The Dumb Template

One of these days, I’m going to write a book that Imus would recommend and call it Templates. The thesis of the book is that both parties use shorthand or templates to create an image of their opponent designed to deride or demonize.

Democrats in Presidential politics basically use a couple of templates. One is that the Republican candidate is a stupid, dumb, lamebrain, goob that you wouldn’t give the keys to your car to much less the ship of state. Democrats used this against George W. Bush (graduate of Yale and Harvard), Ronald Reagan (he had the nerve not to go to an Ivy League school), Gerald Ford (graduate of Yale Law School) and Dwight Eisenhower who was the President of an Ivy League college (Columbia) and led the liberation of Europe in World War II.

The point is that Republicans need to be aware that this is the first arrow in the Democrats quiver. Somebody needs to tell Michele Bachman who apparently believes Gardasil, a vaccine used to prevent the HPV virus causes Mental Retardation. You can argue that it is not the governments place to “mandate” such vaccinations. I’m not to sure in a country where everybody has to have their kids vaccinated to attend school that you are going to win an election on such an issue.

Bachman’s rant against mandated vaccinations enabled the Left (which for all of its posturing about ‘powerful women’ all seem to despise powerful women that are against abortion) to point out that she is crazy as a loon. Maureen Dowd says “(Bachman) seems rather proud of not knowing anything, simply repeating nutty, inflammatory medical claims that somebody in the crowd tells her”.

Dowd’s whole column fits the pattern of ‘Here Comes the Dummies’. She takes great pains to review Rick Perry’s college transcript. Perry made a D and an F in one semester. He made five other D's in: Principles of Economics, Shakespeare, "Feeds & Feeding", Veterinary Anatomy and a course called “Meats”. Perry jokes that “Four semesters of organic chemistry made a pilot out of me”. Dowd adds, “(Perry) went on to join the Air Force” implying that he did not graduate. However, Perry did graduate from Texas A & M which should be noted.

A Dowd column would not be complete without a jab at George W. Bush. She says that Perry’s college grades make one”long for W.’s Gentleman’s C’s”. She neglects to mention the King of Gentleman C’s: Franklin D Roosevelt or the Prince of Gentleman C’s: John F. Kennedy. Oh yes, but you see, they are Democrats.

Reviewing someone’s college transcripts thirty to forty years after they have graduated is pointless to the nth degree. There are a lot of variables involved. We don’t know if there was a bell curve in Perry’s classes. We don’t know if the professors liked/didn’t like him (grow up-it can make a difference). We didn’t sit in “Meats” so we don’t know what the class or the tests were like. Granted, you would think someone from the cattle country in Texas would do well in a class like that. The basic point is we were not there

I don’t know if Perry, who is from a humble background, had to work two jobs while he was at Texas A & M. I don’t know if he went to class. I don’t know if he partied all of the time or what. No, the mainstream media is more interested in just the grades of an immature young man over thirty-five years ago. Why? Because it fits into their stereotype of Southern Republicans being morons.*

I’m not that impressed with Perry’s campaign so far. He doesn’t quite seem ready for prime time. However, if having to choose between somebody who made a D in “Meats” and somebody who has made an F- in “The Economic Revival of America”, I would choose the one that barely passed.


*Apparently Down is unimpressed by Republicans who made good grades. She says “Even Newt Gingrich’s pseudo-intellectualism is a relief at this point”. Gingrich has a PhD from Tulane. I would say that Gingrich is an intellectual, but he’s got that “R” behind his name.