Obama/Lakoff/Riffs

Famous and immdiately identifiable riffs:

"Take Five" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet (it's actually a Paul Desmond composition. Check out Joe Morello, the Alan Watts of jazz drumming. Love that guy. This is the single-most effing coolest jazz drummer video ever. Morello was an avatar.)

"Money" by Pink Floyd. But betterer.

"Rapture" by Blondie.

"Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, later fabulously deconstructed by Fudge Tunnel. Until you hear that you have not sufficiently lived. Stop what you're doing and go for it right now.

Everybody's been reading Lakoff lately, and I think that is a sign of looming turnaround. He discusses "framing" of issues, and I have begun to think, in loose analogy, of "frames" as "riffs."

Republicans, under the tutelage of Rove and earlier under the notorious and thankfully no longer operative Lee Atwater, have inadvertantly mastered the art of framing, and now that Democrats and progressives have begun to understand this, the playing field tilts. Big time.

I had the day off. Such is the life of a nurse, who slaves away weekends when the nine-to-fivers are off to their retreats and amusements, only then myself to have the luxury of a mild Monday morning unassigned to wage accumulation. So I went to Tempe to see and hear Barack Obama and a host of other really good Democratic political candidates.

We have excellent candidates.

Obama's speech was well-crafted and fine-tuned to the modern media predeliction for topical sound-bites, but the recurring notion was "we can do better."

We Can Do Better.

Of course we can. Freakin' idiots could do better than this Bush cabal. But I like the frame.

"We" as in us-versus-them. It triangulates out the Bushistas, which leaves the majority who oppose his policies in a position of inclusiveness.

By saying that we can do better, the implication is that they are not doing so well. We all understand that, even if we are supporters of this Administration. "Better" can always be done, so even Bush die-hards get caught in this frame.

Phil Gordon aquitted himself very well, dynamism intact.

Pederson speaks like an established and relaxed talk-radio host.

Though the crowd murmured when J.D.Hayworth and Jon Kyl were mentioned, the tone of the whole event was positive.

We Can Do Better.

Heck yeah. And we will.