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Jewish World Review Jan 25, 2012/ 1 Shevat, 5772 Candidates proving that time-tested Marxist theory By Martin Schram
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It is so very 20th century, but the GOP presidential debates have shown us that television can still create powerful political waves -- video waves -- that candidates can catch just right and ride to victory. Unless they become so enamored of their swift success that they start preening and posturing -- and lose their balance, their board and their wave. That's where we are right now in the up-down-and-up-again 2012 Republican presidential campaign. At every stop, in every debate, GOP candidates all vowed to be the strongest leader. Those who could afford it, especially forever-presumed front-runner Mitt Romney, bought costly television ads that hailed their strengths, virtues and vision. But all their glowing self-portraits could always be undone by reality-TV performances that voters could see for themselves. We know that because of a time-tested Marxist theory. It is drawn not from the works of Karl, but the works of Groucho, Chico and Harpo. The key to what has happened in the 2012 Republican campaign comes from a classic line in the Marx Brothers' 1933 comedy "Duck Soup." Background: Groucho Marx, playing Rufus T. Firefly, ruler of the tiny country of Fredonia, wants to wangle secret war plans from strait-laced Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont). But Firefly rivals Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx) want the plans, too. They are disguised as Firefly to trick her. The big moment comes when Firefly leaves Mrs. Teasdale's boudoir -- just as Chicolini, wearing a fake moustache, crawls out from under the bed. He says he is Firefly and insists he never left the room. "But I saw you with my own eyes," Mrs. Teasdale insists. So Chicolini asks the classic question: "Well, who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" In Florida's Jan. 31 primary, voters will tell us whether they believe the candidates' self-portraits or believe what they have seen with their own eyes in TV debates and on the TV news. That's how Romney was undone in South Carolina. Twice in debates this past week, Romney was asked about releasing his income taxes. Twice voters saw him mumbling and fumbling -- bizarre, since his staff had to have rehearsed him for this obvious topic. He should have used his obscenely, but legally, low tax rate as the example of why he will lead us in sweeping tax reform. But he didn't. In contrast, in the last South Carolina debate, Newt Gingrich was gifted with what he needed most to make voters see him as the nominee who could be far stronger in campaigning against President Barack Obama in the general election. CNN's John King opened the debate by asking Gingrich about the new claim from his second (of three) wives -- that Gingrich had wanted an open marriage so he could continue his affair with his present wife. If King had not existed, Gingrich would have had to invent him. With carefully measured firmness, Gingrich did what he always does to wring applause from Republican audiences. He hammered the news media -- here King and CNN -- for deigning to open a presidential debate with such a question. Gingrich was extraordinarily effective and changed many minds. More than half the voters polled in exit surveys said they made their choice in the last 48 hours. Bottom line: Gingrich was right. This tabloid topic was not a fit way to open a debate in a nation where millions are jobless. It deserved to be brought up after jobs, war and peace had already been discussed. Romney was knocked off his boogie board and his video wave. Gingrich was surfing as never before. But this week, in the surf-and-sand primary state of Florida, a walloped-but-wiser Romney may have caught belatedly a bigger and better wave. In a Monday debate, Romney firmly but methodically lambasted Gingrich as an "influence peddler" for making $1.6 million from Freddie Mac -- which Gingrich laughably once explained away as just a historian's job. Gingrich, the K Street surfer, appeared to passively struggle to stay on his board. Candidates know how swiftly video waves can sweep the nation, from coast to coast. And they also know the perils of a slip -- the undertow can be fatal.
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• 01/12/12: Even with primaries still to go, history's longest year starts now • 01/05/12: Iowa caucuses reveal news media lapses • 12/14/11: How Gingrich stole Mitt's Christmas • 11/16/11: Supercommittee's super-sized surrender • 11/16/11: Romney talks Texas-tough on Iran • 11/03/11: The Silent Majority speaks at last • 10/20/11: Outsourcing our democracy; hijacking our holidays • 10/13/11: Decline and fall of presidential press conferences • 09/28/11: Washington's Monument to broken government • 08/17/11: Tax credits for job creation • 07/06/11: Obama's on-the-job retraining from Clinton • 06/29/11: Obama, Nixon suddenly joined in posterity
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