Hey, That's My Line!

This has been one interesting political campaign. Voters turning out in record numbers, contributing money, getting involved, casting their votes - without holding their noses. It's been a tight race on the Democrat side, and a lesser-of-evils type deal on the Republican side.

The frontrunner on the Republican side is seen by some as not conservative enough. Others realize that after 8 years of BushCo, they'd better latch onto someone more centrist, because the country as whole is clamoring for change. But realizing it doesn't mean they're happy about it. There's some nose holding going on over in that side of the house.

The current frontrunner on the Dem side is seen as the new guy in town, a fresh wind blowing across a stale, even rotten, political landscape. Some say that's just what we need, others ask how he'll run the country with all that water behind his ears. Regardless, Obama has been riding that wind of Hope and Change to record turnouts and massive support, right under the noses of the naysayers.

Well, it's politics -- you strike where you can to get an advantage, so while the masses are gathering behind Obama's message, the other candidates are doing what they can to shoot that message down. Both sides have attempted to paint Hope and Change as empty messages, as "rhetoric" and "platitudes".

That's no surprise. What is interesting to me is those winds of change have ruffled even the petticoats of those who would belittle those messages. In fact, the very ones who would disparage those platforms now appear to be shamelessly swinging themselves up on that bandwagon. Eventually, the words hope and change were peppering everyone's speeches, even while they continued to cluck their tongues at the audacity and foolishness of hope.

And the slogans, well, those started changing hands like the proverbial hot potato.


Erstwhile candidate Mitt Romney actually popped out campaign signs announcing, Change Begins With Us. Kind of reminds me of something ... but no, that's totally different from Obama's Change We Can Believe In. Isn't it?

According to The Page's Mark Halperin, Clinton put out a radio ad in Iowa casting herself as "the candidate of hope." That just seems odd to me, after past comments about Obama "peddling false hopes", but whatever. Clinton also tried the slogan Ready for Change, Ready to Lead. I'm not sure what happened with that one, it didn't seem to stick.

John McCain is not even shy about grabbing blue slogans from wherever he can get them. Here he's shamelessly pilfered a Hillary slogan, Ready to Lead on Day One, plastering it across his own website. Like he thought of that shit or something. Come on, John. Everyone knows that's Hillary's line. Did you seriously think no one would notice?

After the Potomac Primaries, McCain actually had the nerve to end a speech in Alexandria, VA with a well known Obama slogan, saying,

“My friends, I promise you, I am fired up and ready to go.”

Are you kidding me? Alright sir, that's enough; eyes on your own paper.



McCain's not the only one who's fired up and ready to go. In Davenport, Iowa, Hillary busted out with,

We are fired up and we are ready to go, because we know that America is ready for change, and the process starts right here.

Really? You too, Hillary?

That line started with Edith Childs, a city councilwoman in Greenwood, SC. The story goes that Obama arrived for an unscheduled rally in this little town, where about 38 supporters had turned out to hear him speak. It was raining, it was an early morning stop, everyone was tired, wet, and bordering on grumpy. As Obama was greeting supporters, Ms. Childs, who had used that same chant years ago during the civil rights movement, called out from the back of the room,

Fired up!

The other supporters responded, "Fired up!" Obama and his staff looked around to see who was speaking. They saw Councilwoman Childs, a diminutive 59 year old woman "in a church hat", following with,

Ready to go!

The small crowd again responded in kind, "Ready to go!" The call and reponse continued, much to Obama's surprise, for some time. Fired up! (fired up!) Ready to go! (ready to go!) According to him, after so many rounds of this chant, he was feeling pretty fired up himself, and was ready to go.

The chant caught on so strongly that Obama later refered to it in a speech about the difference one voice can make. The chant and the "One Voice" speech inspired this music video, entirely made and donated by Obama supporters, including drummer Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam and Reverend Pat Wright and her Total Experience Gospel Choir. This is one rocking video, coming from that one voice.




So yeah, let's stipulate that fired up and ready to go is clearly associated with the Obama campaign. You other candidates, get your own tag lines, mmm-kay?



Next we've got Hillary hopping on Obama's "Yes We Can" slogan ... after accusing Obama of being the "No We Can't" candidate. What?

(18 seconds)





Apparently she caught a little bit of flak for that. So here we have Hillary with a completely ... new chant? Alrighty then. You be the judge.

(about 30 seconds)



[Cringe] That was a little hard to watch.


Anyway, I know this is far from the most critical issue in the political arena, and yes, many of the slogans being used now have been used in the past as well. I just found it interesting that the concepts and tag lines being filched seem to be the same ideas people wanted to ridicule as being ineffective. How 'bout that? Everyone wanted to dismiss the message of Hope and Change, brand it naïve, unrealistic, but then a funny thing happened. The people started lining up behind it, demanding it, and all of a sudden that message started falling out of everyone's mouths.

Not so silly now, is it?