By Arthur Solomon
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." -- Abraham Lincoln
Actually, Honest Abe paraphrased the saying from the Bible, but it's evident that this precept wasn't followed by the below foot-and-mouth disease sufferers.
When all the votes (hopefully) are tallied on Tuesday, Nov. 6, and if President Obama is reelected, it wouldn't be because people thought he was a great president; it wouldn't be because of a slightly improved economic picture; it wouldn't be because he had an incomparable foreign policy; it wouldn't be because he is a great speaker.
Most likely the reason that Obama was reelected was because of an outbreak of a disease last seen in the U.S. in 1929, during Herbert Hoover's reign. And it had nothing to do with the depression. It was foot-and-mouth disease.
Foot-and-mouth disease has reappeared this election cycle, except this version has afflicted humans, mostly limited to those members of the Republican Party.
True, Rush Limbaugh's cruel attack on Sandra Fluke's position regarding contraception, and asking her to provide film of her having sex, had the undesired effect of placing the GOP candidates in a no-win situation: condemn Limbaugh's remarks and receive laudatory statesmen-like media coverage, but upset Limbaugh's vast followers and, maybe, lose votes in upcoming primaries, or issue pathetically weak statements and hope it goes away. The GOP candidates chose appeasement.
The highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, which causes blister-like lesions on the tongues of animals, is not transmitted to humans, but it is to pigs. Maybe that explains Limabugh's comments. Limbaugh's over-the line assault on Ms. Fluke, followed by the usual suspect's defense of his insult, might have been the worst case of foot-and-mouth disease, but it certainly wasn't the initial outbreak during this odious political season.
Here are a few examples that caused PR foot-and-mouth crises in the not too distant past:
• If only Rick Santorum wouldn't have said that “men and women” signed the Declaration of Independence, people wouldn't have asked if he had the same history professor as Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann.
• If only Newt Gingrich's one word description of himself wasn't “cheerful,” cynics might not have said he was describing how he felt when his divorces became final.
• If only Herman Cain didn't lecture the media about the differences between the words “settlement” and “agreement,” he might have been more believable when he issued other denials regarding accusations against him.
• If only Mitt Romney hadn't said that he's the only GOP candidate for president that isn't a career politician, Newt Gingrich wouldn't have said, “Let's be candid, the only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994.”
• If only Sarah Palin wouldn't have said, “You know, it's not too late for folks to jump in,” so many people might not have said, “What has John McCain wrought?”
• If only Santorum wouldn't have said, "Satan has set his sights on the United States of America,” people might not have said that he might have had too much sacramental wine.
• If only Romney wouldn't have offered to bet Rick Perry $10,000 on a nationally televised GOP presidential debate, both his Republican rivals and Democrats wouldn't have had a tailor made opportunity to charge Mitt with being out of touch with less fortunate folk.
• If only Perry wouldn't have said that he hopes to be the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucus, people wouldn't say that he had more fumbles during the debates than Tebow had during the entire football season.
• If only GOP Rep. Allen West wouldn't have said, "If Joseph Goebbels was around, he'd be very proud of the Democrat Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine," he wouldn't have had to say that reporters twisted his words.
• If only GOP Rep. West wouldn't have said, “I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party,” some national news outlets wouldn't pay any attention to him at all.
• If only Ann Romney wouldn't have said on Fox News that people don't understand how Mitt feels about women, wits wouldn't have said, “Give me that old time Mormon religion.”
• If only Christine O'Donnell wouldn't have said that she backed Mitt Romney because he's been consistent since he changed his mind, many on the political scene wouldn't have felt that she inadvertently reminded voters of his flip-flops. If Only Rick Santorum would not have called Obama a snob for hoping that every youngster gets a college education, cynics might not have said that Santorum is the example that proves that not everyone gets educated at college.
• If only Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's senior campaign adviser, didn't say that Romney's primary babbling was like Etch A Sketch, “…You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again” for the election campaign, people wouldn't have suggested that a better game analogy for Romney would be TV's To Tell The Truth.
• If only Rep. Mike Pence hadn't compared the Supreme Court's upholding the health care legislation to the 9/11 terrorist's attacks, people wouldn't have wondered if he went to the same school as Rush, Sarah, Michelle and the other right wing cashews.
• If only Romney would not have said, "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate," the Friday before the GOP convention, his economic message would have received major media coverage the weekend before the start of the gathering. Instead GOP spokesmen first denied Romney made the remark and then said it was a joke.
• If only Romney would not have said almost half of Americans feels that they are victims and want government handouts, others may not have said that the Romney half feels victimized by paying taxes. And who can forget what has been described as Ann Romney's Marie Antoinette moment when she said, referring to the controversy over her husband's refusal to release more tax returns, “We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life.” If only Paul Ryan wouldn't have responded to a woman who said she can't get off welfare despite making $350 every two weeks, “Teach a man to fish. He can feed himself for life,” people wouldn't have said teach Paul Ryan to be a more empathetic to people in need.
A lack of words caused Romney to miss an easy score by playing it close to his money belt when saying he doesn't remember a high school incident about bullying that took place 47 years ago.
Instead of just saying that if anyone was offended, he wants to apologize, by adding that bullying is wrong, he could have sounded like a statesman on an in-the-news non-controversial issue. But the grand daddy “foot-and-mouth” comment is GOP's Rep. Todd Aiken's “legitimate rape” statement, which even had leaders of his own party calling for him to drop out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race.
Individual foot-and-mouth disease statements are rarely enough to tilt an election. Aggregate statements, however, can be the deciding factor. Republicans claim that the Democrats are waging a phony “war on women.” That's politics. But of all the GOP primary candidates only Ron Paul said 11 years of war is enough.
Maybe the reason for women's antipathy toward the GOP is because they listened and decided the Republicans war is on their children.
Of course the Democrats weren't immune from foot and mouth disease. President Obama's statements regarding the Supreme Court and strategist Hilary Rosen's comment about Ann Romney never having worked were comments with negative shelve life.
Obama saying, "Hopefully, we'll just be checking off the list just like when Michelle gives me a list, I check it off," when referring to what he wants Congress to accomplish, also was a “Huh?” utterance.
The president also stuck his foot in his mouth at a June 8 press conference by saying that private sector hiring was fine. He later had to clarify his comment.
The conventional political wisdom was that the Republicans are a disciplined party that can control its messages and that the Democrats are all over the place. But this election season shows that this is a new GOP in many ways, especially when they open their mouths.
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Arthur Solomon was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, handling national and international sports and non-sports programs, including the Olympic and Asian Games organizing committees and sponsors. He can be reached at [email protected] |