Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Stop it, stop it, stop it

Watching the network break in with New Hampshire updates last night was bad enough - having to hear all of the permutations of "The Comeback Kid" made it unbearable.

The backstory refers to Bill Clinton, who rose from the dead in New Hampshire during his first campaign, earned him the "Comeback Kid" nickname and was used to springboard him ahead for the remainder of the election season.

Last night, I was told how John McCain had named himself "the Comeback Kid" as the results came in - instant disqualification for giving yourself a nickname - and later, Hillary Clinton was being given the nickname for her win over Barack Obama.

This is troubling on several levels.

Topping my list is the fact that these names are being recycled. There is only one Galloping Ghost, Splendid Splinter, Yankee Clipper and Gipper.

There should only be one Comeback Kid, and certainly not two in the same night and from different parties. Stupid nickname vultures.

As a bonus political link, here's a listing of campaign slogans compiled from Poynter.org. I'm a big fan of the reannexation of Texas and Barry Goldwater's, "In your heart you know he’s right."

It makes him sound like a total jackass, but in a good way.

(Image from: ClevelandSeniors.com)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of this blog I saw a couple of years ago (from Minnesota, no less) talking about how unique of a nickname that "Pudge" is in reference to Ivan Rodriguez:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/baseball/archive/2005/04/whats_in_a_name.shtml

Of course, Carlton Fisk was nickanemd "Pudge" long before Rodriguez.

Also, Bill Clinton gave himself the "Comeback Kid" nickname in his non-victory speech in New Hampshire in 1992 (he actually came in 2nd to New Englander Paul Tsongas), so by your rules, if he would be disqualified from using that nickname, is it back up for grabs?

Matt G said...

Yes, definitely.

Stupid technicality. I'm thinking he chose Comeback Kid because he couldn't fit "Arkansas Sex Machine" on a campaign button.

At least its better than the Cardiac Candidate - we all know how I feel about the term, "cardiac."