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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Acronyms are NOT a City Council platform

City Council Candidate George Zamary gets ready for a loss.

Awkwardly contrived campaign acronyms should never suffice for a political platform for a high profile office like Cincinnati City Council. But apparently they didn’t teach that one to George Zamary when he want to law school. That must be why his campaign web page has a lame platform based on the idea that Cincinnati should “SOAR to new heights.”

So here, apparently, is what voting for George Zamary means:

My campaign is: “It’s time for Cincinnati to SOAR to new heights”. The pillars of my campaign represent what must be done for Cincinnati to reclaim its prominence of truly being the Queen City:

1) Safety – Cincinnatians deserve a city that is “S”afe and clean.
2) Overhaul spending – Spending must be “O”verhauled to be more effective.
3) Attract new residents and businesses (both large and small) – “A”ttracting people to Cincinnati will
spur the economy.
4) Reduce taxes – Our hard working citizens deserve “R”educed taxes that are more in line with the rest
of the state.

Isn’t it great that Zamary decided, after spelling out the words in a column to spell “SOAR,” to include those same words in his descriptions, placing the first letters in quotation marks so we could totally understand what it means to SOAR?

I think my brain is sore.

It’s one thing to have campaign gimmicks, but a review of Zamary’s site shows that he has little more substance for his platform. He needs to drop the acronyms. This is a lesson John Eby seems to have learned.

In 2005, his non-platform involved something about how his grandma told him to stop and look both ways when crossing train tracks, and the letters in the word “STOP” all meant something. Lame stuff. Now, Eby has an easy to read platform that does not sound like a sixth grader wrote it. Zamary needs to graduate from campaign elementary school.

To be fair, other candidates have acronyms this season, too. Brian Garry’s campaign has always been about “ONE Cincinnati”: Opportunity, Neighborhood, and Equality. And though currently under construction, Garry’s site does promise to include an “issues” section. Still, the phrase “ONE Cincinnati” is so much more organic and masterful in its design. It does not sound like something Garry had to contrive for the purpose of making a lame campaign point. The phrase is simple, and elegant. Unlike Zamary’s “Helping Cincinnati SOAR to New Heights!”

And let’s not forget Laketa Cole’s abandonment of her urban-centric “Cole Train” campaign for the more corporatized “COLE: Collaboration, Optimism, Leadership, Experience.” (I certainly hope she got more advice than that for her unholy alliance with Gerald Berding.)

Isn’t it nice to know that Cole is “optimisitic”? I’d sure hate for a pessimist to get elected to office.

Nevertheless, she does not depend on the acronym alone: you can visit her “Cole Plan” and get more details. (Though her “plan” seems awfully similar to the one she had online in 2005. Did she change anything?)

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JFD says:
16 Aug 2007 at 10:39 am | #

JH: “I’d sure hate for a pessimist to get elected to office.”

Yeah, Smitherman’s history is a real ray of sunshine. At least this guy didn’t use the NAACP for his own political purpose.

BFD says:
16 Aug 2007 at 05:23 pm | #

Smitherman’s optimistic that African American’s can get a fair deal for a change. Things like equal protection under the law instead of racial profiling and real inclusion in major economic development deals that use lots of public funds.

That’s more optimistic than many people are who believe you can’t take on city hall. Some people think that being optimistic means pretending everything is fine and we don’t need to improve things. Others like Smitherman, are optimistic in believing that we can make the necessary changes to make our community better for everyone.

I’ll take the latter any day. Simply crossing your fingers doesn’t make things better.

cincysue says:
16 Aug 2007 at 09:42 pm | #

NAACP. Acronym?

Green Machine says:
16 Aug 2007 at 10:38 pm | #

cincysue, you’re confused again. The NAACP is an organization that has been around for a very long time, not a stupid campaign slogan some candidate just made up and thought was clever.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) says:
17 Aug 2007 at 07:47 am | #

Additionally, “NAACP” is not the entirety of a political platform. It is the name of an organization.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) says:
17 Aug 2007 at 01:49 pm | #

I thought “COLE” stood for “Can’t Orate in Literate English”?

Brian Garry’s ONE Cincinnati is a mnemonic people actually can associate with him given his priorities and platform. It’s also “optimistic” vs. John Edwards’ pessimistic use of “Two Americas”: don’t define yourself with a negative.

cincysue says:
17 Aug 2007 at 07:35 pm | #

NAACP Acronym? No. You should know that if that’s the subject.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) says:
18 Aug 2007 at 08:12 am | #

Most people use the word acronym in that matter. But if you are hyper-specific for no reason, I guess we can call it an initialism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initialisms#Nomenclature