Thanks for flagging this - I didn't think much about the implications when I read Josh's post.  At the same time, I think he's right to wonder what the hell all this talk about 'vertical' means.  Myself, I would have taken it to be some form of motivational corporate-speak that I was unfamiliar with.  You know, a dog whistle for the Wall Street Journal set.

In any case, they are not listening.

p.s. I need to add: great catch, Emma. I hope all those who are thinking this way see your post, and moreso, are not too dense to understand the parallels you are drawing.

I can see why you take offense, and fair enough.  But maybe the point isn't to demonize one group so much as to describe a tactic that is used more generally.  One unavoidable fact about modern presidential campaigns is that candidates are always trying to make subtle winks to constituent groups that tacitly say "I'm one of you."  I feel I've been on the receiving end of some of those, and I respond to it as much as any evangelical might respond to 'vertical' (if that was the point).  'Dog whistle' - which has popped up in a few context lately - is a useful if snide analogy that describes this kind of subtext campaigning.

And honestly, anyone who has ever had a dog and worked in retail can tell you that we are all dogs.

Thanks.  Josh's post seems to have inspired quite a few others around the blogosphere who are better bloggers than me.  Here's Mark Kleiman to start with and you can follow his trackbacks for some others if you want.

The link isn't working. EZ.

I'm not sure what the 'vertical' is really all about.  I haven't officially congregated with evangelicals in about 40 years although most of my family still attends church regularly so I keep up with some of what is going on.  I'll try to remember to ask about it next time I see my sister.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it weren't borrowed from corporate-speak as there is a lot of crossover between Chambers of Commerce and the Board of Trustees of local churches.

That's a good point. I wish there were more of a crossover of social morals with business and marketing i.e. how one treats one's neighbor, and truly considering all customers neighbors and not numbered consumers.

I guess my point is that, while this was in a sense a dig at evangelicals, I don't think it is really specifically aimed at conservative Christian voters.  I think that 'dog whistle' is a term that is emerging to describe a kind of political tactic that is used in many contexts.  So no, I think that Josh didn't mean to take a swipe specifically at that group, calling them Pavlovian or whatever.

Maybe I'm wrong; in any case, I see why it bothers you.  

He could say what he means, maybe?

If he wants me to understand he should avoid metaphor. If he uses an unusual phrase we will wonder why.

Thanks for the post, Emma.

My understanding of the in-talk terms:

Vertical: signals relationships with God.

Horizontal: signals relationships with humankind.

Worth a think: the contrast between Puritan and Dissenter religious traditions in American political history.

One of those odd coincidences just happened.

(god speaking??? :-))

I went to the old newspaper pile to get the phone number for the Wall Street Journal because it wasn't delivered today. I often never get around to looking at it, the S.O. reads it.

Well on the page I opened first, from Dec. 31, was

"The Spirit Behind Huckabee's Advertising Campaign" by Laura Meckler.

The gist/slant is typical WSJ: here's how one guy who hasn't a lot of money is doing it, for the media biz, in the vein of "what might he doing that's a good idea". It says he Huckabee hadn't much to spend on advertising and consultants, and gives comparative figures, and that his ad man is Bob Wickers, working on his first presidential campaign, and implies that because of that they are doing real "outside the usual box."

It says his aides say they haven't been able to afford ANY polling or focus groups, NONE. The reporter explains how Wickers has thought it best that you just let Huckabee be himself and suggests that this is the reason for the freshness about the ads, it mentions the laid back, humorous side.

And I would suggest that that is the reason for anything someone from a New York Cosmopolitan tribe might find "crypto." Now that he will get more money and has people like Ed Rollins on the job, you may soon more fully understand what Huckabee says, he will get better at the translation into "anchorperson American." :-)

There are a few intriguing paragraphs I will transcribe:

...their ad campaign has an edginess unusal at the presidential level.

It began with a tongue-in-cheek spot featuring action star Chuck Norris, which quickly became an internet hit. The next ad, the first to air widely widely on Iowa TV, showcased Mr. Huckabee as a "Christian leader" and reminded evangelical voters what they don't like about Mr. Romney without mentioning or referring to him. "I don't have to wake up every day, wondering what do I need to believe," Mr. Huckabee says.

Then a Christmas ad may--or may not--have included a subliminal cross in the background, a mystery that generated the sort of buzz a campaign can only hope Santa will bring on his sleigh.

With the exception of the ad featuring Mr. Norris, the spots all have one thing in common: the only voice you hear is that of Mr. Huckabee. "You don't hide a candidate like Mr. Huckabee," said Mr. Wickers. "He knows how to connect."

Mr. Wickers, 44 years old, is a veteran of California Republican politics...a Presbyterian and longtime resident of San Francisco, doesn't appear to have much in common with a Southern Baptist running a campaign crafted to appeal to evangelical Iowans and Southerners...Mr. Wickers says he and his candidate have bonded by a shared sense of both faith and struggle. He relates Mr. Huckabee's hardscrabble life story, recounted at each campaign stop...

...Mr. Huckabee's first ad was a parody spot featuring the candidate and action star Chuck Norris. It got scarce TV air time, but has been viewed more than 1.1. million times on YouTube.

His Christmas ad generated even more attention. In it, Mr. Huckabee declared that the Christmas season should be about celebrating "the birth of Christ." Then, intentionally or not, the camera pans to a bookcase, whose shelves appears in the shape of a cross. Mr. Wickers denies that it was intentional. Either way, the cross controversy was debated and digested on TV news shows repeatedly, assuring that the Huckabee ad was seen many more times than the campaign could ever have afforded if it wer paying for the exposure.

Now, that end thing about the cross in the bookshelves is really just zany conspiracy thinking going wild. Why the heck should it matter whether a cross is there or not when he is straight out telling you a Christian Christmas message, not hiding anything about it?

By the way, there were a lot of good jokes about Chuck Norris on Yglesias's blog the last couple days. Started with a discussion of who had what foreign policy advisors, and then someone mentioned, "but Huckabee has Chuck Norris!"

Are you sure it isn't a very subtle Bill Clinton reference? I mean, "horizontal president" sounds like a euphemism if I've ever heard one.

I like it when someone explains something to me I didn't know while following the secret rules of Professor Strunk. Thanks for taking the time, Emma.

I can understand why JMM would be non-plused by the “vertical.” I read “WTF” as a pungent version of “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.” Forget Nexus/Lexus. It required an exercise in philology using biblical exegesis and transcripts of sermons to develop a plausible interpretation of Huckabee’s marquee statement. Remember this guy just won a significant political victory on a national stage. It is no time and no place to engage in a private conversation. Unless…

And let’s not be coy. I’m sure that the Republican establishment views Huckabee’s entire campaign as a concerto for dog whistle and orchestra. By all accounts he doesn’t plan to compete in New Hampshire. Other than the beard Ed Rollins, he doesn’t have much of a national organization. So how does he plan to succeed, unless…

Unless what? Unless Huckabee is running for the place vacated by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, not the Presidency. This is my guess. I said this elsewhere. “I think that Huckabee really doesn’t want to be President. I’d be willing to bet he has already written his concession statement, full of references to John the Baptist laboring in the desert. “

And if you think your thesaurus failed you here, wait until we get to the South Carolina campaign. There will be so much code language in that one that we may not be able to understand anything any of the Republicans are saying.

So I think JMM’s instincts served him well. I admit that my rational is bizarre. Only time will tell.

Huckabee's no Falwell.

I think ArtAppraiser's WSJ review up above explains a lot. Check it out.

Funny.

Your comment reminded me of a Star Trek: TNG episode so I looked it up. It is an encounter with with a new race of people who speak almost entirely in metaphor and can't make themselves understood through the Enterprise's universal language translator.  Here's the Wikipedia synopsis: Darmok 

I know you like science.  Do you like sci-fi?  I know a lot of poeple don't but I think of Star Trek as a sort of Aesop's fables for boomers.  Lots of little morality plays wrapped up in adventure stories.

I get a different mental image of Huckabee, and a quick search on YouTube shows that I am not alone.

Now my quick read of Huckabee's use of 'vertical'. I did not sense any overt tones of religiosity, and you should be well-aware that I tend to be extremely attuned to this. My sense is that Huckabee is attempting to distance himself from the present-day manifestation of evil that is the Republican Party. It's a weasel, because he IS A REPUBLICAN, and his Party has equivocated on the Rights of Humans; has looked the other way with a wink and a nod, as a Republican President authorized human torture.

The GOP has yet to feel the necessary pain to purge themselves of their inherent evil. This fact was clearly made evident on September 19, 2007, in:

Senate Roll Call vote No. 340 - On the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Specter Amendment. No. 2022: To restore habeas corpus for those detained by the United States.

It was an attempt to end debate on the Specter Amendment, and bring it to the floor for an up or down vote. Remember the Republican belly-aching about how the Democrats would not allow a scant few of Bush's judiciary nominees to come up for "An Up or Down vote"? The Democrats were using the same Senate cloture rules, which require 60 votes to pass, as their method. All 49 Democratic Senators, The Independent Sanders, and 6 Republicans voted for cloture: Hagel, Lugar, Smith, Snowe, Specter, and Sununu. The roll call vote total was: 56 - 43 - 1, four votes short of cloture.

Only 6 Republican Senators had the temerity to stand and call for a vote to support A Natural Human Right on September 19, 2007. I don't blame Huckabee for wanting to distance himself from this and other obscene positions that his party has supported during the Bush Administration, but I'm not going to let him squirm away. He's got to dance with the pig that brung him to the dance, and that pig is clearly The GOP. Huckabee's party affiliation is an albatross' decaying corpse strung around his neck, and without publicly renouncing his association to his Party's inherent evil, he cannot remove it. Damn right I'm grim. I am walkabout, and far too many threads of potential snake out from the present-day terminus into a future where the Dreamtime America has been destroyed. There will be no bargaining, no quarter given. The GOP can publicly submit, recant and apologise, or they can remain a mortal enemy. There is no 'vertical' path, and Huckabee is no weasel on wing anyway, he cannot escape, he must choose.

• "Particle Man" - They Might Be Giants
  • lyrics
  • video
• "Dangerous Kitchen" - Frank Zappa
  • lyrics
  • Live, NYC, The Pier, August 26, 1984

I always liked Zappa's "Cosmik Debris" (from the same NYC concert-guitar solo in middle).

Now, that end thing about the cross in the bookshelves is really just zany conspiracy thinking going wild.

Anyone who knows anyone in the advertising business knows there is nothing conspiratorial or even serendipitous about the way ads are made, or the final product.

Everything is intentional. 

"The price of meat has just gone up and your old lady has just gone down."

Overnight Sensation was Frank's highest achievement in the "Silliness as High Art" category.

Can I interest you in a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers?

That's a very interesting take on the reaction, seems to me you have some Oriental perspective in you. (I recall you have said you spent time in Japan, however, there is always some of that infused in northwestern american culture just because of the environment, it's more "360 degrees" because of mountains and rain, not the wide flat horizontals of the frontier west.)

There has actually been acres of words written on this whole thing in architectural history/criticism and urban planning fields, of course. Thinking on it more, there is equivalence with the Huckabee thing in the classic early modernist take of skyscrapers, of course: secular cathedrals reaching to the sky, man reaching to "god," showing how he is capable of incredible creations, "can do," can execute flights of imagination, Icarus wins in the end. The first problem that enters in that picture is that's meritocratic and elitist, the people without the "stuff" to think of such things and build them and those without the "stuff" to get up to the top of them, are at the bottom in the gulleys where there is no light or air or are the ants in the ant farm of the lower floors of tall apartment buildings....yadda, yadda, yadda...

it is actually a very interesting topic to get into because it involves so many fields including psychology, different ethnic cultures, small ecological footprint of urban density vs. "buy local, grow your own food" to save transport, and even national security (9/11) etc.

In the 90's I had a German client from Munich who really refreshed my old architectural history studies in my mind because he was like a rabid fan of Manhattan. He had been coming over since the 1950's to do business but you would still always see him oogle at all the skycrapers, and wax poetic about them, he loved them. But then he was also someone who was very in love with American style capitalism and individualism, and it wasn't a crass sort of love, because he had very strong aethetic sensibilities, which included appreciation of worker craftsmanship (brother was a well-known maker of violins,) he would like gravitate immediately in a room of antiques to things like fine American duck decoys that he knew nothing about. I think his pro-Manhattan-culture was possibly a rejection of all things "old Europe," as he saw the end of WWII from the inside out in German as a young teen. Perhaps it was something like the appeal of the opposite of bourgeois content with comfort.

It took me about 1 year to fall out of love with skyscraper culture which I did have in my youth, as a tourist to places with skyscrapers. Well, I shouldn't say that exactly, because I still like Chicago. The crucial difference between Chicago and Manhattan is that because of the Chicago fire, they were able to require the building of tall buildings with set back from the street and wide spaces around each so that light can get in in the winter and air can get in all times.

I do think that there is something to the Woody Allen thesis, I think open air and space is responsible of some of what we call a "common sense" perspective. However, there is one problem with that I cannot answer: how then do you explain Texas culture? :-:

For whom do the polls tell?

Pseudo, you should write a primary blog explaining how the campaign process undertaken these days is best described by the lyrics to "Dangerous Kitchen." Maybe it's not the heat in the kitchen we can't stand afterall, eh?

Oh, and how the average voter is Person Man. Too busy and harried to spend a week getting disillusioned at his party's convention because she'd have been whipsawed by those paid masters of Robert's Rules.

Person man, person man.

No man is an Islande, entire of himself.

I have, however, met many isthmuses and quite a few peninsulas.

--

Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

Aye.

I saw your post earlier and have been thinking about it.  I will try to post something tomorrow if the headache I have now goes away so I can think straight.

I probably shouldn't keep this up here, but I've always enjoyed a Frank Zappa/George Duke collaboration that was on Apostrophe, "Uncle Remus".  For some strange reason it still makes me smile:

I'll take a ride to Beverly Hills,
Just before dawn,
And knock those little jockeys
Off of the rich people's lawns,
And before they get up,
I'll be gone, I'll be gone

And I've often used derivations of one of Zappa's cryptic lyrics from the album: 

The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe 

Anyone else in that boat?

YES! Thank you so much for mentioning that!!! You don't know how much I appreciate it. It will save me from dangerous fiddling with settings.

I have a new computer and am still getting used to Vista, and I was afeared that it was some kind of conspiracy against the site--the dang new IE has all kinds of filters and protections against the dangerous intertubes, it's like fearmongering about the terrorist called "active X." The problems I was having were so odd (page loading with nothing on it except a header, and then the whole browser freezing up and telling me that other sites were not accessible). I chucked the cookies, that didn't help, it finally pushed me to take the time to download Firefox. (Which, by the way, so far I don't see what everyone was having an orgasm about.)

Might be that they were not ready for the traffic? I tried to think of other sites that would be busy and are feature rich, like DKos, and I had no problems there after reboot.

Back at home, I'm having slightly better luck with my dusty copy of Internet Explorer.

There was some sort of problem with TPM Cafe, which wasn't occurring with The Talking Points Memo, and other related sites.  Very intermittent connections.  It's fixed now.   Seemed like a problem with server's internal DNS records, but that's just a guess, and may be too tech an explanation anyway.

One unavoidable fact about modern presidential campaigns is that candidates are always trying to make subtle winks to constituent groups that tacitly say "I'm one of you." I feel I've been on the receiving end of some of those

If you feel like saying, I'd be interested in hearing more about winks you've been the target of. 

I was thinking, while reading some of your recent posts actually, that in general the left doesn't seem to be as receptive to such tactics as the right does...  The left seems always to be looking for signs that you're not one of them, while the right seems more willing to accept the subtle wink?

Bets that distribution is congruent with liberals and atheists, too. Omaha and Sioux City in the West, and the college towns in the East.

What is that all about?  Did Huckabee actually make some anti-Catholic remarks?

I would much rather read blogs than watch them but sometimes visuals convey much more than words.  If you can spare 15 minutes, watch this segment from bloggingheads.tv to see what effect Huckabee's religious language has on Josh Cohen.   He is obviously uncomfortable with the subject.  Glen Loury points out that Huckabee talks like what he is, a Baptist minister.

Deconstructing Huckabee’s loaves and fishes