Where does one learn political campaigning as "performance art"

The ABCNote today mentioned the need to check out Dean on his next speech on the economy and corporate control - and in saying this they said "No Democrat is going to win the White House without talking about this stuff effectively, and we'll be interested to see how Dean does on it, intellectually and in terms of performance art."

So now the Presidency is about acting ability?

Politicking has gone from logical discussion to watered down soundbites. If a man wants to become president, he must pander to the TV generation.

When the talking heads say things like "talking about this stuff effectively" they tend to mean "not over voters' heads, while still making a good argument." We all witnessed the claims of "fuzzy math" by Bush, and Gore wasn't able to effectively counteract it.

I think that Mark Crispin Miller's The Bush Dyslexicon is a great scholarly work on this sad state of affairs. My answer to your question (although I wish I didn't believe it) is yes, becoming the president of this country will go to whomever plays to the cameras best. (Barring voter fraud, of course.)

is no more than "Performance Art"

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