It seems that the liberals have decided to put their big thinking ideas aside and once again delve into scandal chasing - a prescription to power they seem to think will replace the long tough slogging of party revitalization. The latest is "giant ceremonial cheque-gate".
In order to help out my friends on the left, I have some helpful tips on separating a real scandal from faux scandals:
1) Numbers are important. If the amounts are in the tens of millions, like say the Sponsorship scandal, you're onto something, particularly if the sums are directly stolen from taxpayers and given to the political party.
2) Try to avoid creating a scandal out of things your own party routinely does. For instance, Emerson's floor crossing was portrayed as evil incarnate, while Stronach's and Brison's were "just politics". It doesn't just detract from your efforts, it causes a public opinion boomerang.
3) If possible, avoid looking like you're capitalizing on the deaths of others for political gain. Black humour in the course of a food poisoning outbreak, may or may not be in bad taste, but rushing in with feigned outrage at a single line uttered in a back room meeting seems a tad ghoulish.
4) If you have to say something is a scandal, it's likely not a scandal.
5) Pooping cartoons, whoever they happen to be pooping on, never rise to the level of national importance.
6) It may be tempting to go after a politician's attempt to look personable through the use of such evil devices as the sweater vest, but I'm told by fashion people that use of garb to portray an image is done by.....well....everyone on the planet, every day of their lives.
Those are just a few, feel free to add in the comments.
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The current leadership and bloggers in Lib blogs are disconnected with reality.
ReplyDeleteThey don't understand how they are forcing the public to revisit the scandals under the previous Liberals for comparison.
Not the first time the Liberals knee-jerk reaction is going to back fire. (MI needs to fire his Rosedale advisors)
Looks like he is taking advice from some "bedwetters" on lib blogs.
Cheers
The more they chase and focus on "scandals" is less time that the Liberals are concentrating on proving they have real policy alternatives.
ReplyDeleteThe old adage applies here; the Liberals have cried wolf so many times with body bags and wafers that when something that might be substantial like this comes up, the voters have already tuned them out.
Not only that, but every cheque that the Liberals bring up as a "scandal" is yet one more example of stimulus money out the door that they say is not getting where it needs to go. People are going to see that the Liberals are being hypocrites in this regard.
Having been out of the Country for 30 years, Iffy is not aware of all those real scandals. Before returning he should have googled Liberal scandals and stayed away. I don't think the backroom boys realize that most conservatives are computer literate, and use Facebook, the internet, read blogs and bring attention to past misdeeds of liberals.
ReplyDeleteThe internet and blogs have left the liberals far behind, and they really really believe PMSH is scary, inept, and expect the voters to believe it also.
It has been years since PET was remembered for all the things he did to Canada, but thanks to Iffy, we remember. Redbook promises broken, thanks to iffy, we recall them.
Adscam, thanks to Iffy, it is brought up again and again.
Maybe we owe iffy a huge vote of thanks for the memories.
imo, after wafer-gate, the general population quit listening to 'yet another faux scandal' and a media just too willing to play gotcha on PMSH.
ReplyDeleteThat was the ultimate, 'anonymous Liberal source' and ' the PPG internationally embarrassed our PM', religious leaders dragged into something they didn' cause.....
only to find out the story was cooked, a lie 'edited' for gotcha affect,
apologies to follow.
I really think that was when the tide really started to turn.
I tink Christian Conservative is right when he claims that this focus on these "scandals" has the hidden benefit of providing free advertising that the MSM will not provide for Harper. Most Canadians will see the cheques not the logo. The more they scream the more people see the real part of the story..the funds moving to our communities. It seems that at this juncture...the more they try to blacken the conservative brand the more it backfires. Just more proof to me they don't know what they're doing and are not ready for Prime Time. Chess vs Checkers. Always has been, always will be.
ReplyDeleteWhenever this topic has come with my liberal friends been throwing this question out and haven't had a respond to it yet.
ReplyDeleteSo if Harper tables a confidence motion to eliminate that $1.95 per vote subsidy, will the liberals vote with the government? After all if partisan use of tax payer dollars is such an outrage they should be all for it.....right?
MaryT, Just yesterday the PM was in the 'den of lions'(liberal territory); he even shook hands with the people. OMG, the PM shakes hands and was not mauled to death. In fact, I think they must have wondered where in the liberal mentality does the PM appear to be 'scary' .
ReplyDeleteLet's face it, the national media(the usual pathetic bunch) are only out there to help the liberals bring down the conservative party as well campaign for the liberals on air- for free.
From the Edmonton Sun
ReplyDeleteSports Hockey
Harper helps Habs celebrate new stamps
History-conscious PM joins Lafleur, Houle at centre ice
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last Updated: 18th October 2009, 3:56am
MONTREAL -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper last night helped unveil a set of commemorative stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens.
Harper was accompanied by hockey legends Rejean Houle and Guy Lafleur and Habs president Pierre Boivin at the Bell Centre prior to the Canadiens' game against the Ottawa Senators.
The high-tech, thin plastic stamps will give the illusion when manipulated of watching moving images of historic goals from the team's history.
Canada Post chairman Marc Courtois said the stamp celebrates a team that transcends decades and borders.
"It pays tribute to players who inspired generations," he said.
The stamps were two years in the making, said the postal service's director, Jim Phillips. "By moving it side-to-side, you can see the pass to the motion of the puck."
The prime minister's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said Harper was invited for both his knowledge of hockey and because he is prime minister.
Harper also engaged in some hockey banter during a lengthy chat with the broadcast crew of RDS network, the French-language equivalent of TSN.
Sitting next to him in the broadcast booth was RDS analyst Jacques Demers, a newly minted Conservative senator.
Harper, a lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan, answered without hesitation when asked whether he'd be cheering for Montreal or Ottawa.
"Yes, that's tough," Harper said.
"I try avoiding games between two Canadian teams. But tonight, as I told my son (Ben), I'm in Montreal. I'm rooting for the Canadiens tonight."
The men chatted about Harper's struggle to complete his long-term project of writing a book about the early history of hockey before 1927.
The prime minister joked that his day job has interfered with completing the book, adding that he enjoys working on it for 15 minutes before bedtime to get his mind off politics.
Harper said he hopes to have it done within a year -- but then quickly added that he'd already set, and failed to meet, such deadlines in the past.
He said his friend from Calgary, Greg Stukoyo, has been helping him for years, conducting research by going through old newspaper clippings.
The prime minister noted that the Montreal Canadiens are an enduring institution -- one that had already won a pair of Stanley Cups in the pre-1927 period he's writing about.
"That's my period of research and, obviously, the Canadiens are the team -- the oldest team in the history of our sport.
"It's been a great century, and it's a great Canadian institution."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/sports/hockey/2009/10/18/11440991-sun.html