Conway Becomes First Woman to Run GOP Presidential Campaign; Nets YawnIt's just like the networks not to acknowledge this feminist milestone, merely because it involves Republicans! Typical liberal media!
Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday became the first female to ever run a Republican general election presidential campaign. But the networks did not excitedly tout this as progress, instead they glossed over this point. On ABC’s Good Morning America, reporter Tom Llamas blandly explained, “Overnight, Donald Trump shaking up his campaign promoting pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.”
On NBC’s Today, Savannah Guthrie began, “with less than three months until election day, Donald Trump's campaign undergoing a major staff shake-up this morning.” Hallie Jackson then echoed, “Kellyanne Conway, who’s already been a senior adviser, will now become campaign manager.”
Over on CBS This Morning, fellow pollster Frank Luntz had some nice words for Conway, but didn’t notice her nature as the first female Republican to helm such a campaign....
Except, um, it's not exactly a milestone. First of all, it's not clear whether Conway is actually running the Trump campaign. Yes, she's Trump's new campaign manager -- but Steve Bannon is the new campaign CEO, while Paul Manafort is still the campaign chairman. Isn't Bannon actually in charge?
And even if we're going to credit Conway with being the first female campaign manager for a Republican general election candidate, that's nothing to boast about -- Democrats achieved that milestone 28 years ago, in 1988, when Mike Dukakis's campaign was run by Susan Estrich (yes, the lawyer who's now defending Roger Ailes in a sexual harassment suit). Estrich was the first of three women who've run general election campaigns for the Democrats: Donna Brazile ran Al Gore's campaign in 2000 and Mary Beth Cahill ran John Kerry's campaign in 2004.
So NewsBusters -- seconded by both FoxNews.com and Fox Nation -- is attacking the mainstream media for overlooking a feminist milestone the GOP reached more than a generation after the Democrats reached it. Damn liberals!
I think Newsbuster's point is that this is a sign of Republicans widening the tent. The response should be that Conway won this honor through years of honoring misogyny.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of as if The Titanic was owned by the GOP, and after the ship hit an iceberg, they grab some nasty female in charge of cleaning the rooms, and make her Captain so she can go down with the ship.
ReplyDeleteAs so often in the past, I stand with Victor on this.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Frank Zappa who wrote, 200 Motels - symbolizing the main existential takeaway from a long tour.
IMO, the latest new Trump hire are just like if the tour has experienced twists and turns with added and canceled venues and contexts sort of as portrayed in the Last Concert or This Is Spinal Tap, so the numbers keep growing like a rapid onset cancer.
My alternate metaphor is Ten Billion Bundinis.
The so-called New Definitely Female Sure Looks Like One At Least Campaign Manager has no authority. She appears more PR University Standard Issue Old School than the ridiculous Katrina P. But her delivery style alone is the tell: talking in a machine quality rapid fire monotone that eats up the time allocated to the typical TV and Cable news format that IS the MSM. She seems the in context equivalent of a standard #4-5 Starting Pitcher on a MLB team, whose main role is to eat innings and otherwise absorb opposition energy like a sponge takes water, leaving the hopefully WINNING! strategy to play out elsewhere.
Same with Bannon coming in as Campaign CEO: total nonsense. The parallel would in 1922 Connie Mack announces hiring a new field manager, GM and CEO of baseball ops, tho he Mack as owner would continue to sit in the dugout overseeing all field decisions, would have full directory supervise over everything going on in the office of the GM, and have the CEO sit right at his side constantly asking permission except for sleep & bathroom breaks and when sent out for coffee or a backup UT IF. The only thing added would be a thin laminate of personalities for local beat writers to interview (which, given how that would relieve Mack of some serious sources of personal enervation and wasted time, might actually justify the charade).
Bannon is there to yell at the Wee Shire Folk from the Land of Trump working in the Trump Campaign, plus providing the illusion of some implied promise of maybe future work in New Media to new hires, while Trump is off on his various crusades into the Twitterland or talking at a rally or calling into some RW talk show host. Trump wants his serfs to know, first, if Bannon tells me I need to fire you, probably you will get fired - not necessarily by me, but believe me, I lose no sleep worrying about it - while manifesting a carrot about getting future employment at Breitbart or somewhere in the Pajama News Empire.
Same with Ailes. Ailes will have zero authority - he will respond to Android calls from the Donald (no one else is calling Rog these days anyway) and feed him encouragement and ideas.
Each new hire is just some variation on Bundini.
Dang, I left out maybe my most-precisely half-baked of all my partly cooked metaphors. Okay, now - this is Trump speaking to, I dunno, Stone, or Lewandowski, or Malafunk Manafort WTF Mobbed-up Guy #273394871, or even Charlie Black if he fails to watch his ass and harrumph enough:
ReplyDeleteRoy Cohn - a great friend, a great American and a great advisor, believe me - if Roy were with us today, Roy would be the only campaign manager for me. Period. Instead, Roy, sadly, is RIP. RIP, Roy my friend. So anyway, Roy being not available means I get forced to accept other people, people like you. If I had a real wartime consigliere like Roy, this whole mess would have been avoided and not even the polls would dare to lie about me.
If I had a wartime consigliere, a Sicilian, I wouldn't be in this shape. Pop had Genco, look what I got.
- Sonny Corleone in Godfather I
Today Conway told the media that they were going to let Trump "be Trump" and that he was going to start giving an uplifting, optimistic policy-oriented message that will be aimed at women.
ReplyDeleteWhat planet is she from?
What's the over/under on how long she'll last?