mark mckinnon is an excellent political operator and commentator. this here is utter bullshit, though. that quote from george w: no human being talks like that in real life, thank god. ok go ahead and pretend that george w is a stateman, but you don't have to make him an animatronic lincoln who walks among us. whistling 'go tell it on the mountain'? dude whatever. possibly mckinnon has seen and written so many campaign advertisements that he has the scripts confused with actual human conversation.
Convention speeches are powerful tools to bend the curve of public opinion. George H. W. Bush’s 1988 convention speech is a great example. His son’s speech was also quite powerful. I remember driving with George W. from his hotel to the convention to deliver his speech. I was being quiet, trying to give him some space to get in the zone. Suddenly, I heard what I thought was the radio, and someone whistling the song, “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” Then I realized it was Governor Bush. Amazed, I asked, “Governor, you’re about to give the biggest speech of your life and you seem more relaxed than I’ve seen you in months.”
And he said, “I feel so confident about the speech revealing who I really am and what I believe in, that I will happily live with the verdict of the voters either way because they will know who I am, what I stand for and who they are voting for.”
the other day i was huffing a doobie out behind the shed with my buddy carl. carl was humming 'holiday in cambodia.' and i said, "Carl, I so love this great land, and such is my confidence in the American people that I know there is no challenge too great for us to overcome." despite the look of extreme weariness on his face, carl whipped out his ASP 21" Friction Loc DuraTec Airweight Baton - F21DA and beat me down like the bitch i am. i am today an ugly, brain-damaged person. but i am a person.
