Kenneth Roy
Why does Scotland
go on protecting
Tony Gauci?
Smoke and Mirrors
The Lockerbie paper
The Midgie
From Ae! to Yell!,
the contest for a place-name
worthy of exclamation
Quintin Jardine
The way forward for Rangers
Alex Wood
For Richard Holloway
‘maybe’ is an
important word
Peter MacAulay
In the zone
Alan Fisher
Romney follows
every victory
with a blunder
The Cafe
The Donald
Marian Pallister
Barra may have
independence
before Scotland
John Cameron
I wouldn’t start from here
15.02.12
No. 514
The Cafe
Thank you for Kenneth Roy’s letter to ‘The Donald’. (15 February
Because of the irate condition he is in already, what Kenneth Roy has written, should it come to his attention, could have an even further disturbing consequence. He could even have, dare I say it, a bad hair day.
Harry McAlister
I was sorely disappointed by Kerry Gill’s contribution (14 February)
It would be as the news is covered in every other country in the world. Perhaps Mr Gill doesn’t understand the concept.
David Hill
Unlike many publications SR doesn’t have an online comment facility – we prefer a more considered approach. The Cafe is our readers’ forum. If you would like to contribute to it, please email islay@scottishreview.net
Today’s banner
The wall
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
Romney follows
every victory
with a blunder
Alan Fisher
Political symbolism is important. It’s why US politicians are frequently pictured in front of a flag. It’s why the faces in the crowd at rallies are always mixed. It’s why Mitt Romney ditched his suit jackets of four years ago when he was campaigning for president and now bounds onto the stage in check-shirts and chinos or jeans. It’s all about making the multi-millionaire ‘more normal’, more like the people he needs to elect him president.
The other Republican candidates do it too. Ron Paul, the oldest man in the race, packs his rally with young people to reflect his appeal to a different generation. Newt Gingrich is more often than not pictured in a suit and a tie. It may be because he looks odd in casual clothes – a bit like seeing one of your teachers at the weekend – but it is more to carry the air of gravitas, to emphasis his belief that he is the smartest man in the race.
Donald Trump knows a bit about symbolism. His campaign last summer questioning whether Barack Obama could produce a birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii was replete with it. Despite the rumours having being checked out and discredited, Trump continued to reproduce wild internet conspiracies and misguided theories to question if the president of the United States was actually ‘one of us’ and eligible to take the position.
Trump – who was considering a run for the Republican nomination at the time – continued his onslaught for months, called the president’s citizenship ‘a scam’ and denied allegations that he raised the question because Obama was black. However, his support from right-wing Republicans soared during the controversy, which only ended when the actual birth certificate was published online.
It was a stunning miscalculation from a campaign that has successfully succeeded in following every win with a gaffe or mistake that causes
real damage.
And so now, facing the longest break in the nominating process, the Romney campaign is questioning the symbolism of the high-profile endorsement it secured just a few days before it lost three important contests. Nevada was a state expected to be a banker for the former Massachusetts governor. It has a large Mormon population. He has campaigned there regularly and was well-funded and well-organised. Coming off a significant victory in Florida, he could have been expected to do very well.
Then, surprisingly, he announced that he’d secured the endorsement of Donald Trump. The pair seemed such unlikely bedfellows, but voters were treated to the billionaire politically embracing the millionaire who had just hours earlier in a TV interview said ‘he didn’t care about poor people’ (because they had a safety net). Romney – the man who has fought throughout the campaign against the accusations that he made his millions by taking over companies and sacking workers – was now standing next to the businessman who is most famous in America for his starring role in ‘The Apprentice’ and the catchphrase ‘You’re fired’.
The Democrats couldn’t resist and issued an instant web-ad with the tag line ‘They both like firing people’. It underlined the argument put forward by his rivals that Romney was the chosen candidate of the moneyed Republican establishment rather than the rank-and-file party members. It was a stunning miscalculation from a campaign that has successfully succeeded in following every win with a gaffe or mistake that causes real damage.
Mitt Romney won in Nevada. But it didn’t propel him to even greater success. He surprisingly lost the next three contests. Perhaps not all because of the endorsement of Donald Trump. However, the losses were deeply symbolic of a campaign in trouble, unable to find a groove and unable to consistently connect with voters.
Alan Fisher is an Al Jazeera correspondent
every victory
with a blunder
The Cafe
The Donald
Marian Pallister
Barra may have
independence
before Scotland
John Cameron
I wouldn’t start from here
15.02.12
No. 514
The Cafe
Thank you for Kenneth Roy’s letter to ‘The Donald’. (15 February
Because of the irate condition he is in already, what Kenneth Roy has written, should it come to his attention, could have an even further disturbing consequence. He could even have, dare I say it, a bad hair day.
Harry McAlister
I was sorely disappointed by Kerry Gill’s contribution (14 February)
It would be as the news is covered in every other country in the world. Perhaps Mr Gill doesn’t understand the concept.
David Hill
Unlike many publications SR doesn’t have an online comment facility – we prefer a more considered approach. The Cafe is our readers’ forum. If you would like to contribute to it, please email islay@scottishreview.net
Today’s banner
The wall
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
Romney follows
every victory
with a blunder
Alan Fisher
Political symbolism is important. It’s why US politicians are frequently pictured in front of a flag. It’s why the faces in the crowd at rallies are always mixed. It’s why Mitt Romney ditched his suit jackets of four years ago when he was campaigning for president and now bounds onto the stage in check-shirts and chinos or jeans. It’s all about making the multi-millionaire ‘more normal’, more like the people he needs to elect him president.
The other Republican candidates do it too. Ron Paul, the oldest man in the race, packs his rally with young people to reflect his appeal to a different generation. Newt Gingrich is more often than not pictured in a suit and a tie. It may be because he looks odd in casual clothes – a bit like seeing one of your teachers at the weekend – but it is more to carry the air of gravitas, to emphasis his belief that he is the smartest man in the race.
Donald Trump knows a bit about symbolism. His campaign last summer questioning whether Barack Obama could produce a birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii was replete with it. Despite the rumours having being checked out and discredited, Trump continued to reproduce wild internet conspiracies and misguided theories to question if the president of the United States was actually ‘one of us’ and eligible to take the position.
Trump – who was considering a run for the Republican nomination at the time – continued his onslaught for months, called the president’s citizenship ‘a scam’ and denied allegations that he raised the question because Obama was black. However, his support from right-wing Republicans soared during the controversy, which only ended when the actual birth certificate was published online.
It was a stunning miscalculation from a campaign that has successfully succeeded in following every win with a gaffe or mistake that causes
real damage.
And so now, facing the longest break in the nominating process, the Romney campaign is questioning the symbolism of the high-profile endorsement it secured just a few days before it lost three important contests. Nevada was a state expected to be a banker for the former Massachusetts governor. It has a large Mormon population. He has campaigned there regularly and was well-funded and well-organised. Coming off a significant victory in Florida, he could have been expected to do very well.
Then, surprisingly, he announced that he’d secured the endorsement of Donald Trump. The pair seemed such unlikely bedfellows, but voters were treated to the billionaire politically embracing the millionaire who had just hours earlier in a TV interview said ‘he didn’t care about poor people’ (because they had a safety net). Romney – the man who has fought throughout the campaign against the accusations that he made his millions by taking over companies and sacking workers – was now standing next to the businessman who is most famous in America for his starring role in ‘The Apprentice’ and the catchphrase ‘You’re fired’.
The Democrats couldn’t resist and issued an instant web-ad with the tag line ‘They both like firing people’. It underlined the argument put forward by his rivals that Romney was the chosen candidate of the moneyed Republican establishment rather than the rank-and-file party members. It was a stunning miscalculation from a campaign that has successfully succeeded in following every win with a gaffe or mistake that causes real damage.
Mitt Romney won in Nevada. But it didn’t propel him to even greater success. He surprisingly lost the next three contests. Perhaps not all because of the endorsement of Donald Trump. However, the losses were deeply symbolic of a campaign in trouble, unable to find a groove and unable to consistently connect with voters.
Alan Fisher is an Al Jazeera correspondent
15.02.12
No. 514
The CafeBecause of the irate condition he is in already, what Kenneth Roy has written, should it come to his attention, could have an even further disturbing consequence. He could even have, dare I say it, a bad hair day.
I was sorely disappointed by Kerry Gill’s contribution (14 February)
It would be as the news is covered in every other country in the world. Perhaps Mr Gill doesn’t understand the concept.
The wall
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
every victory
The other Republican candidates do it too. Ron Paul, the oldest man in the race, packs his rally with young people to reflect his appeal to a different generation. Newt Gingrich is more often than not pictured in a suit and a tie. It may be because he looks odd in casual clothes – a bit like seeing one of your teachers at the weekend – but it is more to carry the air of gravitas, to emphasis his belief that he is the smartest man in the race.
Donald Trump knows a bit about symbolism. His campaign last summer questioning whether Barack Obama could produce a birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii was replete with it. Despite the rumours having being checked out and discredited, Trump continued to reproduce wild internet conspiracies and misguided theories to question if the president of the United States was actually ‘one of us’ and eligible to take the position.
Trump – who was considering a run for the Republican nomination at the time – continued his onslaught for months, called the president’s citizenship ‘a scam’ and denied allegations that he raised the question because Obama was black. However, his support from right-wing Republicans soared during the controversy, which only ended when the actual birth certificate was published online.
real damage.
Then, surprisingly, he announced that he’d secured the endorsement of Donald Trump. The pair seemed such unlikely bedfellows, but voters were treated to the billionaire politically embracing the millionaire who had just hours earlier in a TV interview said ‘he didn’t care about poor people’ (because they had a safety net). Romney – the man who has fought throughout the campaign against the accusations that he made his millions by taking over companies and sacking workers – was now standing next to the businessman who is most famous in America for his starring role in ‘The Apprentice’ and the catchphrase ‘You’re fired’.
The Democrats couldn’t resist and issued an instant web-ad with the tag line ‘They both like firing people’. It underlined the argument put forward by his rivals that Romney was the chosen candidate of the moneyed Republican establishment rather than the rank-and-file party members. It was a stunning miscalculation from a campaign that has successfully succeeded in following every win with a gaffe or mistake that causes real damage.
Mitt Romney won in Nevada. But it didn’t propel him to even greater success. He surprisingly lost the next three contests. Perhaps not all because of the endorsement of Donald Trump. However, the losses were deeply symbolic of a campaign in trouble, unable to find a groove and unable to consistently connect with voters.
