Tell what you know
Do not tell more than you know
Do not tell less than you know
Tell what you know
This was Gertrude Stein’s advice to aspiring writers, which
I have always thought was exquisitely elegant in its simplicity, as well as appropriate
for those in other walks of life -- take for example those aspiring to be President
of the United States.
Michele Bachmann told us that the shot heard ‘round the
world was fired in Concord, New Hampshire, and that the Founding Fathers fought
tirelessly to end slavery. Rick Perry told us that the voting age is
twenty-one, and that there are eight justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Herman
Cain told us that the Taliban would be involved in any newly formed government
of Libya. They all repeatedly told us more than they knew. Of course they had to. What they actually did
know was not enough to be a serious applicants for the job.
Though we often doubt the intelligence of our friends and
neighbors, we are, as a whole, a reasonably intelligent electorate. We have what city people have always referred
to as street smarts. As we grow-up (early
for some and later for others), we learn to develop our factory installed B.S.
detector. To paraphrase the single greatest leader America ever produced, all
of us can be fooled some of the time and some of us can be fooled all of the
time, but all of us cannot be fooled all of the time.
So, I ask you Mr. Romney, Do you believe in Gertrude Stein’s
platinum rule?
When your lightweight opponents continued to tell us more
than they knew, we were more than happy to be amused, though we were more than
a little disturbed by them having a seat at the game table in such a high
stakes game. They came to remind us of
the blowhard at the cocktail party. When
we cannot listen to one more word of his nonsense, we slip from his sight and escape
to the kitchen to make fun of him.
Newt still assures us repeatedly that he knows more than most
other mortals, including you. He of
course knew more than any of the other contenders, though he was careful to
explain that you and all of them knew more than the man we foolishly elected to
lead us. Then Newt presented you with
the right to laughingly characterize him as “Lucy in the chocolate factory,”
when he learned that he failed to get on the ballot in his home state of
Virginia. He then called for a write-in
vote, but Virginia forbids write-in votes in its primaries. He did not know what he did not know.
And so he promised to give us $2.50-a-gallon gasoline, if we
would just give him what was rightfully his – the coveted seat in the Oval Office. He told us he knew how to do it. One problem: we did not believe him, because
we no longer believed that he knew what he told us he knew.
And then only one – the holy warrior from Pennsylvania –
stood in your way. He must have thrown
quite a scare into you, though of course you cannot admit it. He was on your heels all the way, poised to
overtake you. Fortunately, he got a little carried away with himself. He should have beaten you in Michigan. What a blow that would have been – upsetting
you in your “home state,” where you were so happy to be back where “the trees are
just the right height.”
Yes, he got a little carried away. He is a man who likes to lecture. So lecture, he did. He lectured women on some very personal
matters. Did you believe your good
fortune? He heard the rumblings from the
offended gender, but he dug in. After
all, God was on his side. But women were
not. In droves, they deserted him for
you. Could you have ever delivered the
kind of blow that he landed to his very own chin? You know the answer to that question. If you pack that kind of a wallop, you have
not yet shown it. But, we cannot fault
your strategy.
You chose to remain silent. You, the victor of bloody corporate battles, understand and appreciate
the famous axiom: When your enemy is destroying himself, stay out of his way.
And your enemy was not quite finished destroying himself. He had one more blockbuster punch to land. He stepped to the center of the ring and took
on the memory of JFK. The issue was separation
of church and state, but the issue hardly mattered. He threw the clumsiest big time punch we had
ever seen, which prompted television news programs to run clips from 1960 of the
young contender from Boston addressing Protestant ministers in Houston, displaying
his eloquence, intellect, and humility.
In reality, he was speaking to a much wider audience. He was an American who happened to be
Catholic, speaking to Americans who happened to be Protestant, Catholic, Jewish,
Quaker, Baptist, Unitarian, or none of the above. He spoke to our better selves.
And then we watched the holy warrior from Pennsylvania say,
“You bet it makes me want to throw up.”
It was a stunning boomerang-punch that knocked him senseless. He stumbled around and stumbled around and
then weakly climbed out of the ring.
So here you are – preparing for the main event.
The Champ is unlike any opponent you have ever faced. He will not give you the gift of knocking
himself out. You will not be able to
out-spend him, or out-organize him. He
will not make the mistakes of an amateur. He knows your weaknesses and will skillfully
exploit them. There will be defining
debates, where you will face him on camera, mano-a-mano, and eyeball to
eyeball.
You have survived a game of elimination. That is all you have done, and it was
enough. You stayed in a crouch, with
your hands protecting your chin. At
every opportunity, you told us less than you know. So, what now, Governor? Are you willing to get hit in order to land
some blows? That is what we need to
see. Not to take pleasure in seeing you
with a split lip, and a broken nose, and purple, swollen eye lids, but to see
if you are willing to fight through pain that you have never before felt and
exhaustion that you have never before experienced in order to win the right to
lead all of the people.
The moment of truth is near. You will finally have to tell us what you
know. Your ideas
– which I hope will be
brilliant ideas - will be mercilessly attacked and ridiculed, but may very
well win the day.
Be worthy. Be worthy!
