For political choreography, always bet on Obama

In general, if a speech has five minutes worth of substance, it should be delivered in five minutes. Oprah Winfrey managed on Saturday to take seventeen minutes delivering five minutes worth of substance.

One wonders whether Oprah and the Obama handlers felt that she must give a minimum number of Oprah minutes to the fans – mostly her fans– who braved Iowa’s December weather to see her. Whether Oprah herself, having called the shots in her world for so many years, simply told the campaign “I’ve got a seventeen minute speech,” and then proceeded to give it. Or whether everyone who could have taken a blue pencil to Oprah’s remarks was so happy to have her on board, that they didn’t want to mess up a good thing.

Oprah may have been weak on content, but Obama’s expert strategists and choreographers were right on, as they almost always are. For connoisseurs of political choreography, the Oprah events were Swan Lake on steroids.

Is Oprah bigger than Bill Clinton? Hell, yes. Oprah runs an empire. She confers overnight fame and fortune on previously unknown authors. Oprah kicks the butts of people who sue her. She appears each month on the cover of her magazine, because she IS the brand. She gains weight without losing respect. She’s lampooned by the South Park guys, and for once, they are the ones who look the worse for it. Oprah is black, and yet accessible to the rest of us. She’s gorgeous, without actually being gorgeous. Oprah’s richer than Martha Stewart, JK Rowling and Madonna. And she’s nice, according to those who are in a position to know.

The Reasonable Reporter expected to be dazzled by Oprah. Wanted to be dazzled by Oprah. But apparently Oprah has been talking to the afternoon TV audience for too many years. Her speech was insipid, and way too long. And yes, she was “out of her pew,” as she told the Iowa audience.

They loved her anyway, because she’s Oprah. And because when you go out in 12 degree weather for an event, what are you going to do, leave before it’s over?

Meanwhile, in a smaller room, thousands of miles away, Dennis Kucinich yelled a lot. The more he yelled, the more applause he got from Northern Nevada’s progressive left., who had braved a tamer version of winter weather to get to the Reno Sparks Convention Center.

Kucinich inspired thunderous applause when he told the crowd of 300 or so that he’d been reading up on articles of impeachment. He spoke of his impoverished childhood. He outlined health care reforms that would strip the industry of its profit margin and redirect those dollars to patient care. He promised to be tough on lobbyists. This got him a standing ovation, but he was yelling again, so it wasn’t clear whether content brought the crowd to its feet, or choreography. (More modern jazz than ballet.)

In a brilliant bit of choreography, the statuesque young Mrs. Kucinich, who in low heels has at least six inches on her husband, perched at his feet on the edge of the raised platform where he stood. She gazed adoringly upward for most of the twenty-five minute speech, until the Reasonable Reporter’s neck began to ache in sympathy. It was intriguing, and it worked.

Mitt Romney, who once seemed to be the Republican bookend of Barack Obama for his presentation style, did not live up to choreographic expectations in his “big speech” about faith in America. The content was well thought out. The strategy was controversial, even in his own camp. The Romney choreographers, if indeed they ever were employed, have apparently joined the Hollywood writers on the picket line. Romney was smart and composed, but he wasn’t moving to the music.

Nice Pants

Originally Published on NevadaNewsmakers.com, 7/16/2007 11:23:36 AM

Chris Dodd’s khaki slacks are frayed at the hems, as if he’s worn them repeatedly with shoes that allow them to drag on the ground. They’re neatly frayed, if such thing is possible, not ragged, and there are no hanging threads. All the same, it’s a distraction. Is it charmingly unpretentious? Or is it horrifyingly unpresidential when the chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban affairs seeks the White House in a pair of khakis with frayed hems?

The Reasonable Reporter can’t help but wonder whether the slacks are a conscious wardrobe choice. Pulled, perhaps, from a closet hung with dozens of pairs of perfectly frayed khakis, calculated to underscore Dodd’s down-to-earth start as a Peace Corps volunteer. Or is this the same brand of wardrobe oversight regularly committed by men from all walks of life? (Whadya mean? I’m just breaking them in!) The kind that spurs a wife to plow unmercifully through his closet with a Salvation Army donation bag, in order to save him from himself?

But this is, after all, a Friday afternoon appearance at a downtown Reno brewpub. And Dodd’s fiery style doesn’t permit audience attention to linger at the hem of his pants. He stands on a slightly raised platform at the end of the room, and rails against the Bush approach to foreign policy. He rails at American auto manufacturers, for balking at the mention of a 50 mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency standard. He rails at Hillary Clinton (Oh so gently, he rails at Clinton… She was right, but she went about it all wrong.) for trying to accomplish health care reform in the basement, in the middle of the night.

He touts his own leadership on the Family Leave Act. It took seven years, and three presidents, he bellows.

Dodd’s voice carries without a microphone, and he turns from side to side to include the entire audience. He jokes about George W. Bush, who, after September 11, told Americans to go shopping. Dodd prompts the assembled Nevadans to say it, too. What did Bush say at a terrible time like that?

“As long as I live, I’ll never forget what he said.” A few voices fill in the blank. He said “go shopping,” and the crowd laughs. The effect is a bit like the opening moments of a Seinfeld episode, where we see a sliver of Jerry’s monologue, delivered to a small, but appreciative group of comedy club patrons.

This is the essence of retail politics. The coffee shop in Iowa, the living room in New Hampshire, the brewery in Reno, Nevada.

Never mind that recent polls show Chris Dodd tied with Dennis Kucinich, pulling about one percent support. He’s here, frayed khakis and all. Many of the 50 or so Nevada Dems gathered at the brewery say they’re doing exactly what the party hoped they’d do, given lavish attention by presidential hopefuls. A handful had also been present in the Latino Business District at noon Friday when Bill Richardson opened his new campaign headquarters, and showed up again on Sunday, at the christening of the Edwards HQ in South Reno. Nevada caucusers, braving July heat, undaunted by tight downtown parking, shopping earnestly in the marketplace of retail politics.