From: sunder@altair.crhc.uiuc.edu (Srinivas Sunder)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Today, and then the future
Date: 21 Jul 1992 17:29:43 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: altair.crhc.uiuc.edu

In article <l6ohr7INN2mu@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu>, sunder@altair.crhc.uiuc.edu (Srinivas Sunder) writes:
|> In article <4763@sumax.seattleu.edu>, harrity@sumax.seattleu.edu (Daniel Harrity) writes:
|> |> In article <21JUL92.00294569@skyfox.usask.ca> misra@skyfox.usask.ca writes;
|> 
|> |> 
|> |> >I wouldn't want to be accused of being cynical, but if the truth be known,
|> |> >the above quoted "sermon on the mount" most likely came from Governor Clinton's
|> |> >speech writers. I seem to remember something about a "kinder gentler America" 
|> |> >and "a thousand points of light" from the last presidential election. It's all
|> |> >very well saying nice things. The real trick is to figure out HOW to make it 
|> |> >work.
|> |> >
|> |> >Pearse
|> |> 
|> |> I'm inclined to agree with Pearse. I can't say I particularly *don't* like
|> |> Candidate Clinton. But you must agree that, really, it's not that terribly
|> |> difficult to be a "feel-good" candidate, and such is what I think Mr.
|> |> Clinton is trying to do. (I mean, geeze, how *could* you be against those
|> |> one-liners above?)
|> |> 
|> |> Coming from a politician, one of the most prevalent assumptions, I'd
|> |> guess, is that the above-mentioned quotes are nothing more than
|> |> sugar-coated platitudes designed to make this guy appeal to the greatest
|> |> amount of people (voters) possible. At least, that's what came to mind for
|> 
|> Clinton took a staggeringly long 54 minutes to accept. While there were some
|> inspirational patches in it, it seemed like (as Bill Safire described
|> it) it had been written by a committee that needed to touch every base, say
|> something for every constituency, make sure that every single interest group
|> found reason to cheer, etc. No wonder it took that long...
|> 
|> |> 
|> |> And yes, he probably has no choice but to pull this kind of stunt, since
|> |> they all do it. It's the unfortunate condition of the political process
|> |> that's faulty here, which has rather degenerated into a marketing game :(
|> |> 
|> 
|> The last time somebody tried to say what he thought was the truth at a 
|> convention (Mondale in 1984 saying that he would raise taxes after the 
|> election), he got a 1%-age point popularity bump after the election, and
							      ^^^^^^^^^
Oops! I meant "convention", not "election."

|> lost 49 states in the Fall. Most candidates get between a 10 and 20%
|> bump after the convention. It doesn't pay to be dry and truthful. You
|> gotta have the Vision thing (whatever the hell that is). 'Course, Mondale
|> as a speaker has about as much energy as a dead fish.
|> 
|> -- 
|> Srinivas Sunder                                         sunder@crhc.uiuc.edu
|> 
|> If my employer shares these opinions, he deserves them.
|> ********************************************************************************

-- 
Srinivas Sunder                                         sunder@crhc.uiuc.edu

If my employer shares these opinions, he deserves them.
********************************************************************************