The empathy gap

Given the state of the economy, by any historical standard, Barack Obama should be 15 points behind Mitt Romney. Why is he tied? The empathy gap. On “caring about average people,” Obama wins by 22 points. Maintaining that gap was a principal goal of the Democratic convention. It’s the party’s only hope of winning in November.

George H.W. Bush, Romney-like in aloofness, was once famously handed a staff cue card that read: “Message: I care.” That was supposed to be speech guidance. Bush read the card. Out loud.

Not surprisingly, he lost to Bill Clinton, a man who lives to care, who feels your pain better than you do — or at least makes you think so. In politics, that’s a trivial distinction.

On Wednesday night, Clinton vouched for Obama as a man “who’s cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside.” Nice phrase, but not terribly persuasive. The real job of Clintonizing Obama was left to Mrs. Obama. As she told it in the convention’s most brilliantly cynical speech, her husband is not just profoundly compassionate but near-Gandhiesque in feelings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-empathy-gap/2012/09/06/b0ec930a-f85c-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_print.html

US President Barack Obama has accepted the nomination of the Democratic party, telling voters they face a generational choice in November's election.

He highlighted the differences between his aims and Republican policies, and reprised his 2008 theme of "hope".

"I never said this journey would be easy, and I won't promise that now," Mr Obama told the Democratic convention.

Republican Mitt Romney is challenging Mr Obama for the White House, with polls showing a tight race.

Mr Obama told delegates in the hall and voters watching at home that the nations problems have built up over "decades" and cannot be fixed in a flash.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19509840

The artist who created the "Hope" portrait of Barack Obama that became emblematic of the US president's triumphant 2008 campaign has been sentenced to community service after admitting he lied about which image he used.

Los Angeles-based street artist Shepard Fairey, 42, became a celebrity for creating the red, white and blue image of Mr Obama silhouetted above the word "Hope" on a poster.

Fairey pleaded guilty to one misdemeanour count of criminal contempt in February for doctoring and destroying evidence once he realised the photograph of Mr Obama he used for the poster belonged to the Associated Press.

"I'd like to apologise for violating the court's trust, which was the worst thing I've ever done in my life," Fairey said at his sentencing hearing in Manhattan Federal Court.

Prosecutors had sought prison time for Fairey, who faced up to six months' jail.

However, he was ordered to serve 300 hours of community service, the details of which were not immediately decided.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-08/artist-avoids-jail-for-obama-poster/4249960

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This is why I prefer to use my own photos or do a toon of the people involved ...  

When pinching thingster like the poster above, I only do it to make a pseudo-political point, not a steal... And between me, you and Sydney Stret lamppost, I'd be honoured if people pinched my cartoons or pictures for non commercial purposes of course... But to tell you the truth, I am horrified that the artist was found guilty... 

I must say I don't know the level at which he "pinched" the orginal work — Did he directly pinch this already stylised format or was it a photograph in the same pose that he fiddled with?...

I will add here that Andy Warhol was the prime suspect in this kind of work... I "suspect" a lot of his portraits are "pinched" from photographs, re-treated photographically to a particular level of contrasted "posterisation" (piece of cake in PhotoShop). I used to do the same capers in the early 1960s using a plate camera with high contrast negatives and masking paints while often making the picture smaller in order to emphasise the grain and simplify the edges . Then negatives would be enlarged to poster size for use with a simple silk screen printing technique for each "colour" levels and here you are...

From Bill Clinton...

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THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE IS NOW

Many of the world's greatest challenges today are simply modern manifestations of our oldest demons. The truth is, the future has never had a big enough constituency -- those fighting for present gain almost always win out. But we are now called upon to try to create a whole different mind-set. We are in a pitched battle between the present array of resources and attitudes and the future struggling to be born.

read more: http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2125031,00.html

But there is one crucial way in which the 42nd president may not have served the 44th quite as well. In these final weeks before the election, Mr. Clinton’s expert advice about how to beat Mitt Romney is starting to look suspect.

You may recall that last spring, just after Mr. Romney locked up the Republican nomination, Mr. Obama’s team abruptly switched its strategy for how to define him. Up to then, the White House had been portraying Mr. Romney much as George W. Bush had gone after John Kerry in 2004 – as inauthentic and inconstant, a soulless climber who would say anything to get the job.

But it was Mr. Clinton who forcefully argued to Mr. Obama’s aides that the campaign had it wrong. The best way to go after Mr. Romney, the former president said, was to publicly grant that he was the “severe conservative” he claimed to be, and then hang that unpopular ideology around his neck.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/how-bill-clinton-may-have-hurt-the-obama-campaign/?hp

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"as inauthentic and inconstant, a soulless climber who would say anything to get the job."... That's our Tony to a T... Except he "would not sell his arse" but he did anyway...

See toon at top...