LA Times Op/Ed: "Hillary Clinton : Politics = Celine Dion : Music"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks22jun22,0,5894867.column?coll=la-opinion-center
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Oped_Celine_Dion_Is_Hillary_campaign_0622.html

Op-ed: Celine Dion? Is Hillary campaign tone-deaf?

RAW STORY
Published: Friday June 22, 2007

A Los Angeles columnist is wondering if the Hillary Clinton campaign is "tone-deaf."

Rosa Brooks notes that "Clinton staffers have declared the 'pick our theme song' contest a resounding success," but "Celine Dion really is the lowest common denominator."

"If the SAT's analogies section tested politics and pop culture, even the dimmest teenager would agree that 'Hillary Clinton: Politics = Celine Dion: Music,'" Brooks writes.

Brooks adds, "Both Clinton and Dion have enjoyed astounding career success. Both showed early talent but are now widely accused of being sellouts. Dion's interesting, edgy early songs were replaced, during her bid for superstardom, by trite and formulaic crowd pleasers; Clinton's interesting, edgy early policy positions were replaced, during her bid for elected office, by trite and formulaic crowd pleasers."

"Selecting 'You and I' may ultimately come to seem like a Clinton campaign blunder," Brooks believes. "For one thing, Dion's name summons up, unbidden, thoughts of other major Dion hits, such as the 'Titanic' theme song and the title track from Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast.' Neither suggests helpful associations."

Brooks adds, "The real problem with 'You and I' isn't that it was sung by a French Canadian — the real problem is that, like most of Dion's oeuvre, it's just a crummy song. Superficially, it sounds like 'music,' but it isn't really. It's just the product of a well-paid advertising agency's successful formula for producing persuasive — and mildly sedative — background noise."

[SaveElmer]

1. They managed it...the LA Times has officially published...

The most stupid editorial in the history of newspaper publishing...

If this is what they come up with to criticize Hillary for, she is gonna win in a landslide!!!

[mod mom]

2. I think her choice of a Canadian CORPORATE jingle sung by a Canadian singer is

a big blunder. I don't know who she expects to inspire with this music. I am a woman in the 45-50 age bracket and I can honestly say I don't know anyone who listens to Dion (or can stand her syrupy sweet singing). This choice gives fodder for her opponents.

I also don't understand why she would want to place herself in the role of a mafia thug (her remake of the Sopranos ending) and show herself walking into a diner with no one paying attention.

Sounds like she is listening to bad advise.

[SaveElmer]

4. Anyone who actually thinks that "this is a big blunder"

And will hurt her....has been sitting at their computer keyboard waaaaay to long...you need to get out

[mod mom]

6. Sorry, but I am an activist.

I started & organized a 300 person Kerry/Edwards group in Franklin County Ohio. Found Precinct captains that not only worked my inner ring suburb but also GOTV in nearby low income African American precincts. I registered over 2 dozen new voters in '04. Held Fundraisers for several candidates and progressive organizations. Thanks to my activism, I met Kerry and Edwards, Elizabeth Edards (and received a personal phone call from Mrs Edwards. I worked every Rally for the candidates in Central Ohio as well as travelling to other areas of the state to help out the field staff. I found free housing for field staff and set up election day staging areas.

Since then I have been involved in Election Reform/investigation and sit on the Board of one of organizations that was behind the RFK Jr Rollingstone article. I have audited a county's op-scan ballots and have worked with authors on compiling information published on the '04 election.

I have also started a sustainability group in my community.

I have worked with other progressive ACTIVISTS from around my area. We are the ones who work petition drives, and hit the pavement for the Democratic party.

I DO THINK IT IS A BIG BLUNDER. I also think choosing such a devisive candidate is another blunder. I am willing to do the same work during the next election cycle, as long as the candidate is progressive (read ABH) and NOT a member of the DLC!

[SaveElmer]

7. Then your judgment is way off...

In fact, the song and video have gotten the exact opposite reaction from what you predict...

[mod mom]

9. hmmh...then what's up w the LA Times Op Ed?

I agree w someone below that who cares about a theme song. I can't even tell you what was used in '04-maybe Bruce Springsteen since he appeared at one of the rallies I worked). But I do see it as fodder for her opposition.

[SaveElmer]

11. Are ya kidding?

You take an op-ed in the LA Times as evidence that the public is going to punish Hillary Clinton for allowing her supporters to select a Celine Dion song?

I know Obama supporters have been scrounging around trying to find ways to trash the Clinton campaign after the Obama campaign's amateurish and embarrassing hit memo got out...but really...

If this is what they decide to use...Hillary can start measuring the drapes in the White House...she is as good as in...

[durrrty libby]

10. "I started & organized a 300 person Kerry/Edwards group in Franklin County Ohio. "

And how did that work out for you???

Sometimes "activists" can't see the forest through the trees.

Blind in one eye, deaf in the other.

[mod mom]

12. It did work for the Dems. We lead Kerry to victory in Ohio, and thus the country

but unfortunately a DLC traitor lead to a quick concession:

Did Carville Tip Bush Off to Kerry Strategy (Woodward)


By M.J. Rosenberg |

On page 344, Woodward describes the doings at the White House in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the day after the '04 election.

Apparently, Kerry had decided not to concede. There were 250,000 outstanding ballots in Ohio.

So Kerry decides to fight. In fact, he considers going to Ohio to camp out with his voters until there is a recount. This is the last thing the White House needs, especially after Florida 2000.

-snip

"Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign was going to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio -- perhaps up to 250,000 of them. 'I don't agree with it, Carville said. I'm just telling you that's what they're talking about.'

-snip

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

[durrrty libby]

13. woulda,coulda,shoulda..bottom line....failure. No one cares about the details

Which is my point about forest, trees. blindness...etc.

Sorry, you don't get it and probably never will.


Hyper focus on minutia + not seeing big picture = FAILURE

[mod mom]

14. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of Af Am Democratic base voters who were

systematically DISENFRANCHISED at the hands of the GOP ops like Blackwell, Rove Tim Griffin. The Dems should have had a plan prepared after 2000 to follow through and make sure every vote was counted. the House Judiciary took up the cause of caging, just yesterday at the McNulty Hearing.

and btw I DO get the big picture!

This country is getting ruined by the likes of corporate whores who seek profit over what is best for this country. The 'free-traders", like Ms Clinton, have seriously hurt the middle class by allowing corporations to ship well paying jobs with benefits overseas where there are no labor laws or environmental laws (thus ruining the environment). For what reason? The bottom line. This has also eroded the structure of the American family when parents must either both work and/or work several jobs to make ends meet. This is also a concern for national security, when our manufacturing has been out-sourced to countries who may not be our allies in the future.

If you want to support this policy, what ever. I will work for change.

[durrrty libby]

21. "I will work for change." by making a stink over a stupid song

phoney phoney bo boney banana fanana fo ....

[mod mom]

25. I made a friggin' comment that she got bad advice...sheesh

I didn't realize her staff had NOTHING to do with picking the song. I thought supporters could pick one of several selected by the campaign.

:eyes:

I also commented on the poor choice for the soprano re-make. It reminds me of how the media used the picture of Abramoff leaving court with a black hat and black topcoat looking "gangsterish". You think someone might have advised him of such attire. I wouldn't suggest any candidate play the role of a gangster in a campaign commercial.

[durrrty libby]

28. Oh for crissake chill out

You have typed hundreds of words, inspired by condemning a stupid song
and you were completely wrong as to how it came about,
and honestly it made everything else you wrote about, have no credibility.


That should teach you something. Maybe...maybe not


Anyway..no harm no foul

BTW the Soprano spoof was brilliant. She got tons of attention for days ( once again you focus on useless minutia "gangsterish"???)

Edwards and Obama got nothing..zip..nada It was superb strategy and fun

[mod mom]

29. Um...

"You have typed hundreds of words condemning a stupid song"

Perhaps you might re-read my posts.

[durrrty libby]

32. um..no thanks..once was enough

[Morgana LaFey]

38. Try again. You're the one looking a little lame here.

Or even a lot.

[autorank]

19. Don't know Dion but activism: Name one successful group that didn't start with archivists?

Civil rights activist started with nothing but commitment to civil and voting rights. That commitment evolved into the Civil and Voting Rights acts. Not bad.

The Sierra Club and others way back in the 1960's began raising environmental awareness. They spawned millions of local activists, of various forms, who push for clean environment and rational growth policies. This has had an effect.

Some times the parties don't represent the people's needs and wishes. Take a look at who garnered those folks, Theodore Roosevelt, Bull Moose candidate:

In 1912 former President Theodore Roosevelt broke from the Republican party and ran for president as the Progressive (or Bull Moose) party candidate. Running on a strong reform platform that included woman suffrage, an end to child labor, and greater federal regulation of the economy, Roosevelt ran second in the race, beating Republican President William Howard Taft but losing to the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. Link

The other thing Roosevelt did was propose a form of "social security." Damn, that's some real action, even though his campaign was unsuccessful, his ideas were adopted.

I know what the Ohio activists did - they stood up to the most corrupt form of vile governance in the recent history of the United States - the Taft/Petro/Blackwell rule of Ohio (recently liberated). They kept records of election crimes and publicized them. They never backed down even though some of the group of election activists were threatened with jail for simply posting election results on precincts (Cleveland, Vicki Lovegren).

So caution is required when you disparage anyone who stands out there and advocates for the truth, a position the public endorses but leadership ignores.

I think the ultimate epitaph of HRC will be here ill informed comment on the Iraq war continuing through her first term. Forget Dion (whoever she is) and concentrate on that; a remark that elicits a visceral reaction the first time I heard it and, I suspect, many others. WTF is that about, "four more years!." Now way. That's the tin ear.

[durrrty libby]

5. From what I read, ordinary people voted for the songs

So blame them

Personally I don't give a rat's ass what song a candidate uses

It is such a stupid non-issue, but interesting how people make a mountain

out of a grain of sand.

[jeff30997]

3. Celine Dion = Garbage

I'm French-Canadian.Sorry for sending you our toxic wastes!

[durrrty libby]

8. Toxic waste? Wow.. She's just a singer, living large in Vegas,

with millions of fans. She doesn't hurt anyone

Do people here have to be assholes to every thing in the universe?

[peacebird]

15. pot meet kettle.

:eyes:

[durrrty libby]

24. So you know the "toxic waste guy"? not surprised at all

[JerseygirlCT]

37. You're forgiven. But please don't do it again! nt

[AlGore-08.com]

16. Just F.Y.I. re: "The People Chose The Song, Not Hillary" posters

The real danger of pieces like this is not that they are pointless fluff or even that they're wrong. The real danger is that more people will read/see/hear the incorrect pointless fluff than participated in the real event being misreported. What was the number of folks who watched the YouTube video announcing the song? 1 million, wasn't it? You get the talking heads babbling over and over and over and over "Hillary Clinton made a mistake by picking a French Canadian song as her theme song!" and 50 million will hear the pointless fluff.

The Clinton campaign will be left with the lose/lose problem of whether to fight the media over a piece of totally pointless fluff, or take the hit that their candidate is politically tone deaf.

And don't kid yourselves. For millions of people, this kind of pointless fluff will affect the way they vote - - because pointless fluff is always discussed as a deep insight to the candidate's character. This op-ed being plained is an excellent case in point. It, and any other pointless fluff that can be spun as showing a candidate as politically tone deaf, prone to making bad decisions, insensitive, intolerant, bigoted, etc... will snowball and hurt a lot.

[Herman Munster]

17. Hillary didn't "pick" the song

The people did! What was she supposed to do? Tamper with the votes??????????

[SaveElmer]

18. This is a left wing fishbowl type of complaint...

All indications are the select a song process has been of extraordinary benefit to Hillary's campaign.

[0007]

20. ....or start writing books!!

[zulchzulu]

22. Clinton Team outsourced the campaign theme song

Figgers....

[wyldwolf]

23. I hope so. Celine Dion is one of the most successful artists in pop music history

[zulchzulu]

27. ..since Lionel Richie was unavailable...

Most successful pop singer list:

1 (1) Elvis Presley
2 (2) Cliff Richard
3 (4) Queen
4 (3) The Beatles
5 (5) Madonna
6 (6) Elton John
7 (7) The Shadows
8 (8) Michael Jackson
9 (10) U2
10 (9) David Bowie
11 (11) Rod Stewart
12 (12) Frank Sinatra
13 (13) Diana Ross
14 (14) Dire Straits
15 (15) Simon And Garfunkel
16 (16) The Rolling Stones
17 (17) Abba
18 (18) Fleetwood Mac
19 (19) Phil Collins
20 (20) Paul McCartney
21 (21) Pink Floyd
22 (22) UB40
23 (23) Meat Loaf
24 (24) Tom Jones
25 (28) Oasis
26 (25) Status Quo
27 (26) Simply Red
28 (27) The Beach Boys
29 (29) Stevie Wonder
30 (30) The Carpenters
31 (32) R.E.M.
32 (31) The Bee Gees
33 (33) Bob Dylan
34 (34) Tina Turner
35 (35) Prince
36 (36) Jim Reeves
37 (37) Neil Diamond
38 (43) Robbie Williams
39 (38) Bob Marley & The Wailers
40 (39) Eric Clapton
41 (40) Whitney Houston
42 (55) Kylie Minogue
43 (42) Eurythmics
44 (44) Madness
45 (45) Genesis
46 (46) Barbra Streisand
47 (41) Andy Williams
48 (47) Bruce Springsteen
49 (50) Bon Jovi
50 (48) Mike Oldfield
51 (51) Lionel Richie
52 (49) Celine Dion
53 (54) Electric Light Orchestra
54 (60) Mariah Carey
55 (53) Duran Duran
56 (52) Bryan Adams
57 (56) George Michael
58 (57) Shirley Bassey
59 (58) Pet Shop Boys
60 (59) Roy Orbison
61 (61) Roxy Music
62 (62) The Four Tops
63 (63) Janet Jackson
64 (64) The Police
65 (65) Sting
66 (66) John Lennon
67 (69) Erasure
68 (67) Simple Minds
69 (68) Cher
70 (70) The Supremes
71 (84) Stereophonics
72 (71) Buddy Holly
73 (72) Eagles
74 (73) Perry Como
75 (74) Guns N' Roses
76 (75) Blondie
77 (76) Engelbert Humperdinck
78 (77) Donna Summer
79 (79) Led Zeppelin
80 (78) Billy Joel
81 (80) Wet Wet Wet
82 (82) Barry Manilow
83 (81) Slade
84 (85) Chris Rea
85 (83) The Who
86 (New) Eminem
87 (89) The Corrs
88 (86) The Everly Brothers
89 (87) The Hollies
90 (88) T. Rex
91 (90) Bryan Ferry
92 (96) Kate Bush
93 (91) Red Hot Chili Peppers
94 (92) Blur
95 (93) The Beautiful South
96 (New) Britney Spears
97 (94) Luther Vandross
98 (95) James Last
99 (97) The Moody Blues
100 (100) Shakin' Stevens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200

[wyldwolf]

35. That list isn't on the page from your link

:shrug:

In 2004 she became the best selling female artist in the world after accumulating record sales in excess of 175 million.

[zulchzulu]

36. Oh boy...

I always thought Celine oversang...sort of a show-off for my tastes... in that class of music, I'll take Enya anyday.


Here's a link to all that stuff...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

[Capn Sunshine]

30. By those standards, so is Slim Whitman

but I don't think "Indian Love Call" ( see "Mars Attacks!") would be a suitable campaign song.

Jeebus, you won't even cop to this . I think you guys got punked by Dion clones or some other internet "vote for Sanjaya" movement.

I mean , KT Tunstall was available, and you go with Celine?

[wyldwolf]

33. silly comparison, but ok. If we're making a comparison as the OP suggests

popularity and record sales = votes. By 2004, Dion had accumulated record sales in excess of 175 million.

Yes, there are infinitely more people who do not care for Dion, but of those who buy records (or those who vote), she outpaces most others.

[Forkboy]

26. Does anyone expect any campaign to use a good song?

It hasn't happened yet,so why get bummed about this one? Not many campaigns will have the attitude to pick "No W" by Ministry or anything,so we get pablum like this.Safe,fuzzy and non-threatening.It's the perfect choice for just about any politician.

[Capn Sunshine]

31. "Don't Stop " by the Mac was pretty cool in its time

Think pop , not deep.

[Forkboy]

34. You old fuddy duddy!

:P

What next,Lawrence Welk? :evilgrin:

[snowbear]

39. I can't stand Celine Dion myself.. but my elderly aunt loves her.. LOL!

Then again.. It was up the the HRC's to pick their favorite tune.