Interesting similarities of Harper’s style to Bush’s

May 31st, 2007 | email this | digg it

Leave your comment Posted by Scott Tribe

Published in Canadian Politics

I’ve said often before that George “Dubya” Bush was Harper and the Conservatives “American Idol”, but take a look at this slideshow and see how striking it is that Harper has been using the exact same slogans and phrases that Bush has. Also note that in one shot, a “Bush/Cheney 2004″ campaign poster is visible in the PMO’s building.

Nice to also see the Liberals starting to use the “American Idol” phrase. I won’t be so brazen and take credit for their using it, but I’m not the only one who’s picked up on it.

By the way, the Young Liberal Site and ads have been getting very good coverage in the traditional media - here’s another example of that today, and another - proving you don’t need a multi-million dollar campaign to garner publicity and make effective ads with.. just some creativity and some internet savvy.

15 Responded To This Post

4596. Holly Stick said on May 31, 2007 at 4:09 pm

The slide show starts out pretty slowly; they might get more people’s attention with a snappier presentation, IMHO. So who writes Harper’s speeches, an American? Frum? Does Harper have American advisors? If so, who?

I hope the Liberals are combing Harpers’ speeches and comparing them to Bush’s speeches. I found one similarity after the shootings at Dawson College. See this thread, page 2, especially comments on Sep 13, 2006 9:58 pm; and Sep 14, 2006 1:56 am; and 3:35 am; and 3:41 am.

4597. Holly Stick said on May 31, 2007 at 4:19 pm

Sorry about the link; can you fix that?

4599. Scott Tribe said on May 31, 2007 at 4:37 pm

Fixed.

I’d sure like to know what some of you are doing, when you comment… it appears on my end in raw format that youre hitting a carriage return at the end of the text box rather then carrying on typing… thus the reason the comment looks weird,

Again, I can’t be certain if its because some of you aren’t using the rich text editor when you put in links or bold or whatever, or for some its not compatible with your browser.. and you need to turn it off.

4600. knb said on May 31, 2007 at 4:40 pm

Funny Scott, I just finished watching that clip. I would agree with Holly, it’s a bit slow. Many of us have been saying this for months of course, but I’m glad to see the Lib’s actually make stark comparisons. You could have a very slick ad made just using expressions alone. Cut and Run, Flip Flop, Not a Leader, God Bless Canada, Support the Troops or Support the Taliban…and so on. They would have to be very cleverly crafted though, lest you get into the “scary” Harper thing, though to be honest, he is showing us that he’s scary. You’d also have to avoid the whole US bashing thing. Dion’s line was good, “The US is our partner and our friend, not our model” (paraphrased).

Holly, Harper did have Frank Luntz, the genius of disingenuous language, up here at one point, training the “team”. I doubt that he has a US adviser, but I am sure he has communications advisers that scour every utterance that seems to take hold, south of the border. Dumb strategy, because most Americans are rolling their eyes at these juvenile taunts. I guess Mr. Harper just doesn’t think we’re smart enough to catch on to such things.

4601. knb said on May 31, 2007 at 4:42 pm

Ooops, I just realised the text editor. Sorry about that. Creature of habit…what can I say?

4602. Scott Tribe said on May 31, 2007 at 5:12 pm

Thats ok Knb.. edited.

I'm going to have to take out that XHTML line stuff… because <i> no longer works for italics. (It would be either < em > (no spaces)… or highlighting the text and clicking on the I button in the text editor.. which is so obvious I dont know how you folks are missing it

4603. knb said on May 31, 2007 at 6:22 pm

I understand the I button, hey, where did it go?

It is obvious, just not usual in most comment sections, so I didn’t look for it.

4604. ALW said on May 31, 2007 at 6:28 pm

If Harper is using the same “style” and slogans as Bush, does that mean he is “Bush-like”? It’s obviously fair to make these comparisons, but my question is why they’re relevant. I think what’s dishonest about this exercise is that what’s being implied is that, because Harper’s people copy Bush’s “style” they are therefore ideological clones of Bush, which is a completely different argument.

I’d also note it’s a bit creepy that Liberals are taking pictures through the window of the PMO. I mean, really.

4605. knb said on May 31, 2007 at 6:48 pm

ALW :”If Harper is using the same “style” and slogans as Bush, does that mean
he is “Bush-like”? ”

Actually it points to him being Bush-Lite. Fair point re’ style and ideology. The two do not necessarily follow each other, but nor are they mutually exclusive.

In this particular case, I believe it’s true, not in all instances, but most. I base that on what Harper has written and stood for and compare it to the so called neo-con agenda in the States.

I won’t do your homework for you, but if you explore both, you can make up your own mind.

The ideology argument is a bit too complex to put in an ad or a media piece, style however is easy to illustrate and in this case, imo, it correlates.

4608. Mentarch said on May 31, 2007 at 7:08 pm

The Mini Leader is definitely pinning too much for his dear, manly idol, methinks …

4609. burlivespipe said on May 31, 2007 at 7:39 pm

That Harpor is cutting and pasting Bushisms like negative advertising, 'us or them', strictly guiding the media or ignoring the media, even in terms of Pembina's latest comment on the CON green plan, trying to label an unpartisan (at least politically) group as partisan — what more evidence do you need that you are in duck country!

4610. knb said on May 31, 2007 at 7:51 pm

Burlivespipe…(love that name btw), well said.

4619. Miles Lunn said on May 31, 2007 at 11:21 pm

Not bad to point this out as Harper seems to be following many things from the Bush playbook. He is only not as far right because he has a minority and Canada is more left wing than the United States so he couldn't be elected here, but if Canadians would let him be as right wing as Bush, you better believe he would be. I for one think one can be a conservative without admiring Bush. Most European Conservative parties have distanced themselves from Bush on foreign policy and the environment and even some moderate Republicans such as Schwartznegger are taking a different approach on social and environmental issues. Off course Harper seems to want to model himself after the worse of conservatism.

4637. Holly Stick said on June 1, 2007 at 2:47 pm

I don’t know why I got the carriage-return effect; my Firefox Browser needs updating.

“If Harper is using the same “style” and slogans as Bush” does this mean that Harper has no ideas of his own, no thoughts, no ability to express a spontaneous emotion? Can he only repeat what’s been copied to his memory function?

I think he is fixated on the Americans and wants to be an American and is ashamed of being Canadian. And he does not know how to talk to Canadians; so he thinks what works for Bush in the Excited States will also work for him in Canada. Hasn’t he noticed us rolling our eyes yet?

4642. mushroom said on June 1, 2007 at 4:54 pm

Miles,I think Harper does it because he is treading water against opposition allegations. He knows he has to shift focus in the next session.If Harper follows the American neo-con agenda in the next fall session, then he is in serious trouble. No way he can wait until Bush leaves office and defend the Americans for this long.

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