I know, I know, you are tired of me talking about it. But last night during the State Of The Union, we had excellent examples of the use of optics. Trump had people like a rehabilitated convict to a 100 year old Tuskegee Airman to drive home the idea that he is doing more for minorities than anybody before. Praised ICE and his agents with the presence of a Hispanic officer which kinda kills the ICE = KKK narrative. And there were more moments like this through the speech including the recognition to Rush Limbaugh that was Trump’s way to piss on the Democrat’s eye.
But even though people were talking about those moments, the top optic moment of the night did not come from Trump but from bonehead Nancy Pelosi:
She was pissed, no doubt. She spent the speech trying to control her reactions to the President and failing only to have her guest start screaming at the President during the speech like it was some county fair and she finishes by tearing he copy of the State of The Union in front of God and Country demonstrating an amazing level of pettiness.
Wether it was a pre-staged move or not, people immediately classified her actions as bitchy and disrespectful. The Narrative was set in Social media before she was able to get out of chambers and it will never be seen in any other way.
And that my friends, is bad optics, the kind that will destroy anything you’ll do in the future. She gave ammunition to her enemies and made the President’s voter base even more aroused in his defense.
She archived the opposite she was looking for.
That was the queen optic of the night certainly. The DNC just spoonfed Trump optics the entire evening. Low unemployment across the board? Sat there scowling. GOP could run commercial after commercial w/ that one. The boos and catcalls when talking about banning late term abortion just handed votes the the repubs.
The narrative in the past has been all about “the adult in the room” and how Trump is not “presidential”. What we have now is that HE was the adult in the room.
Quite apart from this one, there was the not so visible bit somewhat earlier where a dozen or so members were standing up, yelling, fists raised in what was either the Nazi or the communist salute, I’m not quite sure. (Not that it makes much difference.)
Pelosi fired the first salvo with her introduction.
Instead of traditional
“Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States.”
She announced President Trump in her special :
“Members of Congress, the President of the United States.”
And it went downhill from there.
It’s interesting that a number of news outlets are making a big deal of Trumps supposed snub of Pelosi’s handshake. It looked to me like he never saw it. And they also make a big deal about the fact that he supposedly started his speech without being introduced by Pelosi. That’s truly bizarre, I guess they didn’t hear the half introduction Pelosi gave and somehow thought she was going to give a real one.
Once again, demonstration that toddlers will be toddlers. Temper tantrums are considered respectful conversation.
Another interesting item: Pelosi apparently claimed she did the tearing up thing because all the other options she had were more disrespectful. I wonder what those other options were. Moon the President?
At this point it has been conclusively proven that the whole thing was premeditated. By at least half an hour — that’s when she prepared the paper for the show at the end. Perhaps much longer; the fact that several people in the party including “leadership” (Hakeem Jeffries) had a ready quip about shredders suggests that.
Next time around, Trump should print the text on Tyvek.