blogsNH - Hodes's folly - Comments

Robo calls

CNHT — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:38:41 -0500

You forgot to mention the automated calls that started with "I have information about Charlie Bass" and then went on to trash Bass.

Why was this not news?

It was good enough for FDR

Michael Herrmann — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:18:10 -0400

On the aquatic theme, how can we forget a similar moment of levity from FDR during the 1940 campaign, regarding Hamilton Fish and other Republican leaders--at a time when the US faced a greater threat than it faces today, one might argue. FDR's singsong repetition of "Martin, Barton, and Fish," to the tune of "Wynkyn, Blynkyn, and Nod", had the crowd in stitches every time. I think in that light Hodes can be forgiven for "catch and release," or whatever his joke of the day is.

Mike, would you have upbraided FDR in the same manner? Nursery rhymes, my goodness, when we face the Nazi threat!

Hodes's folly

Roger Godwin — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:07:59 -0400

The Hodes campaign's Bass/bass postcard has been the only semi-lighthearted note to break the otherwise uninterrupted nastiness and superficiality to which politics seems to have sunk, and deserves appreciation for that alone. Desperately concerned handwringing may have its place, but Momma Mike and the Monitor in general should lighten up.

Roger Godwin

PS: My eldest son, a professional marine biologist and amateur left-liberal Democrat, continues the metaphor thusly: "Although not larged-brained, this bass species is nevertheless a capable and voracious predator. This bass is attracted to worms and various bottom feeding insect types, but its diet also includes a sizeable amount of pork. Unless fished aggressively, it can be a remarkably long-lived and opportunistic species that quickly adapts its behaviors to degraded habitats. ...."

seriousness

Michael Herrmann — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:48:39 -0400

I don't think one needs to go to the Hodes campaign to find a lack of seriousness regarding deadly, critical issues. Here's Sen. Rick Santorum in today's Herald Standard:

"Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the "Eye of Mordor" has instead been drawn to Iraq.

"Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic, "Lord of the Rings," to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.

"It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.," he continued. "You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."

If a sitting senator can get away with comparing a deadly war to a fantasy novel, I think a prospective congressman can be forgiven for poking fun at the name of an opponent who backs that deadly war uncritically.

Unless you'd like to continue the proud Democratic tradition of the circular firing squad!

Be seeing you, Mike. --MH

On Bass, Hodes and gravitas

Dean Barker — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:40:32 -0400

I haven't seen the fish piece, but I have seen two direct mail pieces that are deadly serious on the war in Iraq from the Hodes campaign.

Regarding seriousness, I only wish Bass were joking when he told the "Sandernistas" to go back to taxi-driving in the Bronx the other day. As a transplanted flatlander, in my eight wonderful years in the Granite State I have not once felt unwelcome, until those snide remarks.

And if Bass really wants to be serious, he ought not to insult our intelligence with a TV ad that counts on voters' ignorance of Kurdistan location in Iraq. To me, that kind of lack of seriousness about troops fighting and dying overseas from a sitting Congressman is clueless at best, malicious at worst.

Where are the issues? Goals anyone?

Sarah Colombo — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:42:46 -0400

I agree with your assessment of this political "message". In general, I am underwhelmed by political advertisements when they don't outright anger or insult me.

Why is it that candidates insist on continuing to find ways, more or less obvious, to trash eachother while neglecting to actually come out and take clear issue-related stands coupled with goals that are attainable within the power of the position they seek? They all, nearly all, in the end seem weak and a bit foolish, saying hey vote for me 'cause the other one is "bad" for you. How do you think we'd do in a job interview with this attitude?

Not being a Bass fan, I am disappointed in the Hodes campaign.

Hodes's folly

Mike Pride — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:32:37 -0400

In my mail yesterday was an oversize postcard with a picture of a fish on one side. You probably got one, too.

The fish was a bass, and in case I didn’t know that, a headline above the picture read “Followis Bushis Bassius.” The text below explained that although the fish was native to New Hampshire, it had lost its way in the “brackish waters of Washington, D.C.”