A recurring theme of this UpClose blog is that most people are
***not paying close attention
***act on their gut reactions to impressions, not detailed facts
It isn't that I am a clever rationalist and most people are not. Rather, it is that a great many people pay attention to politics about the way I pay attention to professional football or college basketball. It means I pay little attention until the very end--Superbowl or March Madness--and then I make haphazard decisions of whom I like based on generalized impressions.
(Duke basketball? Don't they have a good team usually? Payton Manning? Is he the one with the deflated footballs or is that Tom Bradley? Wait! Tom Bradley was the LA Mayor. It is Tom Brady, the football player.
By the Final Four or the Superbowl I normally have things clear in my mind, so I make a decision who to cheer for, based on limited information, confusion, and glancing impressions of what I have seen.)
Some 40%-60% of American adults don't bother voting in Presidential and Off-Year elections and turnout among those people on the margins determine the direction of our country. Informed people made gut decisions, too, but a large hunk on the margins decide how they vote about the way I pay attention to the Superbowl.
The past few days have created some powerful impressions, and I will share my take on them--just the quick first-impression glancing notice.
Event: Obama dancing the tango in Cuba.
Impression: Bad. Laughing at a funeral.
He looked like Nero, fiddling while Brussels burned. Bad optics. Bad impression to the glancing view. Obama was nimble and good at it, which makes it worse. He looked like a dandy.
People got killed. That could have been here. He should do theater of serious.
Event: Anti-Trump Ad in Utah showing Melania Trump nude.
Impression: Nasty last minute ad. She is pretty hot, but I don't want hot in a political ad. Nasty, last minute stuff.
Ad looked like a provocation, and low-ball, the sort of thing a nasty campaign does. Cruz' buddies???
Event: Cruz denials of responsibility for the ad.
Impression: Yeah, right.
Wink. Wink. Handy to have that disclaimer put there, let others do the dirty work. Hypocrite.
Event: Trump tweet response to Cruz, then Cruz response to Trump
Impression: More junior high crap.
You started it! No, it wasn't me! Don't insult me! No, don't insult me. Your wife is ugly, and you started it!
For Criminy Sakes. Is this how we elect a president? Twitter insults??? What crap. Is there anyone else?
Event: Hillary at that AIPAC Thing
Impression: Boy, she sounded hawkish. Sort of calm about it, but hawkish. Gung-ho Israel, whatever you want. I thought Democrats were the slow-to-war party.
I hadn't paid much attention but maybe I should.
Event: Sanders' crowds.
Impression: Wow.
He has latched onto something huge. What are all those people doing there? Could it be the Sanders movement actually means something? Maybe I should pay attention.
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