Wherein I Question Victor David Hanson’s Analysis
In commenting on the latest GOP debate, Hanson wrote the following:
If we were to read transcripts of the debate and not watch or listen to TV, both would be at or near the top.
The “both” in question are Rich Santorum and Michele Bachmann.
What, their voices are off-putting?
All Hanson offers is “They seem aware of the dilemma that they are not naturally self-referential or in-your-face attackers”—which I take to mean that if only they were more aggressive they would be polling outside the single digits. Let’s say that I have my doubts on that count.
Santorum and Bachmann…now there’s a frothy mix
If ‘frothy’ means ‘foaming at the mouth’, then I agree.
Did he reference Greek “history” to back up his claim?
Did you really use ‘Victor David Hanson’ and ‘analysis’ in the same sentence?
As the late Mayor Daley used to say, let’s look at the record. Here’s a transcript of one of the debates from last week. Here’s
Rep. Bachmann’s first response:
Does that support his contention? Not to my mind. To be honest I find it pretty incoherent. In fairness Rick Santorum’s first response is a bit more coherent (once you remove the transcribed disfluencies) but not much.
Mr. Hason is a bit like those he describes- he grows in stature the less one experiences him.
Michele seems kind of whiney, and Santorum seems plenty aggressive as is. I can’t define it, but neither one inspires me as a leader. They seem more like commentators than people who get things done.
Gingrich is a loud critic, who excels at pointing out what others have done wrong, but he doesn’t make me trust his leadership.
If I hadn’t seen what he did with the 2002 Winter Olympics, I might say the same of Romney, but he turned a pending financial disaster and a scandal into a big success of the kind we all want the Olympics to be. He didn’t do it by making speeches and elaborating bold proposals. In fact, I sometimes wondered just what he WAS doing, but he was busy the whole time cutting costs and waste, making new deals, enlisting volunteers and making things run efficiently, and when the product was unveiled, it was amazing. I live in Utah, and he turned a looming shame-filled and corrupt operation into something we were proud of.
Perry’s success, I think, has come from finding successful business men like Mitt Romney and following their counsel. Why elect a middle man? And Ron Paul is just unacceptable. He has the same deficits as Bachmann and Santorum but in spades.
The problem is that everytime that I read some transcript of what Bachmann wrote I hear her voice.
Clearly, what he is trying to say is that they are the best at pandering to his biases about the world, but their delivery is in some way off-putting. Maybe they are not as glib and free with expression as he would prefer.
There has to be some reason those two deep-thinkers are not polling well. There simply has to be….