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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Why Bush is winning the women's vote
Say what you will about Naomi Wolf (liberal, feminist, New Age, etc...) but this is a very persuasive, thoughtful and original essay. The thesis is this: The Bush team has won the women's vote from the Democrats without them even knowing it. The Bushies used extremely clever and subtle image management to pursuade soccer moms that Bush isn't the scary zealot that the Democrats would have us believe. Wolf credits the genius of Bush advisor Karen Hughes, and suspects that Mike Deaver, the old Reagan hand, is at work:
While Bush Inc. is flooding women’s magazines with features in which Laura Bush gets out a family-friendly feminist message, Kerry et al. remain obsessed with sending white men out onto the Sunday talk shows—which women don’t watch. While Bush Inc. understands the power of the vivid visual image—dressing the entire GOP convention, for instance, in matching tangerine and turquoise, color-coordinating the Cheney grandchildren to give a visual sense of order and unity—the Democrats keep being bumped to the inside pages because they send out their candidate and his wife in neutrals. I am convinced that Michael Deaver is the invisible hand behind the calculated visuals of the Bush campaign—the signature use of deep, majestic backdrops behind the candidate, the use of jewel tones on Laura Bush and other women associated with the administration, the trick of forcing photographers to sit close to the stage so that they must shoot sharply upward, showing the candidate from a heroic angle. By contrast, the Democrats ignore them, losing women, who are simply too busy racing to get school lunches ready and kids out the door to get their impressions about the candidates from Meet the Press.
Now, it could be the Wolf is just bitter because she wasn't hired as a high-paid campaign consultant like she was in 2000 (she was advising Al Gore on women's issues) but it seems sincere, and her thesis is definitely credible.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:48 PM
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