06.24.2015 08:54 AM

Excuses, excuses

In the morning papers, columnists regularly canvass the latest political excuse-makings here and here. Happens a lot, when you think of it.

Here’s the three that bug me the most:

Ipso facto, when your campaign and/or candidate is reduced to whinging and mewling about “being quoted of context,” you will immediately know that you are toast. When you hear your colleagues saying stuff like: “If only people got to meet [candidate] in person, they’d see what a nice guy he is!”…you are going down in flames. And, of course, the worst one of all is building a campaign strategy that depends entirely on the other side blowing themselves up. For what, and when, and how, we know not. Just: “You’ll see! He’s going to self-destruct! Just wait!”

Question: which national political party is most often heard making these excuses, lately?

19 Comments

  1. Lance says:

    There is no way that someone as experienced as Harper is going to do something so detrimental to his campaign from now until election day where everything will implode. That is just not going to happen. He’ll have bumps in the road as ANY campaign does, but none of them will likely derail it to the point where the Liberals can capitalize on it in any meaningful way. If they and their leader cannot do it with the plethora of issues that are already there, then they never will. They can pull this back from the precipice of course, but the summer has already started, and if they didn’t have a plan to do something about it, then it is already too late.

    I like your analogy of being “toast”, however, I prefer the one about the boiling frog. The one similarity is that they don’t realize they are both toast and a boiled frog.

    • doconnor says:

      For the past four years the press has let Harper get away with not answering questions. During the intensity of an election campaign it will be much harder to do. Harper could melt down under these conditions.

      • Lance says:

        How many campaigns has Harper participated in?

        A meltdown? It hasn’t yet, Notgoing to happen now. People that are hoping for it, praying for it, even needing it to happen are going to end up severely disappointed.

      • Matt says:

        Were you paying attention during the 2011 campaign?

        Harper answered MAYBE 5 questions from the media PER DAY.

        Didn’t hurt him.

  2. Priyesh says:

    QUOTE:

    Looking back, some Liberals blame the people around Trudeau, who told the caucus that the party had to support C-51.

    At the time, Trudeau’s team looked great. They had made a series of smart moves, acting decisively, for instance, to expel Liberal senators from the caucus. Liberal MPs had faith in “the centre,” and the centre said the party needed to support C-51.

    “The view from the centre was that this is about terrorism,” said one Liberal MP, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Post-Oct. 22, Canadians’ mindsets are dramatically changed, so we’re going to be where Canadians are. Turns out that’s not where Canadians are.”

    ENDQUOTE.

    My comment: fire some fucking strategists already.

    • MississaugaPeter says:

      Trudeau’s team looked great. They had made a series of smart moves, acting decisively, for instance, to expel Liberal senators from the caucus.

      Super bonehead move to alienate older Liberals. Nothing wiser than telling older folks that they really do not matter because we are great and can do it without you (by using social media).

      • Warren says:

        And you know the weird thing, which I said to Lisa the other day? I don’t feel like I – or any of my similarly-exiled Grit pals – are old!

        Like to see Team Trudeau keep up with me at the Buzzcocks last Friday night, or Bad Religion the next night: ha! They’re the old ones, not you and me!

  3. doconnor says:

    The Obama “You didn’t build that” really was taken out of context.

  4. Tired of it All says:

    Warren, if you keep this up, your invite to the Xmas bash will get lost in the mail…

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Tired of it All,

      The best of strategists form their opinions and stick with them unless the facts dictate otherwise. That is precisely a strategist’s job — not butt kissing and yes-maning. I disagree with Warren sometimes but in my book, he remains by far, the best of the best. Team Trudeau’s loss is of their own doing. Incredibly stupid, that.

  5. Bob Hall says:

    It’s a Republican/Conservative tactic to intentionaly take things they have no argument against out of context.

    • Lance says:

      “Ipso facto, when your campaign and/or candidate is reduced to whinging and mewling about “being quoted of context,” you will immediately know that you are toast.
      ————-

      For the people that DIDN’T catch the headline.

  6. Tired Denier says:

    New political excrement: Harperpac.ca

    • RogerX says:

      It was created to combat the Big Union Boss’ Engage.ca propaganda PAC messaging. Let them fight it out in the public arena.

  7. Matt says:

    Anyone else hear Trudeau call our planes CF-15’s this morning on CBC radio?

    • RogerX says:

      Yup…. and it starting to sound like thespian Justin is flubbing his scripted lines because the intensive coaching has failed to fully educate him. It’s going to get worse if Justin’s heart isn’t fully into the task and he feels he’s lost the love from his audience and the media mavens. Maybe he should join Peter MacKay and stay home to micro-manage the kids and handle family affairs.

  8. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    I have to take issue with you that the NDP are crypto-separatists. If you go by that logic and paint with an overly broad brush, that necessarily will mean that all political parties in Quebec along with the Quebec people are separatist, including yours truly.

    Secondly, the Clarity Act is incomplete because it does not define the margin of victory as the SCC expected in its 1998 decision. The Court spoke of a clear majority on a clear question but the Chrétien government chose not to define what a clear majority would be in the Act adopted in 2000.

    Note that the Scot referendum offered a clear question with a simple majority and that was acceptable to the UKParliament and Cameron government.

  9. Justin says:

    If the Grits truly want Harper gone, they will be light on their attacks on Mulcair. A vote for Trudeau is a vote for Harper, as they used to say about Jack Layton’s NDP.

  10. Joe says:

    Well I heard Justin being taken out of context this morning He said he would pull Canada’s CF 15s out of Kuwait which everyone assumed means he wants to stop bombing ISIS. That is wrong. He would pull the CF 15s and leave the CF 18s. Very shrewd move in his part n’est-ce’ pas?

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