March 27, 2004
YOU CAN TAKE THE CABANA BOY OUT OF FRANCE...:
Stop behaving as if you are a Frenchman if you want to win, says Kerry's (French) adviser (Julian Coman and Charles Laurence, 28/03/2004, Sunday Telegraph)
He has already attempted one reinvention: as outdoorsy Marlboro Man rather than buttoned-up Boston Brahmin. Yet John Kerry, the Democrats' challenger to George W Bush, has been warned by a French-born adviser that his style on the stump is still too "French" to win the presidential election.Clotaire Rapaille, a psychologist and business consultant, has concluded that Mr Kerry, a noted francophile and fluent French speaker, would go down better in Paris than the Mid West because his style is too highbrow. In short, he needs a radical makeover.
"My expertise is in breaking the unconscious code in every culture, and you must do that to understand the presidency," he told the Telegraph last night. [...]
Mr Rapaille's devastating decoding of Mr Kerry will come as a blow for aides who sought help after the Republicans depicted their candidate - despite his Vietnam war service - as a woolly intellectual, given to over-analysing important issues.
"A French writer living in America," as one Democrat official described Mr Rapaille last week. "Who better to advise on the dangers of being seen as too intellectual?"
The ski trip didn't help. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 27, 2004 7:52 PM
Doesn't Kerry have Naomi Wolf on his rolodex?
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at March 27, 2004 8:42 PMEven if he takes Rapaile's advice, one can already picture John and Teresa spending a day this summer looking as "countryfied" as Oliver and Lisa Douglas in a photo op at some Midwestern farm owned by a Democrtic Party supporter.
Posted by: John at March 27, 2004 10:47 PMI love the way that Kerry submitted a fictional profile when signing up for Friendster - Saying that his favorite films were 'Animal House', 'The Blues Brothers', and 'Old School'...
In his attempt to be a "normal" guy, his advisors betrayed him. 'Old School' sounds like 'Animal House' redux, but is a pale, pale imitation.
Anyone who truly loved the first two films he listed, is unlikely to be impressed by the last one.
Politicians will, of course, spin and dissemble, but since one of the Dem's main talking points is that Bush lied the US into the Iraqi war, how does lying about something as petty as a Friendster profile encourage anyone to believe that President Kerry would be truthful about anything important ?
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at March 27, 2004 11:00 PMI like your idea John. He and Theresa should join Paris Hilton on "The Simple Life". Imagine them shopping in WalMart, or changing the oil on the pickup truck!
Posted by: Robert Duquette at March 28, 2004 11:38 AMI think he has already started. USA Today's take on the ski trip last week spent a lot of column space on quotes from supporters emphasizing how "modest" the Idaho mansion is. Unfortunately for Mr. Kerry, they ran a picture.
Posted by: Peter B at March 28, 2004 7:01 PMAny home with an imported 16th century French barn cannot be 'modest' (although, to be fair, Kerry was not married to Teresa when the house was built).
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 28, 2004 8:57 PM