With the New Mexico primary election scheduled for June, candidates are redoubling their efforts to gain exposure.
Because of the interest in the Busy-Kerry battle in November, people in this area are getting involved as election fever hits.
In years of observing and participating in elections, I’ve really puzzled over the fascination in the electoral process in which a candidate will spend a million dollars in personal and donated funds to seek a job that pays $50,000. As evidenced by the crowds at the rallies for three presidential candidates who visited the Meadow City, people become fascinated by the mystique of the candidates.
Had Douglas Hall on the Highlands campus been able to accommodate 300 people instead of 150, and had there been more publicity, the throngs would have appeared to greet Dennis Kucinich when he stumped in Las Vegas earlier this year.
Had TwoDee’s doubled its seating area for the appearance of presidential candidate (and possible vice presidential pick) Gen. Wesley Clark, the multitudes would have been there.
The sparsest crowd turned out for Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Edwards. She represented her candidate-husband as she appeared at Highlands’ Kennedy Lounge.
In every case, locals greeted the visitors with wild enthusiasm, even though there were perhaps too many attempts of local office holders to cash in on part of the spotlight-coattail phenomenon.
Seasoned politicians know how to punctuate their speeches in such a way that they created gaps for applause, like having a personal laugh-track.
George Bush’s State of the Union Address is an example. Reading a speech written by another (and all presidents do this), Bush would speed up the delivery, lower the volume, pause for emphasis, and utter a profundity that was the cue for Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell to rise and deliver applause. Don’t misunderestimate him. It worked every time.
Of course, Bush admirers provided dozens of standing O’s. One who didn’t rise was Sen. Ted Kennedy. As Jay Leno said the following evening, “The president’s speech was interrupted 45 times for applause and 12 times for big words.”
It is interesting to observe the techniques high-profile politicians employ every technique of speech delivery. Kucinich, especially, is a master at employing such techniques as eye-contact, careful phrasing, pausing, emphasis, rate and pitch.
As a 7-year-old, I remember attending various political rallies in what was then Old Town. My father, though never a candidate for office, enjoyed listening to candidates campaigning on the Plaza.
In those days, the local radio station often transmitted speeches live. A newspaper reporter generally attended and the speakers were happy to provide the newspaper a transcript of their speech.
I understood little of the speeches, mostly in Spanish, but regardless of which language used, closing my eyes and guessing when each speaker would create a pause for applause became a fascination. And I was usually right. Later, in college, we experimented with persuasion techniques. As an upperclassman at Highlands, I teamed up with a young man in my class to deliver a speech to a group of unwitting freshmen. We peppered our speeches with non-sequiturs and misleading expressions. With a smile, I would label someone as “perfectly mediocre” and get some approving nods.
My partner referred to a Highlands professor as “nothing but a polyglot,” in such as way that he evoked an unfavorable reaction from some freshmen.
“Calling someone a polyglot seemed like strong language to me,” one of the freshmen later said. He reacted to our inflections, not to the meaning; otherwise, he would have realized a polyglot is simply someone versed in several languages.
Audiences often overlook the content. A politician once promised his appreciative audience that he would “seek higher and higher platitudes.” Meanwhile, on the local level, we once had a county official running for re-election and declaring that he has “run the office in an officious manner.” Officious? As in meddlesome?
A candidate for a local school board apparently got away with saying that his district compromises several schools. He meant “comprises.” After someone called the linguistic slip to his attention, he made an attempt to repair it by saying, “The district is comprised of several schools.”
But that still doesn’t cut it. Like “infer” and “imply,” “affect” and “effect,” and “condemn” and “condone,” “comprise” is too often misused. But who besides a language purist notices?
Meanwhile, a New Mexico political observer named McGinnis once created a cartoon featuring The Lone Stranger and Pronto. They were discussing the planned annual Cow-Chip Throwing Contest and whether the legislature and executive branch ought to be invited. Pronto said including politicians would be a bad idea, as the contest needed to remain an amateur event.