Comic Relief
Humor in politics has its uses, and if the latest polls on the national mood are any indication, the American public may be looking for a little comic relief. Over the weekend, the ABC News-Washington Post poll dissected the national consciousness and pronounced us mainly pessimistic – about Iraq, about the economy, about all the big issues.
The campaigns, instead of gloom and doom, are looking for ways to lighten up. On Saturday Night Live, the Obama camp scored a coup by having their candidate appear in a skit skewering Hillary Clinton. The hilarious results worked well for Obama, as did an accompanying skit (in which Obama did not appear) that ridiculed the other Democratic candidates as it depicted them in preparation for last week’s debate.
The remarkable phenomenon is that more American voters may be tuning into satirical views of the candidates and their positions than to the real thing. Last week, Stephen Colbert, who parodies right-wing positions on his TV show, tried to register as a Presidential candidate in South Carolina. When this effort “failed,” it gave him an opportunity to protest his exclusion in mock seriousness.
Ever since the 2000 elections, in which Al Gore’s campaign persona was widely seen as overly serious, campaign managers have looked for ways to make their candidates appear witty and self-deprecating. This year it began with Hillary’s video on her Web site that quickly moved to You Tube. Rudy Giuliani showed this weekend that Republicans are also looking for a laugh. (Given the latest polling data, they may be in the doldrums and need some humor.) On a stage in New Hampshire, before a partisan crowd, he too impersonated Hillary, depicting her answer regarding drivers’ licenses, given at last week’s debate, as an example of her failing to speak clearly on the issues.
In the coming weeks the candidates may focus on reasons for pessimism, but in ways that make the other candidates — if not the issues themselves — seem funny.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Hey, did you hear the one about Rudy Giuliani saying that Joe Biden doesn’t have any foreign policy experience? What doesn’t make you cry, makes you laugh.
Host: You would say Senator Biden doesn’t have foreign policy experience?
Giuliani: Has he ever been in the State Department? Has he ever been an executive? It’s one thing…it’s one thing to speak about what you want or even pass laws about it. It’s another thing to actually do it. Foreign policy experience to me means being an ambassador, being in the state department. Being a law endorsement official. Dealing with foreign countries.