"¿Quién es más macho, George Bush o John Kerry?"

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Here's a thing from today's LA Times, on the use of masculinity in presidential campaigns:

If it's not Kerry tossing a football across an airport tarmac, it's President Bush stomping around his Texas ranch in denim and cowboy boots. Bush waves the starter's flag at NASCAR's Daytona 500. Kerry blasts away at pheasant with a double-barreled shotgun.

In a campaign that has seen candidate Howard Dean infamously appeal to "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," many political scientists, historians and gender experts say that a good portion of the presidential image-making in 2004 will center on masculinity.

Driving the paternal imperative, they say, is the anxiety many Americans feel because of the war in Iraq and the threat of terrorist attacks at home.

"When you have a war going on, usually the macho factor will prevail," said Joan Hoff, a Montana State University history professor and former president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. "Bush feels it's to his advantage to keep foreign policy as a major issue. But when that comes up, I think you are going to see a lot of 'Who is tougher than whom....' "

American culture is fucked up, yo.

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you noticed that this is what Survivor All Stars has amounted to, too. It's all about wannabe Alpha Males trying to outcock each other. It's sorta lame.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

of course, narrow definitions of masculinity piss me off, too. The dude gets shit for knowing multiple languanges(french & italian, i think), and for apparently being literate.

"YOU SEE? YOU SEE? Stupid! STUPID!"

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.jpg

Bush seems more snivelling than macho. Kerry should just have a convenient Nam flashback mid-speech and he'd get the vote for sure.

― andy, Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I say, instead wasting all that time and money on a vote, why don't we just send out a bunch of high school students to measure the nation's cacks and who ever has the biggest gets to be prez?

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

who ever has the biggest gets to be prez?

oh christ, you could SO make some really horrible jokes from this set-up line....

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, it's shit like this that pisses me off:

"It's a particularly American definition of masculinity that, somehow, if you are intellectual and have a lot of book learning and talk in ways that make that clear, then you are feminized," said Messner, who researches gender stereotypes. "You are seen as someone who could waffle when it comes time to make a big decision. All of that is code for not being masculine enough."

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I call Bush for the knockout on the 7th round.

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

First one to be accused of being a rapist wins.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Cocaine binge single-elimination competition.

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

40 quatloos on the newcomer.

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

If I recall correctly, when Dubya learned about the 9/11 attacks he flew to North Dakota and hid out for a while before proceeding to DC. At the time it happened the nation was not in a mood to take notice of this behavior. But it doesn't exactly lend much color to Dubya's carefully constructed macho image.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

(Nebraska, actually)

dude, Bush was a cheerleader

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

When matters of Natl. Security like this occur, they ship them out of high profile areas...SUCH AS THE NATION'S CAPITAL.

It wasnt a move of personnal preference, I assure you.

Dig somewhere else, please.

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)

neat that Kerry played hockey for Yale.

Not as cool as a CCHA team, of course, but pretty good.

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:35 (twenty-two years ago)

they ship them out of high profile areas

Um. Not to put too fine a point on it, but, I believe they don't give the orders to the Commander-in-Chief. It's more in the nature of advice he can choose to disregard or not.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 19 March 2004 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

dude, Bush was a cheerleader

as was trent lott -- and one of his nicknames is "mississippi queen" (to leslie west's chagrin, no doubt).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

everything is bigger in texas according to that hillary duff video, right?

― Menelaus Darcy (Menelaus Darcy), Friday, 19 March 2004 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

odd bit from the NYTimes today.

Drudge the Fuckhead felt the need to put the line Kerry 'used an expletive to describe the Secret Service agent who 'knocked me over'' above the associated pic to an article on John Kerry snowboarding.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040318/capt.efa10203182031.topix_democrats_kerry_efa102.jpg

"AW YEAH, this is DJ Rahzel, and that's a REALLY COOL TRICK!"
{fade back to a shitty remix of Run-DMC's "Tricky")

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Friday, 19 March 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The "expletive" in question? "Son of a bitch."

A Sun Valley tourist from Oklahoma, when asked if he would vote for Kerry, per today's Note: "After seeing him ski? Yeah."

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 19 March 2004 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Um. Not to put too fine a point on it, but, I believe they don't give the orders to the Commander-in-Chief. It's more in the nature of advice he can choose to disregard or not.

C'mon, man. Shit blowing up at the Pentagon for unknown reasons, trade center burning...why the fuck would ANYONE want to go there? He is the CINC, and needs to be able to conduct business as such. If our nation's capital is under seige (as they thought it might have been at the time), of course he'd relocate elsewhere. Its true that he has say in the matter, but Im sure its a little overwhelming to have a bunch of suits with mics coming out of their wrists with guns telling you that your home is under attack.

His movement to whatever midwest state was not one of cowardice, is all Im saying. But if you think so, and you think its a good enough excuse to back your Bush disdain, then vote for the other guy.

But I think thats silly.

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Friday, 19 March 2004 17:43 (twenty-two years ago)

He sure was a sissy by flying to the middle east to cut turkey for some soldiers on Thanksgiving though.

/sarcasm

― Spinktor au de toilette (El Spinktor), Friday, 19 March 2004 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

you forgot to close your gullibility tag, dude.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 19 March 2004 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

His movement to whatever midwest state was not one of cowardice, is all Im saying.

Yes! I think we've found Bush's slogan here: "I am not a coward."

It is just going to be hard for Rove to paint the holder of a bronze star, a silver star, and mulitple purple hearts as a wimp (at least not without alienating a lot of military and ex-military voters).

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 19 March 2004 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

he won't paint him as a wimp -- he'll go for the flip/flop thing.

thus the whole "kerry voted to cut spending" deal, during the year that even then-SecDefense Cheney wanted the cuts.

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Friday, 19 March 2004 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you heard Bush's fake-ass drawl lately? It's like he's trying out for a remake of Deliverance. And he is too a coward.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 19 March 2004 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

You liberal fucking whores really piss me off.

You fucks on unemployment can eat a dick as well.

― Dissapointed Lurker., Friday, 19 March 2004 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

yes! more whore-fucking!

"The sentencing shall commence shortly. But first, THE WHORES!"

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Friday, 19 March 2004 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Shit blowing up at the Pentagon for unknown reasons, trade center burning...why the fuck would ANYONE want to go there?

Gee, all those dumb fuck fire fighters and police sure had their heads screwed on backwards, I guess.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 19 March 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

He sure was a sissy by flying to the middle east to cut turkey for some soldiers on Thanksgiving though.

in complete secret, with troops pre-selected as politically friendly.

Hillary Clinton didn't have to go undercover when she went to Iraq or Afghanistan.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 19 March 2004 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

how would Kerry or Bush fit on the Machismograph 2000, i wonder?

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Friday, 19 March 2004 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Ms. Heinz Kerry, for her part, stuck to a pair of skis and was taking her time down the slope, accompanied by two old friends, one a former Olympian, the other a ski school instructor.

"I'm going tentatively, but prettily," she said, wearing tight black pants and a flaming red jacket.

Teresa is cool..

― daria g (daria g), Friday, 19 March 2004 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

For a moment, I'd thought Dee had gone back to an old screen name. And also acquired a serious potty mouth.

― O.Leee.B. (Leee), Friday, 19 March 2004 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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