How to handle a heckler: Romney and Obama

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Yesterday Unedited Politics re-posted this video of a would-be president.

It led me to this post of the President Obama handling a heckling reporter at the White House.

Now that you’ve seen them, notice the difference in the summary headings over the two videos. “Mitt Romney heckled by.…” focuses only the heckler, not on the candidate’s response. It evokes sympathy for Mr. Romney. “President scolds reporter….” elicits sympathy for the heckler. Language frames perception.

But the video-tapes tell a different story, no matter what the words say. The tapes tell the story of the character and style of Mr. Romney and the President and the way they handle a rude opponent.

How do you describe the difference? What qualities of character and style do you want in the Oval Office next January? Leave your comment here.

4 thoughts on “How to handle a heckler: Romney and Obama”

  2. What I see and hear from Mr. Romney is a TOTAL lack of substance. The admiration
    that he draws is for the perception that he is a successful person of wealth, and he
    has nice clothes and a great haircut…. Both Romney and the people who cheer for him
    seem to me to be a mass of people… manipulated by very slimy propaganda into acting
    against their own interests. Romney is a fake. He is not skillful and he is not bright. He is a
    suit. He is nothing but a project of a group of very wealthy people who live behind gates and do not walk amongst us. President Obama IS a Genuine man of intellectual substance… and experience. He IS sincerely trying to save the country. He is in emergency mode. Emergency mode means that it is impossible to make EVERYONE smiley and happy before next Christmas. It means he is trying to fix the motor that pumps out the water that is sinking our ship. Note that the man questioning the president in the tape is a NOBODY… trying to be noticed and noted. He was rude, and crude, not honorable… or even sincerely desperate. His questions were phony.
    There are thousands of phonies who manipulate video messages. Being a good citizen is quite a lot of work. It is not so easy as turning on the TV.

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    • Robert, Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. T.S. Eliot:

      “We are the hollow men
      We are the stuffed men
      Leaning together
      Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
      Our dried voices, when
      We whisper together
      Are quiet and meaningless
      As wind in dry grass
      Or rats’ feet over broken glass
      In our dry cellar

      “Shape without form, shade without colour,
      Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

      “Those who have crossed
      With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
      Remember us — if at all — not as lost
      Violent souls, but only
      As the hollow men
      The stuffed men.”

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