First Bob Dole says there isn’t a muzzle big enough for Teresa Heinz Kerry (no cite, it was said on MSNBC), then Bush said he’s trying to put a leash on his daughers.
KERRY: I’ve chuckled a few times at some of their comments.
(LAUGHTER)
And…
BUSH: I’m trying to put a leash on them. )
Yes yes, I know they’re jokes, and I’m not freaking out about them. But geez, you’d think these Republican men would be a little bit more, well, sensitive, after the Abu Ghraib photos of prisoners on leashes. They’re not Spinal Tap.
It’s the Good Ol’ Boys Campaign Sound Byte contest.
Nyuck, nycuk, nyuck.<–queasy send-up, with eyes riveted on polls
At least us wimmin types are finally an official demographic. Too bad we aren’t neatly packable by potential votes, almost like (gasp!) default human types! We very annoyingly blend all over the political landscape.
It’s enough to make simple jokes so nerve wracking.
We’re pissy that way.
But I’m hoping some political cartoonist has the guts to do something with this remark. It could do for this debate what Gore’s sighs did four years ago.
He’s a father of twin girls who were caught drinking underage. It was a throwaway line. I’ve often wished I could put a leash on my kids. What parent hasn’t? (And I don’t mean literally, although the leashes I’ve seen used on toddlers in the mall seem very effective. Allow the child the freedom to run around, but they won’t run off.)
It was a father who loves his children trying to lessen the tension for a minute in a serious debate. There was no way he was serious. I didn’t give it a second thought.
I actually thought the zinger was Kerry’s response, something like, “I’ve learned not to try that.” Seemed like his way of saying, “Maybe you think of your daughters as something to control, but I respect mine.”
Left Hand of Dorkness, I’m with you. It was very telling, on both sides.
I also thought it was a very human moment, and injected some levity and warmth into the sterile debates. Still, I was struck how Dole and Bush automatically think of muzzles and leashes when thinking of women. Besides calling up awful imagry (even before I remembered the Abu Ghraib photo), it’s disrespectful.
I think it’s possible to laugh at something and be disturbed at the same time. I do it every week when I read The Onion.
Oooh, guess I’d better watch out before I get marginalized (hey, if it’s good enough for a decent, honorable man like Al Gore, I guess it’s good enough for Reeder and me) and have posting limits put on me? Oooh, scary.
Believe me, I could start 20 threads a day with stuff a lot more serious than this. I send my constantly traveling husband “newsletters” with weird political things and outrages, many of which never see the light of day here (on SDMB). I have thought about posting them, keeping them all in one thread. I may still.
Hey, maybe Michael Moore can make a Big Deal out of it in his next film. You know: show the Abu Ghraib photo, then a parsed segment of Bush talking about leashing his daughters.
I also think it would make a fine smear ad, if they could get it to press quickly enough.
But all that quote would mean is “I once saw my daughters as something to control but it failed” since he’s saying he once tried what Bush is now trying.
But I actually don’t think the comments are worth much analysis. They were throwaway lines between the two guys.
You people do reliaze that putting someone or something “on a leash” is a common figurative saying. It applies to people that are a little rowdy as well as things like budgets that have gotten out of control. It does not mean to literally put a leash on someone or something. It means to reel back into control (not literally put a hook in the person’s mouth and pull them into an actual boat and … Oh well, I give up). There is nothing sexist about it. My mother used to use that line when I (a male) was a teenager but then again, she is from Texas too.
Yeah, I realize that; I still think that it’s a little icky (a little, mind you, not full-blown, lying-to-Congress icky) to talk about “putting a leash” on your adult daughters. Others obviously have varying mileage.
But if our leaders aren’t free to use whatever metaphors they want, then THE TERRORISTS WIN!
(Ok, yes, that joke is little played, but I still had to say it. )
)