I have commented in the past, here, about how campaign triva distracts from the real issues of the US elections. The best way to look at this is to analyze the commentary about the presidential debates. Talk show hosts and other pundits have been speaking a lot about the Bush smirk, his body language etc. Maybe it’s because there are limited things to say about made-for-TV debates that were useful in the older TV era of politics, and are somewhat irrelevant today with much more media and PR venues available to politicians.

I came across this Benson cartoon in the Arizona Republic, that captures this nonsense. It is based on a TV ad tactic for Geico insurance.

For those of you outside the US, Geico features a highly memorable character, a lizard (probably because the nearest word to Geico, is gecko.) Geico ads have this silly storyline of someone selling some typical informercial-type product, and the lizard suddenly breaks in, saying, “yes, but I did save a lot of money by switching to Geico..” I like to think of it as an ad that parodies advertising itself. Or ‘bait and switch’ humor with a purpose –to make consider switching insurance companies.

To get back to the Benson cartoon, the reporters on the left shove camera lenses and microphones at Bush. One of the reporters makes this long-winded statement on “more beheadings, increased American combat deaths, not enough troops on the ground, spiralling innocent Iraqis being murdered…” To which Bush, (with that ‘smirk’) replies: “But the good news is I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.”

On one level, one could argue that this is, in essence, the Bush strategy–ignoring the question and the reality, and switching to the product he wants to sell. But I think the cartoon actually makes a backhanded comment on the state of journalism, which covers the silly sound bite.