Kitchen Techniques
There is a traditional way to check whether a pot of boiling spaghetti is done. Take some of the noodles, and throw them up against the wall. If it sticks, it’s done. Of course, if it’s overdone and sticky, it still sticks to the wall. So if you are into food tossing, start throwing the noodles early. You don’t want sticky noodles!
There is an old political tactic that works much the same way. Take everything bad you can possibly find out about you opponent and throw it up “against the wall”. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s important or not, or even if it’s true. If it sounds bad, if it could be construed as sounding bad, if a video image can be stopped at the one point where the opponent looks goofy, or stupid, or pornographic; then get it up on the wall. See what sticks, what resonates with the voters, and then beat that idea to death in advertising, speeches, innuendos and “whisper” campaigns.
Matter of Truth
The George Bush campaign did that to John McCain in the South Carolina Presidential primary of 2000. McCain and his wife adopted a baby from Bangladesh in 1991. The “whisper campaign” in the 2000 primary run-up was that she was McCain’s illegitimate “dark-skinned” daughter. The truth of the matter wasn’t important, if McCain could be forced to deny the rumor, it made it even stronger. “The spaghetti” stuck to the wall. Bush secured South Carolina and the 2000 Republican Presidential nomination.
We saw a more recent example with early attacks on Amy Klobuchar in the 2020 Presidential campaigns. Rumors were floated about how angry she got, and how she mistreated her staff. Whether the rumors were true or not wasn’t really the point. Klobuchar was portrayed as losing control of her temper. While in John McCain that kind of anger was seen as “endearing”, a “gruff old veteran”; the double standard of American politics struggled with accepting a woman with anger issues.
Getting an Edge
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the 2020 Trump campaign is throwing stuff up against the wall as fast as they possibly can. Yesterday was a great example. First, Joe Biden made the comment that the Latino community is “…diverse, unlike the African American community”. On the face of it, the statement seems pretty reasonable. The Latino community in the United States comes from the Caribbean, Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Each has different traditions and beliefs, making it difficult to say there is a “Latino” point of view.
The Black community in the United States is mainly African American, descendants of slaves. While there are many differing points of view in that community, there isn’t the diversity of culture and country of origin. But the Trump Campaign, including the President himself, was quick to jump on the phrase. Trump claimed that Biden, “…totally disparaged and insulted the Black community. What he said was incredible, and I don’t know what’s going on with him, but it was a very insulting statement to make”.
Not only did Trump try to push a faux insult of the Black community, but it also was an attempt to further their whisper campaign that somehow Biden has dementia. In the past few weeks, Trump even went so far as bragging about passing a dementia “test”, and tried to push Biden into responding. It’s not a matter of what’s truth; it’s a matter of trying to see what might stick with the American voter.
Whose Side is God On?
But the President wasn’t done yesterday. When he arrived in Cleveland, on a government paid campaign trip, he claimed that Biden was against God. Trump said Biden would: “Take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy.”
Biden responded later, and got the chance to emphasize three of his themes that are “sticking”. He was able to emphasize his own personal compassion, something President Trump fails to display. He also got to emphasize the Administration’s failure to control the COVID epidemic. And, he showed himself as being “more Presidential”.
“Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: it’s provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, it’s kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy. And in this moment of darkness for our country — of pain, of division, and of sickness for so many Americans — my faith has been a guiding light for me and a constant reminder of the fundamental dignity and humanity that God has bestowed upon all of us. For President Trump to attack my faith is shameful. It’s beneath the office he holds and it’s beneath the dignity the American people so rightly expect and deserve from their leaders.”
And by the way, Biden wasn’t talking about “diversity” anymore. The President managed to “step” on his own campaign message.
Whispers
The whisper campaigns are out there. There are pictures of Biden with his hands on the shoulders of little girls. He could be just “grandfatherly” but the narrative is that he is some kind of pervert. And there is the Epstein list. Biden isn’t on it, but is Trump?
There comes a time where there’s so much spaghetti sticking to the wall, you can’t tell what’s done or what’s not. And worse, some of it is just old stuck spaghetti. All it really does is push voters to that “I don’t want either one” position. And that too, might be an advantage to one candidate or the other.
I just taste a strand of my spaghetti. It saves cleaning the wall.
