Thursday, December 04, 2008

Harper's Strategy (Updated)

In my last post I summarized Harper's strategy as If you won't vote for me then to hell with you, and If you won't let me play in your clubhouse I'm burning it down, and I will prevail or I will tear the country apart trying.

Now that he has made the Governor General prorogue parliament, I have an additional take on what he's doing. It's If I lose by your rules I'm suspending the rules and making up my own, or more precisely, If democracy doesn't work in my favor I'll subvert democracy.

The bully really has no way of operating other than as a steamroller. It's not just that he can't back down or reach out to other MPs; it's that he can't say one bloody word to reassure Canadians about the economy, about what's going on in parliament, or about his ability to lead. Some pathology keeps him from being able to show one iota of human kindness. In the address last night someone must have told him he had to smile, but it was the most strained, fakest, most unhappy smile I have ever seen. I am astounded that there is so much talk about the camerawork of Dion's address or the fact that it was a few minutes late. In terms of content, Dion's address was great. Are we so Americanized that all we care about is image and glitz?

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I am astounded that there is so much talk about the camerawork of Dion's address or the fact that it was a few minutes late. In terms of content, Dion's address was great. Are we so Americanized that all we care about is image and glitz? "

Hardly a question of being Americanized (that's a nice sniper attack though) more a question of his professionalism, and so far I'm not persuaded that the Liberals are any better at this than the Conservatives despite your strong partisan bias.

Hishighness said...

Yeah, but that was embarrassing though. It makes ordinary Canadians think "If he can't get an address like this done right how the Hell can he run the country."

I mean I'm as hard core Liberal as they come and I was devestated by that.

Yappa said...

Me too. I wrote an email to Doug Ferguson today demanding they do something about Dion. Essentially, I don't think he should be allowed to speak or make decisions from now on. I also wrote Dion and told him essentially the same thing. His behavior has become so bad (his performance in parliament this week made me cringe) that Harper is making a convincing argument that he has to do whatever it takes to save Canada from Dion. Ack.