Editor’ Note: We ran this one from Marlow past Legal, who mentioned they did not see clear indications of Article 88 violation, so long as we stipulate on an a priori basis full respect for all offices and officers empowered to have us charged under the UCMJ. They did recommend addition of a Footnote article to be incorporated in all past and future stories to ensure fulsome praise is a component of all communications.
– Vic

 
Hold the mayo-malaise, please

Our VP went the extra mile this past week:

“Everybody is frustrated… I understand and I fully appreciate there is a level of malaise. We’re two years into this thing. People are — we want to get back to normal. We all do.” VP Harris told PBS’s Judy Woodruff.

Using “malaise” was a very poor choice for a pretty crummy situation. It’s been a loaded word for some time in America’s political sphere. She should or could have used a synonym. But nevertheless, it was unnecessary and more evidence of what a lousy politician she is and/or what an amateurish staff she has.

To be honest I prefer my mayo-malaise on a ham and swiss sandwich with lettuce on wheat. But seeing that she’s from the Frisco Bay area, she of all people should have tried the aioli and not some old timey mayo-malaise.

For my younger readers this mayo-malaise moment had its genesis in the 1970s when then President Carter booked a prime-time national TV slot to talk specifically about a crisis of confidence. Harris answered a question about her low poll numbers by highlighting some favorable stats and acknowledging plague as a drag on the poll numbers.

These may be light-years apart, but politics is hard — at least for the current Executive branch leadership.

Yes, most of today’s voters know Jimmy Carter as a kindly old man who helps rebuild houses, and consequently they do not understand her gaffe here.

What percentage of voters are engaged, let alone steeped in history enough to know about his malaise speech? For the unaware, I’d point them to Wikipedia for the specifics. NB, he didn’t use the word in this speech.

The larger point that is being missed here is this — effective leaders are optimists. The VP’s statements and many of PresBid’s on plague matters are beyond obtuse.

Good leaders focus their listeners on ultimate outcomes, not the current discomforts. They paint a picture of better days that rallies people to their cause. Anything that is wrong today is merely an obstacle that will be overcome on the way to the better day.

I feel sure the VP and PresBid intend to convey empathy; but they have yet to consistently orient their messaging to the future. Acknowledging the “tough and hard work of pushing through with solutions” is fine; but what will society be like when those solutions, whatever they may be, are fully implemented?

One other mistake: “we all are” phrasings and constructs. Be empathetic by all means. Acknowledge others’ frustration, but, for God’s sake, don’t make yourself one of the frustrated people. If you’re a leader, you must be energized and enthusiastic about your plans because you’re certain they will lead to a better day. Don’t make yourself a co-victim. Make yourself the optimist who will lead us to a better outcome.

So, to be honest and bottom line oriented, this is not about a single gaffe, whispering to make a point or absentmindedly shuffling your note papers to answer a question.

Our leader classes’ inability to articulate optimistic visions is our nation’s true pandemic. Symbolism is very important to ordinary voters. Rhetoric is its animating driver.

To end today’s Tourette outburst, it’s important to recall who profited from Carter’s gaffe. No, not a Republican. It was a Democrat — Senator Ted Kennedy. After he heard Carter’s speech, he immediately got on the phone to explain to supporters that he had decided to run for president. Further left than Carter, Kennedy couldn’t stand the attitude he perceived in the speech. A few months after it, Kennedy complained, “Now, the people are blamed for every national ill, scolded as greedy, wasteful, and mired in malaise.”

Voters may not swoon today the way they did back then under multiyear, double-digit inflation and serial recessions, but today’s plague fatigue may be acting as a substitute.

Carter’s god-awful button sweater and chats about how we had to turn down the thermostat to 55 at night eroded American’s confidence in the future, suggested we needed to take a back seat, and just let sh*t happen. There was no real plan to get things rolling, just an apparent acknowledgement of an energy crisis. Not exactly the inspiration we look for from a President.

Still, malaise just this past week’s palm to the forehead moment.

This Administration’s leaders on this scorekeeper’s big board of gaffes are these gems:

“The is no COVID-19 in Eastern Europe . . . and there never will be under a Biden Administration “

“I haven’t been to Europe either . . . ”
-Marlow

PS. This remains seared in my mind as the top American political gaffe image during my time on this planet:

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