Commentary
What If Americans Are Just Sick-And-Tired Of You-Know-Who?
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, September 2, 2020
One of my favorite -- and the weirdest -- Marvel Comics series is its "What If" comic books, which pose fantasy scenarios and outcomes involving improbable match-ups of their characters. My favorite one poses the question: "What if Captain America had been elected President?"
I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it, but I was reminded about it by a pitch a received this week from a performance marketing company called "What If Media" that poses a scenario for the 2020 Presidential election that also seems like a fantasy to me: That the incumbent President will be reelected because he has a much higher recognition among Americans than Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
So here's my fantasy scenario and outcome: That instead of being an asset for getting reelected, the omnipresent nature of the President is his greatest liability. In other words, "What If Voters Got Sick-And-Tired Of Seeing You-Know-Who?"
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Don't get me wrong -- I'm doing my part. It's been two years since I published his name under my byline, which may seem like a small gesture, given what What If Media's survey shows, but it's the least I could do.
According to its poll of American adults, the Republican incumbent leads his Democratic challenger by margins greater than two-to-one in all the major awareness media What If asked them about.
Honestly, this should not be surprising, given the normal volume of news and awareness and incumbent President generates organically, and when you add how abnormal his incumbent is vis a vis his acerbic, outrageous, divisive, disgusting, un-American rhetoric, I'm posing my what-if scenario that Americans are done listening to him.
Or as Ralph Kramden put it best in yet another what-if YouTube video mashup of what would happen if he met the President: "You are a blabbermouth." (See video below.)
My what if scenario, of course, runs counter to the Madison Avenue ad age "say whatever you want, just spell my name right," but we've also never had to deal with an individual who says whatever he wants over and over and over again.
In my what if scenario, most Americans are over him and simply want to move on to someone normal.
Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.
Interesting, Joe. In my book, "TV Now And Then" ( Media Dynamics, 2015 ) I described what happened to a number of suddenly blossoming comedy stars in the early 1950s--Red Buttons, George Gobel, etc.--- who attained hit rating status, were widely exposed but kept repeating themselves so often that the public at large quickly tired of them and their ratings tailed off, leading to cancellation. Other, more enduring comedy stars, such as Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason, encountered similar problems but had more staying power because they, themselves were both interesting and likable people. Even so, Gleason had to reinvent himself several times, including a return to movie work and Sid, who also started out in Hollywood, did the same. My point is that Trump is basically a kind of comedy star who has so over exposed himself that he may pull a Red Buttons or George Gobel on himself. After a while, behaving badlly day after day is, itself, too repetitive which must get on people's nerves---mainly those whose political orientation is more in the middle of the spectrum---so much so that they may finally say, "Enough, already".
Ed, as the old saying goes, "From your lips to God's ear..."
Actually, what people are sick and tired of are covid19 lockdowns, unemployment, antifa riots, racist race activists, Trump Derangement Syndrome, dishonest news media and corrupt old politicians with 40 years in the swamp. And that doesn't work for the democrats.
Your doing your part to close your eyes and pretend it doesn't exist. My children do that when they see a shadow in the closet at night. I agree with Tom Tyler, people are sick of the dishonest media and their collaberation with the party that opposes him.