Strategy

The word is frequently used by Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

He has been chastised in the media for using the word as a red herring--to detract from the real problem of ignorance which lies within himself. He knows little about the world and about current geopolitical realities. But to avoid exposing his state of blank-slatedness in these matters, he uses the word "strategy" forcefully.

Last night Romney couldn't say anything concrete about foreign policy issues, but said he had a "strategy" for global affairs. At one point he said he had a "strategy" for not only solving the problems in the Middle-East, but also in the whole world.

So, he has a "strategy" for the world?

What does that mean?

Nothing.

The word was made famous by George Bush Jr, except that he said "stragety". The action that ensued from the Bush regime is invasion and war.

Regardless of whether a politician uses the word "strategy" or a Bushism version of it, I believe the word itself is an empty, and permit me to say this--a hoax word.

It's a managerial word that implies nothing but a deferral of action, or a form of action that is monolithic and gets botched easily because it doesn't take into account the messy changeability of real situations. Real situations continually evolve and take up different direction at varying points in space and time. No "strategy" can manage and control this.

We could campaign for bidding adieu to "strategy".

A thought on the Presidential debate #1

On my way to my neighborhood grocery store, I cross a street with two-way traffic and without a walk sign.

Needless to say, I have to keep my ears and eyes open for cavalier drivers.

Today, a young woman in a SUV stood still for more than 40 seconds, allowing pedestrians to cross. Seconds before I acknowledged her courtesy with a wave of gratitude, another driver pushes through with aggression and swerves into the street inches away from my toe.

A courteous driver and a bully of a driver: Who gets abused and whose behavior is deemed normal? The driver behind the courteous one screams "fuck you!" at the latter, to my shock and chagrin.

Having watched the first Presidential debate on Wednesday October 4 the picture of the drivers and the performances of Obama and Romney seem to be a bit analogous.

Romney is the driver who almost crushed my toes and rudely hogged the space at his disposal. Romney did the same in another context. His goal was to hog the limelight (instead of earning it over the evening), and he scolded the moderator. He also seemed anxious to steal time away from Obama.

Obama might have been the courteous driver who stood while pedestrians passed.

Yet, it was Obama who got clobbered by the media as the one who sleep-walked through the debate, and Romney received praises for his aggressive and blunt "style".

Americans look more and more like the surly guy who screamed at the courteous driver. Too impatient, myopic and precariously perched to reward the undeserving candidate.

Xanax President

President Obama’s stylistic strategy during Wednesday night’s debate seemed to be to try to stay right above the rancor, to appear dignified, presidential. The problem with that approach is that the line between dignified and presidential and anodyne and weak is the width of a cat’s hair.

--Charles Blow's assessment in nytimes. The message: ability to be rancorous=sign of confidence.

Frank Bruni's take on Obama's "ambien" performance last night:

He toggled between light and heavy, scathing and upbeat, and demonstrated improved (though not great) control of that annoyed, tight, fake smile that plays so disastrously into his cartoon image as “a wealthy plutocrat married to a known equestrian,” in the inimitable words of Haley Barbour.

Haven't and won't delve into the Republican posts as the vitriol would be too much to bear. Extreme avoidance of the George Wills and the Charles (Sour)Krauthammers.

Mitt Romney: study in insentience

The way in which Mitt Romney has been described in the popular (and liberal, if you will) press thus far, reminds me of the character of the bride that rises from the dead in Tim Burton's stop-motion-animated-fantasy musical film, the Corpse Bride.

Except that the corpse bride was more animated than Romney is. 

Frank Bruni, among others, observes that he lacks a "palpable soul" and an "audible heartbeat."