How many clichés can you cram in a single op-ed? Well, we could try to count Scott Lehigh's today in the Globe.
What? You say it's not news to you that Deval Patrick is Black or that Kerry Healey is a woman? How about that Patrick was "virtually unknown" before this campaign? Wait, wait...how about Healey will claim that Patrick is a tax-and-spend liberal?
Oh, you knew all that? Damn! There goes his column.
The barber shop/beauty parlor philosopher is your source for only the plainest truths. If you don't know that you're tall or skinny or wrinkled or sweating, turn to Scott. If you are outside and want to know if it's hot or raining, Scott's your man. If it is glaringly obvious, he's all over it.
I don't believe that -- even as a party game -- all of us working as a group could string together this much obviousness. Surely in his high school class, Scott Lehigh was voted Most Likely To Comment On The Weather.
Actually, this column is worth reading. It is an object lesson.
You are certain to read and hear a lot of what he drags out from his bag of simplemindedness between now and November 7th. You can train yourself to filter out these clichés and remain focused on meaningful issues and arguments.
If you see that tripe even here, you must ignore it. The writer or commenter is dull-witted or having a bad day.
There are real and important issues to resolve before the voters. We only have seven weeks to do this. If we let clichés rule the debate, the Republicans have won.
Meanwhile, you can be sure that those with the least to say will say the most. You can identify it easily with Scott's material. Transcend it and find someone with insight.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, governor, Deval Patrick, Boston Globe
1 comment:
Maybe Lehigh will eventually get around to pointing out the other glaring obvious: Healey is herself nothing more than a string of cliches. Heck, she reproduces them so steadily, you could string them together into a nifty Halloween garland. Of course, she's not the first pol to do that (take Galvin during his 'i wanna be governor' speech at the dem platform convention last year - yikes!), but she's not charismatic enough to embody them and make the barbs stick. Consequently, they just fall flat, ring hollow, suck air [add your cliche here], as will her campaign. All this meaning, she is a weak candidate and will not convince anyone who is not already an anything-but-a-dem voter. Partick will be our next governor.
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