February 13, 2013 · 12:09 am

Grading Hillary

As the guard changes at the State Department, speculation is rife regarding Hillary Clinton’s future.   Will Hillary run for President?  If she does, her star power will be a formidable asset.  After all, how many politicians are instantly recognized by his or her first name?  (You don’t read columns wondering whether “Paul” or “Mark” or “Chris” will run.)hillary

To move from cabinet member to President is of course a promotion. For mere mortals known by both their first and last names, promotions usually depend on how well they handled their prior jobs. Do the same rules apply to Hillary? If they do, has her performance as Secretary of State earned her a promotion?

Hillary Clinton (the switchover to using both names signals that we’re about to get serious here) is a polarizing figure. To her admirers, especially those in the media and the entertainment industry, she is a rock star, a glittering symbol of what modern American womanhood can be. To her detractors, she is a doctrinaire ice queen, with all the ideological baggage of her husband but without her husband’s warmth and humanity.

What does an objective assessment reveal? Continue reading →

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January 27, 2013 · 11:49 pm

ROMNEY WAS RIGHT

During the 2012 presidential election, no passage caused more heartburn for Mitt Romney’s campaign than this:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax …. And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”Romney

This, of course, is the famous “47 percent” statement, secretly recorded in May at a private fund raiser in Boca Raton, held in reserve, and then opportunistically published in September, as the race was tightening, by the left-wing Mother Jones.

Some people are forever associated with numbers. In Massachusetts, Ted Williams will forever be No. 9. Bill Russell will be No. 6. And Mitt Romney, by virtue of remarks which Yale Law School has recently named the No. 1 quote of 2012, will forever be associated with No. 47. Indeed, if one runs a Google search for “47” (just 47, without the percent sign or word), one finds that 99 out of the first 100 articles are about Romney. (The one exception is a Wikipedia article on the number itself. Apparently, Wikipedia features an article on every number. Some editor there has a very boring job.)

Immediately after their publication, Mitt Romney apologized for his remarks. When Joe Biden cited the comment during the vice presidential debate, the only defense Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan could offer was: “”I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”

But here’s the thing. Mitt Romney was right. Continue reading →

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January 20, 2013 · 9:17 pm

RE-BRANDING FOR COKE, CAUSES, AND CANDIDATES

What’s in a name?

According to Shakespeare, a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. But Shakespeare never worked on Madison Avenue, and he did not study branding.

Businesses have long understood the importance and financial value of brands. According to a 2012 study by the branding experts at Interbrand, COCA-COLA is worth about $78 billion (that’s billion with a “B”), followed closely by APPLE. Remember, we’re talking about only the brands, not the inventory, manufacturing plants, warehouses, and other tangible “things” that stand behind those trademarks.COKELEAH

Businesses have also understood the occasional need for re-branding. When Philip Morris USA figured out that its tobacco products were tarnishing the reputation of its KRAFT and other non-tobacco lines, it changed its corporate name and logo to ALTRIA. When AIG realized that its acceptance of a federal bailout in 2008 was hurting its retirement and financial subsidiaries, it re-branded them as SAGEPOINT FINANCIAL and VALIC.

Social activists may consider themselves above the dull sublunary world of commerce, but in fact they are often its most apt students. Continue reading →

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December 22, 2012 · 6:29 pm

Grant’s Indian in Spielberg’s Lincoln

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln takes history seriously.  While some of the details may be contrived – there is no record of black Union Army soldiers being assigned to greet the Confederate commissioners en route to negotiate a peace treaty – the film for the most part follows fact scrupulously.  Much of the dialogue is based on contemporary letters and journalistic accounts.

Spielberg’s obsession with historical accuracy extends even to background.

In two scenes featuring General Grant, viewers will notice standing behind him the silent, striking presence of an American Indian in the uniform of a Union Army officer.

Parker

(Parker, left, in film)

He is not there for setting.  The man depicted is Ely Parker, a lawyer, engineer, life-long friend of Grant, and full-blooded Seneca, whose life story would justify a movie of its own.

It deserves telling.

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December 20, 2012 · 10:17 am

WHO’S SORRY NOW?

I’m sorry to have to tell you this.  We suck at apologies.

It wasn’t always so.  Let’s compare a recent apology, to another classic example that occurred about a thousand years ago.

Earlier this month, the South Korean rapper PSY issued an apology.  Shortly before his appearance at a White House Christmas concert, a little-noticed 2004 performance went viral, causing much embarrassment.  In that earlier show, PSY rapped the following lyrics:

Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully.

These are not the sort of words one expects from a White House guest.  PSY apologized on December 7, a day he apparently wished not to live in infamy.  Here is what he (or, more likely, his PR firm) said:

While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self, I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted.  I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused by those words.

Now let’s examine this putative apology.

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December 9, 2012 · 10:46 am

TWINKIES ARE NOT ZOMBIES … YET

Trademark practitioners and junk food addicts (two groups whose ranks often overlap) are closely watching the bankruptcy of Hostess Brands, Inc. and the liquidation of its assets, including its famous TWINKIES brand.

Will a qualified buyer emerge to purchase the brand, and to ensure that TWINKIES — like PAN AM and ZENITH — remains alive, if only in some shrunken, transformed existence?

Or will TWINKIES go the way of all flesh, to that trademark graveyard populated by the likes of ATARI, BORDERS, CIRCUIT CITY, and TOWER RECORDS; marks once famous and ubiquitous, now lost, and by the wind grieved, ghosts which will never come back again?  (Pardon, Thomas Wolfe.)

 Image

In the past, those were the only choices for brands of failed businesses.  But in recent years, a new, dubious industry has emerged to offer a third choice.  Companies like Strategic Marks of Irvine, California, identify lost marks and try to revive them without the authorization of their erstwhile owners.  Most see these marks the way the Coroner of Oz saw the Wicked Witch of the East, as “not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.”  But to Strategic Marks and its audacious founder Ellia Kassoff, these marks have an afterlife.  They see them the way Miracle Max saw Wesley, the hero of The Princess Bride: “only mostly dead.”  And as Miracle Max explained: “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.  Mostly dead is slightly alive.”

Continue reading →

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December 6, 2012 · 10:43 am

What the Conventional Wisdom Got Wrong About the Election

If you believe the conventional wisdom, Barack Obama won reelection because his campaign executed an incredibly efficient ground game, which mobilized Hispanic voters, and the growing demographic power of that constituency propelled him to victory.

According to this version of political history, the electorate is becoming increasingly Hispanic.  About 50,000 Latino citizens reach voting age every month.  That represents 600,000 potential new voters every year.  Exit polls show that Obama did phenomenally well with this constituency, winning their votes by a 71-29 percentage margin over Romney.  Obama’s Chicago tacticians devised ingenious methods of identifying and contacting these voters, and getting them to vote, thus fueling his narrow but decisive victory.

Therefore, if you believe the conventional wisdom, the Republican Party faces a choice.  It can ignore this rapidly expanding constituency and face the prospect of permanent minority party status.  Or the Party can revamp, softening its positions on immigration to appeal to Latino voters.

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December 3, 2012 · 2:41 pm

Skyfall from Grace

(SPOILER ALERT: This review mentions specific scenes and themes from the movie, including the ending.  If you want to be completely surprised, see the movie first, then read the review.)

Nearly every James Bond movie (Dr. No, the first, was the sole exception) starts with a pre-credit mini-adventure: a life-or-death struggle filmed against some exotic background.  The purpose is to get the audience in the proper mood.  The pre-credit scene is always fun, but rarely vital to the plot.   In Skyfall, however, the 23rd Bond film, the pre-credit scene is vital.  It establishes the story’s premise: maternal betrayal.

A villain has stolen a computer hard drive containing vital information.  James Bond (Daniel Craig) chases him through the streets and rooftops of Istanbul, finally catching up with him atop a speeding train.  Eve (Naomie Harris), a British female agent, follows the chase from a speeding vehicle, hoping for clear shot at the enemy.  Both Eve and Bond are in radio contact with their boss M (Judi Densch), who is monitoring and supervising the chase from MI6 headquarters in London.  In a few seconds, the train will enter a tunnel, and Eve’s last chance at a shot will end.  But Bond and his opponent are grappling closely on the train and Eve cannot get a clear shot.  Nevertheless, and fully aware of the risks, M orders Eve to “take the shot.”  Reluctantly, she does.  And James Bond goes hurtling off the train, falling, falling, to the river below, apparently to his death.

Well, of course, he doesn’t die.  This is just the pre-credit scene and there are two hours of action to go.  But the rest of the story plays out against the backdrop of betrayal.  Bond knows that M is willing to see him die, if there’s even a chance that his death will advance the mission.

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November 21, 2012 · 2:22 am

The Children of Israel

As I write this, the war of the missiles continues in the skies over Israel and Gaza.  IDF troops are massing on the border.  Mediation efforts are underway in Cairo.  By the time you read this, the fighting may have intensified into a ground war, or it may have fizzled out into another uneasy peace.

But for now, while the fighting continues, the news media engage in the familiar spectacle of twinning.  Under the rules of twinning, the conflict is portrayed as a contest between two opposing sides, each inflicting damage on the other and each suffering casualties in a symmetry of belligerence.  The titles of two videos now up on CNN.com illustrate the phenomenon: “Comparing Israel’s and Hamas’ Firepower” and “Life Now for an Israeli and a Gazan.”   One story for one side, another story for the other.

The rules of twinning, as with any competition, require comparison and scorekeeping.  How many rockets have been launched from Gaza?  How many Israeli air strikes have hit targets there?  How many Gazans are dead?  How many Israelis?

One of the main fictions of twinning is that it considers only physical casualties: how many have been killed, how many have been maimed.  By that calculus, Hamas has been laughably ineffective over the years.  Before the recent escalation in violence, they had fired over 8,000 missiles at Israel since its withdrawal from Gaza.  Under the rules of twinning, those thousands of missiles hardly count, because very few led to Israeli deaths or amputations.

But the children of Israel know too well that  every single one of those missiles and mortar rounds inflicted casualties.  Every single one.

Continue reading →

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