I still despise Hillary. Now Bill almost reduces me to teary-eyed nostalgia for small-scale corruption and merely routine incompetence. I despised them not because they were from Arkansas, or for having what one could sense was a political marriage, along with some fairly obvious but normal human foibles. I despised them because they quickly proved themselves to be naive and corrupt. On their very first day in office, Good Leaders do not pick "Gays In The Military" as their opening issue to fix, as the Clintons did. And they do not try to change a completely broken health care system, one which pays for the vacation homes of Congress, by waving a magic 800-page document. As the Clintons did. They squandered the political capital entrusted to them, and if Hillary becomes President, they will do it again.

"My Son Is An Honest Man," Pt. II

I have respect for a good liar. A good liar, like a good thief, must have great respect for the truth in order to not get caught, keeping all the threads in the web straight and orderly. Bill Clinton, for example, was a liar par excellence. Almost as good as his wife Hillary in terms of pure technique, and far better on delivery. The Bush Family, on the other hand, lives in the Spin Zone, and lost all connection to the truth, and thus to reality, long, long ago. Spin relies on assertion, and like a good thug it must repeat itself like the heel of Orwell's proverbial boot kicking humanity in the face over and over forever. Spin responds to nothing; it is not tethered to the truth by lies. Spin is an assassin sent on a suicide mission; freed from the restraints of reason, like reptilian tissue it functions only on the most base impulses, like threat avoidance, threat confrontation, the pleasure of eating, or pain. The Bush Family is a wounded reptile right now, its pains not hard to discern in the recent writhings of its biggest dragon:

The former US president George Bush Snr was forced into a defence of his son, the current President, during a visit to United Arab Emirates yesterday, when George Bush Jnr's Middle East policies were derided by a hostile audience.

"My son is an honest man," Mr Bush told Gulf Arabs at a leadership conference in Abu Dhabi, after an audience member said Mr Bush Jnr and his policies were not respected. "He is working hard for peace. It takes a lot of guts to get up and tell a father about his son in those terms when I just told you the thing that matters in my heart is my family." Mr Bush, President from 1989 to 1993, added: "How come everybody wants to come to the United States if the United States is so bad?"

He said he had faced tougher audiences but that attacks on his sons hurt more than those on him.

The oil-rich Persian Gulf used to be safe territory for Mr Bush Snr, an oil man who brought Arab leaders together in a coalition that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991. But his son's invasion of Iraq and support for Israel are unpopular in the UAE. "We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he's doing all over the world," a female audience member told Mr Bush after his folksy keynote speech, in which he said how proud he was of his sons. Mr Bush appeared stunned as the audience of young business leaders whooped and whistled in approval.

"This son is not going to back away," Mr Bush said, his voice quivering.

So we see the genetic and behavioral well-springs of the delusional narcissim running through the entire bugsy Bush clan. One part of me has empathy for a man who sees himself as having devoted his life and his family's to public service. Then I remember that his grandfather armed the Brown-shirts with Smith and Wesson revolvers in 1923. Then I remember that his father was the investment banker for Hitler until at least 1943. Then I remember that he called the Dallas PD three hours before JFK got shot. How much else do you need to know? So the other part of me, the reasoning part, sees Papa Lizard lope back to the swamp he's been feeding at since he was spawned, detect a threatening smell in the air when he flicks out his tongue, hissing and growling in reflex. The Bush Family is a failed dynasty--too bad it's going to take many more spear-thrusts to lay these worms to rest. But it must be done. Too bad lizards thrash about so when they're wounded, and too bad they're still leading our country.