As Surfette counts down the hours to the final presidential debate, she wonders whether the Bush and Kerry campaigns noticed that 20 million viewers tuned in Sunday for episode two of ABC's new hit, "Desperate Housewives."
Why should wannabe presidents care that a prime-time soap about a suburban mom's suicide is a hit?
Two reasons:
First, because the late mom's friends (a dresser's fantasy of married and divorced trophy moms) have key things in common: Perfect hair and disappointment. Tresses marvelously styled, these women spend the first two episodes confirming that they are fed up, largely with their families, where kids are kids --and men act like kids too.
Second, because female frustration with childish behavior figured largely in another hit program last weekend. Specifically, Friday's presidential debate in St. Louis. Catching up on her surfing after Columbus Day weekend, Surfette was surprised by the number of posts she found ascribing such behavior--and correlating female disappointment--to President George W. Bush:
"America's Ex-husband" - Digby at Hullabaloo describes Mr. Bush as "Angry, hectoring, condescending and loud. Very loud. He yelled at John Kerry, he yelled at Charlie Gibson, he even yelled at at the questioners. ... And last night he angrily yelled at America as if we were his long suffering, abused wife. I think it's time for a divorce."
Body and Soul agrees. In "Bully Bush," she writes, "Bush has forever alienated the women who didn't like the war, are concerned about the economy, but thought he was a nice guy...My nine-year-old daughter described the frozen expression he had on his face while Kerry spoke...'He's not listening. He looks like he's thinking about recess.' "
"Being President Means Never Having to Say He's Sorry," writes Georgetown University linguistics Professor Deborah Tannen in a Tuesday opinion editorial. "[W]hen cornered, he often plays the mischievous but lovable child - a little boy so cute, so charming, you really can't be mad at him. On Friday night, he displayed that coy persona in first saying, "I'm not telling," when asked about possible Supreme Court appointments. But the charming little boy will probably also undercut his credibility if he reminds mothers of their own little boys who insist, "I didn't eat the cookie - he did!" even as cookie crumbs are clinging to their chins."
"Hello, Gender Gap" - Michael Tomasky of The American Prospect writes that last Friday, "George W. Bush lost a good chunk of the women's vote. .... It wasn't any single thing Bush said. It was the manner: the schoolyard swagger, the left arm cocked like an itchy gunslinger's, the arrogant sneer, the roosterish strutting -- and the voice. God, that voice. You don't quite call that screaming. It wasn't exactly caterwauling. Maybe yowling."
To be sure, the president scored with some viewers Friday, as Surfette reported, with women as well as men.
But the pressure is on. Today, with Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry neck-and-neck and their advocates and families working to court the majority of voters, their respective appeal to women will surely be at the forefront of both candidates' minds in their final debate tonight.
Surfette wonders: Were you offended Friday? How do you think the president will do with women voters on Nov. 2?
Didn't Ann Richards once claim that George Bush the elder - "reminds every woman of her first husband" ?
Posted by: Sally | October 14, 2004 at 09:15 AM