May 16, 2007 - There were moments during Tuesday night’s GOP presidential debate in South Carolina when you had to wonder: Are these guys running for president or merely aiming to be king of the one-liner?
After the somewhat mediocre face-off between the candidates two weeks ago at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, it appears some White House hopefuls have decided that comedy is perhaps the best route to gaining the momentum necessary to win the party’s nomination in 2008.
After the debate, Huckabee insisted his line, which prompted hysterical laughter and applause from the live audience in South Carolina, had been totally impromptu. "I just blurted it out," he told NEWSWEEK. "I just do that sometimes. I could just feel my wife cringing." Rehearsed or not, the line clearly helped Huckabee gain some priceless earned media in the postdebate coverage—no easy task in a crowd of 10 GOP presidential hopefuls in what has been the largely circuslike atmosphere of the debates. But Huckabee wasn’t the only one hoping to be king of the zing on Tuesday night.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18693434/site/newsweek/
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Impromptu cheesy one-liners and crude punchlines may be entertaining, but it sure doesn't bode well when political candidates are in a serious and professional debate. Or at least it shouldn't. When candidates are too busy trying to score popularity points amongst potential voters by trashing other candidates with unprofessional cheesy one-liners, when will they finally have the opportunity to deliver their political standpoints? Have we become a nation so engrossed in entertainment and quick laughs that something as important as selecting candidates to run our country come second to cheap laughs? I'd vote for candidates giving us the relevant information we need to make informed decisions over cheesy one-liners anyday.
2 comments:
I agree. With professional people and television networks that offer great comedy, I think that a comic President is the last thing the United States needs. The number one superpower is already disliked enough over the whole world without it having to be a laughing stock.
With comedy comes a more younger audience. Maybe this comedical approach is a way to entise the younger voters. Even though i strongly agree that there is a time and place for comedy and seriousness I think that there is a reason this candidate might be using this form of appeal.
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