FeedPolitics: McConoughey wins the day v. ‘Aaron Strangelove’
November 9, 2007 in Statehouse & Capitol Tags: Aaron Schock, Bernie Schoenburg, Dick Versace, Jim McConoughey, John Morris, Journal Star
This was not a good day for Aaron Schock.
The former president of the Peoria School Board played principal-for-the-day at Roosevelt Magnet School. It was pure photo-op. If Schock doesn’t know everything he needs to know about education by now, he never will.
But instead of warm-and-fuzzy stories about with pictures of smiling children, the media and the Blogosphere spent all day buzzing about how Schock wants sell nuclear weapons to Taiwan and personally arm insurgents in Iran. It’s a buzz that could have happened last week, had the Journal Star’s reporter at the scene of Schock’s campaign announcement bothered to report that he said it, and instead it led with a bunch of fuzzy-wuzzy stenographic drivel.
Eventually, a seasoned political reporter from Springfield named Bernie Schoenburg got a hold of the transcript and simply quoted from it (apparently, Schoenburg isn’t afraid Schock will call his bosses and demand he be fired) The article hit the streets Thursday morning, sending opponent Jim McConoughey into high gear. By 12:10 I had received an email announcing the 1 p.m. press conference. By 3:02 p.m. Schock’s campaign had sent me his response to McConoughey’s statements. It wasn’t until 4:43 p.m. until I received a statement from John Morris. I never did get a statement from Versace, but I had to read about it on another site later that evening.
Both fuzzy-wuzzy Schock pieces were written by PJS reporter Karen McDonald. She also attended the McConoughey press conference, where her single question was to ask McConoughey, essentially, “Oh yeah? Well what’s YOUR position?” The answer, to paraphrase: “Keep following the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, just like Ronald Reagan did.” There was no follow up.
I’ve already linked to Rich Miller’s coverage. Archpundit is really letting Schock have it with both barrels. He’s calling him “Aaron Strangelove.” He was clearly picking up on what McConoughey said: “”This isn’t a Ronald Reagan idea. It’s a Dr. Strangelove idea.”
It was, however, a good day for Jim McConoughey. Because his campaign acted swiftly in response to the Bernie Schoenburg piece, they managed to get McConoughey’s smiling face on camera in two different media markets. And and each event, he peppered his statements with words like “naive” and “inexperienced,” emphasizing his opponents youth and his own silver-haired maturity.
The Morris campaign — by not being ready to act more swiftly — missed out on the bulk of the news cycle. And the Versace campaign — looking more and more like a millionaire’s vanity campaign — managed to issue just one original paragraph, and that was more of a swipe against the White House than against any of the three men he will face in 2008.
McConoughey won the day, Schock lost while Morris and Versace didn’t get into the game until the closing minutes, after the game was pretty much decided.
November 9th, 2007 at 3:32 am
“Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”
November 9th, 2007 at 6:42 am
It’s shocking that “The Kid” didn’t have enough good sense to claim his statement wasn’t a serious proposal , but, instead, a hypothetical musing meant to stimulate a debate about Iran. By defending his original statement he has impaled himself as a nuclear nut case. He should stop playing fantasy video games and spend some time growing up.
November 9th, 2007 at 7:55 am
Perhaps there is some logic to “The Kid’s” madness… Schock must be going after the “Barry Goldwater” vote in the Republican primary. Goldwater, the original “Dr. Strangelove,” proposed using tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam during the 1964 Presidential election. Johnson responded with the famous “Daisy Flower” TV commercial and Goldwater’s campaign hopes were evaporated.
November 9th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Jim McCono-whatever won the day? Oh yeah… it was truly brilliant for him to state that he was alive when the Cuban Missile Crisis was going down (1962), so that helps prove that he is much more mature than Aaron baby.
Did the Cuban Missile Crisis make Jim poop in his diaper a bit more? Cause he was one year old… he must have REALLY been a political prodigy, huh?
For your consideration… for the Republican nomination in the 18th District… the Three Stooges. Now, where does that leave Versace? You all remember Shemp, don’t you?
November 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Versace doesn’t have to comment, he isn’t in a race yet against a named opponet. When the ball is thrown up after the primaries, you will hear plenty form Versace, and it won’t be the typical politicians verbage. this is a common sense person who will hit the average voter, Republican or Democrat, with respect. Watch out for this guy!
November 9th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Roman, whatever you’re smokin’ and drinkin’, I’d like to order a few dozen of each… I’m going to need it by the time next November rolls around.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:46 am
This presents a more interesting policy question than folks are considering. I’d like to hear where these three stand on another “illegitimate” nuclear power (at least allegedly), Israel. Lets see, small technologically advanced country, imperiled by its neighbor(s), perhaps whose only self-defense is the deterent of a nuclear threat. Would McC, Morris or Vercase encourage the disarmament (if they have them) of Israel? As crazy as Iran is, they have a good point in pursuing nuclear weapons. Why do we get to say who can and can’t have the bomb? Answer: because we have them and the power to keep others from getting them. The real reason not to give nukes to Taiwan is that we are afraid of China, either because of their military might, or our economic dependence (Wal-Mart would collapse), or more directly their ability to impact our economy by selling off so much of our massive federal debt. We put nukes in Europe to escalate the cold war against the Soviet Union (now Russia). China may be a more formidable foe than the USSR ever was…. Sorry if my post requires more thought than pop culture references.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:08 am
bmcgill…that is a good question, but not necessarily as related to the topic of arming Taiwan as you present. Disarming a country is a completely different discussion than arming one. The practicalities of disarming a country which already has nuke capability are drastically different from those involved when a new country wants to have or develop the power.
As a side note, I’m not sure it matters. Looking past pop culture references to real international history, Israel has never needed to use a nuke to hand the rest of the region their asses on a plate. At this point, Israel likely needs to maintain the threat simply as a means to protect itself from a nuclear-capable Iran in the future.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:45 am
wonderboy,
I agree that putting the genie back in the bottle is a much different proposition and that Israel has had the ability to defend itself using non-nuclear means in the past. The primary reason for that, however, was the overwhelming technological superiority of the Israeli forces. A review of the military forces of its Arab neighbors and the recent skirmish in southern Lebanon indicates that the gap has narrowed significantly. Even without a nuclear Iran, a modern day “7-day war” would likely turn out very differently, or at least much more protractedly. I appreciate your point and am concerned about the effect that a nuclear Iran would have not just on proliferation in Israel, but from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab (as opposed to simply Islamic) neighbors in the region. I guess my ultimate point was that smallish democratic allies having nuclear weapons to defend themselves is not necessarily a crackpot idea.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
But it is a crackpot idea in the case of Taiwan, because it would be a reckless provocation of China. Don’t forget, Schock has already backed away from his statement. He completely reversed himself in his latest press release, although it was buried among criticisms of his opponents.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Valid point, bmcgill. I’m not sure I totally agree with you, but at least it is a considered position. I’m quite certain that your position is far more well considered than Schock’s. And that, quite frankly, terrifies me when I consider the possibility of him in Congress.
November 9th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Just did some checking because I was wondering about the Pershing’s capabilities…apparently the thing isn’t even used any longer. So we we have to build new Pershing systems in order to then sell then to Taiwan? Can someone else let me know if they have more info about the Pershing…