Timothy Egan, at the NYTimes, on “Deconstructing A Demagogue“:
When not holding forth from his favorite table at L’Auberge Chez François, nestled among the manor houses of lobbyist-thick Great Falls, Va., Dr. Newton L. Gingrich likes to lecture people about food stamps and how out-of-touch the elites are with real America.
__
Gingrich, as he showed in a gasping effort in Thursday night’s debate in Florida, is a demagogue distilled, like a French sauce, to the purest essence of the word’s meaning. He has no shame. He thinks the rules do not apply to him. And he turns questions about his odious personal behavior into mock outrage over the audacity of the questioner.
__
After inventing, and then perfecting, the modern politics of personal destruction, Gingrich has decided now to bank on the dark fears of the worst element of the Republican base to seize the nomination — using skills refined over four decades…
So, all of a sudden, the members of the Permanent Governing Party (GOP Wing) have discovered that Newton Leroy Gingrich is popular with the wrong sort of voters, namely those sad angry losers who think the Tea Party was a spontaneous upwelling of righteous anti-government Rightness. And this has the PGP (G-W) in a swivet, because Newt Gingrich, Swollen Amphibian, is not only a sure bet to lose to President Obama come November, but a sucker bet to take a lot of down-ticket Republican contenders with him on the U.S.S. Oblivion. Even before the Jacksonville debacle, sensible people like Jonathan Bernstein at WaPo were pointing out that Newt’s talents as a Master Debater had been overstated:
… Several people have pointed out that the fantasy fueling Newt’s campaign — that the trick to winning the general election is to destroy President Obama in the fall debates — is nonsense, because general election debates don’t really work like that. But what Monday demonstrated (and as I’ve been saying for a while; see also Seth Masket for a fine historical example), is that Newt’s reputation as a brilliant debater is actually a fraud. What Newt has done well isn’t debating the other candidates; what he’s done well is attacking the moderators, and it works especially well when there’s a partisan Republican audience ready to cheer any shots at the liberal media. That’s not going to happen in general election debates.
And then came Jacksonville, where Newt was pummeled into submission by dumb shouty Wolfe Blitzer, the human equivalent of a ball-driven labrador retriever barking throwthrowthrow! at you. As Ed Kilgore, at the Washington Monthly, described Newt’s performance: “He sounded bad, he looked bad, and generally came across like a weasel who had finally been cornered by Animal Control.”
I will admit that, although I thought it was impossible to overestimate the satiric possibilities inherent in the career of “Professor” Gingrich, I never dreamed he’d manage a re-re-re-return to the spotlight that would require such unlikely individuals as “Elliot Abrams, Ann Coulter, Tom DeLay, Matt Drudge, & R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr“ to attack him… for being insufficiently right(wing)-thinking and historically disrespectful to St. Ronnie of Reagan. Nor would I have believed that Erick “Voice of the GOP Gated Community” Erickson would be driven to assault poor old BobDole as a Clinton-friendly turncoat, in defense of the man Erickson is glumly certain as the most likely spoil his RedStaters’ dreams in November. Truly, we live in an amazing age.
khead
Montell Jordan
A Ghost To Most
Grandiose, not grandious
General Stuck
Somebody ought to tell the party “old guard” there are a lot more of the “wrong sort” of GOP voters, than them, though they are of course, the “wrong sort” in their own elitist way. Apparently, they haven’t noticed that the natives are restless and on a short fuse for being dictated to by three piece suits in DC. Last poll I saw, had Romney and Newt neck and neck in FL. If the old guard wanted to nominate the ‘right kind” of wingnut to go against Obama, they shouldn’t have put all their eggs in the basket of a chameleon with the convictions of an earth worm and with credentials of the very thing most voters are maddest at.
Violet
So, so true. I have to admit, I was surprised by the collection of GOPers who crawled out of the woodwork to disparage Our Newt. I don’t know if Romney has a lot of friends in the GOP (seems unlikely) or has chits he can call in (seems even less likely), or if they all hate Newt that much. Or some of both. It all happening on the same day smacks of coordination, which suggests Romney’s campaign was behind it. But as Rush Limbaugh said, “Couldn’t be Romney. He’s not that smart.” Heh.
Suffern ACE
Grodious I think is the right concept.
The Dangerman
Such an incredibly flawed candidate giving Romney all he wants (speaking of flawed candidates, it appears Palin has come out against Romney; I wonder what her game is – beyond making the Benjamins, of course).
Xecky Gilchrist
I never dreamed he’d manage a re-re-re-return to the spotlight …
Wait’ll you see him in the 2016 race!
BGinCHI
Whoever said it was exactly, exactly right:
Gingrich is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.
And the stupid not only burns; it burns out.
JGabriel
Anne, can you please add “?_r=1” to the end of those NYT links for people who don’t have subscriptions to the NY Times.
Until they’re corrected in the post, here are links that can be used by people without NYT Subscriptions:
Deconstructing A Demogogue
Gingrich Insurgency Tests Party Old Guard
Gingrich Winning The Crowd Race In Florida
.
KG
@The Dangerman: Lady Godiva riding in on a white horse in a brokered convention? I think Palin wants to be president, the way many of us wanted to play centerfield for the Yankees or point guard for the Lakers or quarterback for the Cowboys… She wants the cool job but doesnt want to do the hard work of campaigning in a national primary. But she thinks she can backdrops her way to the presidency by being a savior and that the American people will vote for her because she is all that is true and great about this great nation.
Or, she’s figured out a way to make some money off of this whole shitshow
Mark K
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots” H.L. Mencken
Newt is not immoral. He is amoral. The poster boy for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Anne Laurie
@A Ghost To Most: thanks!
Loneoak
@A Ghost To Most:
A malapropism blending gradniose and bulbous.
The Dangerman
@KG:
Perhaps, but Lady GoDIAF has about as much chance of being the choice in a brokered convention as I do of winning the lottery tonight (and I didn’t buy a ticket).
PeakVT
Huh. A co-worker of mine used to live on one of the cul-de-sacs just down the road from Chez François, but I never drove out far enough to notice it. Looks a little pricey for me, anyway:
L’Auberge Chez François offers a 6-course prix-fixe dinner menu for the price of the entrée, ranging in price from $62.00 to $74.00.
Anne Laurie
@JGabriel: I thought links were not supposed to trigger the “nonsubscriber” script (or count against the monthly tally of ‘free’ articles). Has that changed?
Violet
@The Dangerman:
Maybe a couple of things. Endorsing Newt ensures her a sweet cabinet level job with not much responsibility should he win. Lots of power, zero responsibility –that’s her kind of job.
But she probably knows Newt won’t win, so if he doesn’t, she can ride into the convention on the white horse to save the day, as KG pointed out. Cool title, no work. Win for her.
Lastly, she knows Romney will be the nominee, but she wants him damaged so she Obama will win and she can continue her grifter tour of America. With a Republican president her victim grifter act won’t be nearly as lucrative. She wants to continue to not work and get paid for it. She needs Obama as President for that to happen.
Gin & Tonic
I’m torn. I’d love to see Gingrich as the eventual nominee, because the rout would be spectacular, and the down-ticket effect will be great. Yet I also can’t wait to see his political career go down in flames, and the sooner the better.
JGabriel
@The Dangerman:
It’s still the Benjamins. Palin’s audience is not the GOP elites, and she knows it. Palin’s audience is the spectator base, the ones who just want to see someone call Democrats names to their face, or shoot them, on national TV.
Gingrich gives them that:
So Sarah is making sure she stays in sync with her core audience. Think of it as brand maintenance.
.
The Dangerman
@Violet:
You may have nailed it, but what a needle to thread (i.e., if Romney loses, her “crowd” might turn on her for helping to facilitate that loss).
Then again, her “crowd” is dumb as a box of nails, so she may be good.
Jerzy Russian
@BGinCHI:
This about sums it up. I’ll add this to me list of things to remember.
bane
@BGinCHI: BREAKING…
Violet
@The Dangerman:
Nah, if Romney loses, then he’ll be branded as just another moderate “like John McCain”. And “When will the party learn their lesson and nominate a ‘real conservative’?” When she was McCain’s VP pick (I still shudder thinking of it), the big crowds were coming to see her and everyone knew it. The people who are still her fans are no more fans of Romney than they were of McCain. They may hold their nose and vote for him, but if he loses, they certainly won’t blame $ister $arah.
JGabriel
@Anne Laurie:
That’s the way it’s supposed to be, as far as I know, but my experience is that it doesn’t always work that way.
I use NYT Clean, so it’s not a big issue for me personally, but I suspect that it might be for some of the less computer literate people here, and including the “?_r=1” tag at the end of NYT links ensures that it’ll work no matter what, at least until the Times changes their site code again.
.
MikeJ
@The Dangerman:
Nah, when Romney loses it will be proof they should have doubled down on stupid.
McCain was the darling of “independent” Washington but the nutbags in the GOP base hated him from day one. Those same nutbags aren’t demanding a candidate who can pretend to be sane whilst pushing through crazy, they want somebody who is up front, out and proud c.r.a.z.y.
The Dangerman
@MikeJ:
I wonder if Palin is kicking herself; with a minimal amount of effort, she could have taken this nomination in a runaway (as long as she didn’t open her mouth and prove herself to be an idiot; see Perry, Rick).
Suffern ACE
@Gin & Tonic: Until six months ago, he had no political career. He’ll be back on your TV soon enough. I mean, it took 20 years for the ostensibly liberal network to finally kick Buchanan off its shows and I still don’t know what exactly he wrote that was any worse than everytthing else he had written in the past 20 years. By next spring, he’ll be back on the TV whenever there is some issue that the republicans want people to be angry about.
Suffern ACE
@The Dangerman: She could not organize a five week bus tour. She couldn’t put in the effort to actually campaign in our system. Maybe she should move to England and run in their much shorter election cycle.
moops
I’m still amazed that GOPers think Newt would take Obama to school in a debate. It is like they really believe the stuff they make up about Obama needing a teleprompter.
Did they not watch the Presidential debates at all last time ??? or did they actually all forget ? or is the bubble really that all encompassing ? Do they get deprogrammed right after the debate ?
Egan’s point is dead-on. a primary debate is not like a GOP Primary debate. The Dem’s have a bit of an advantage in that respect. Dem primary debates are excellent preparation for presidential debates.
Indeed, he is what a dumb person thinks a smart person sounds like.
But there is a fundamental unfairness in that a GOP Nominee never has to spend the general walking back their material from their primary debates. Maybe this year will be the game changer in that respect.
Jeffro
@Violet:
No, but the founder of American Crossroads is…
Suffern ACE
I’m scared to look. Why exactly does disgraced former speaker Delay feel that disgraced former speaker Gingrich is deficient?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BGinCHI:
Wasn’t that Paul Krugman?
andy
Aaaand Herman Cain just endorsed Newt!
MikeJ
@Suffern ACE:
Oswald Mosley is dead, so there’s an opening.
k488
I’ve always wondered if The Brain (as in Pinky and The…) was modeled on Newt. Orson Welles for the voice, certainly, but the look is Gingrich. I’m waiting for him to ask us if we’re pondering what he’s pondering.
moops
@The Dangerman:
I’m certain she thinks this is the case. If she threw her name in right now, she would poll at the top. Given how few of the delegates are actually locked in (Iowa could all switch to her, since she wasn’t an option on their ballot).
Then the Bulbous Nasty Man would throw up random attacks…I don’t know about what, but it would be brutal.
and we would all get the treat of watching the tortured interview with McCain on who he now endorses.
….and then she would think she is smart and say the dumbest things and crash into the ground, thus reviving her victim status and martyr of the media.
The calculation she is probably making is how much work this all would take. This could take more than a month.
WereBear (itouch)
That was a thing of beauty.
I think the only thing the Republican bosses have against Newt is not that he’s a bombthrower; he’s just not reliably their bombthrower.
Chris
@MikeJ:
And in both cases, it’s not because McCain was a moderate: it’s because he was perceived as a moderate. Objectively, the guy was pretty fucking conservative, at least as much as Bush or Reagan was. But he didn’t behave like One Of The Tribe, and since conservatism is, at its root, all about identification with The Tribe, that made him a bad guy.
dmsilev
@andy:
Does that mean that, by association, Stephen Colbert has also endorsed Gingrich?
SiubhanDuinne
WaPo alert says that Herman Cain has endorsed the Salamander Gum Disease.
Edit: Aaaand Andy #32 got there first!
Suffern ACE
Maybe cain’s endorsement means we can see the smoking man cut commercials for newton.
BO_Bill
I kind of like Newt because he snarls. Therefore I take some offense to the characterization of Newt as an ‘amphibian’. It seems to be demeaning to the overall political tone in a country that needs to be brought together for a shared common vision of prosperity. In the hierarchy of life-forms, an amphibian is pretty much located in that dark place between a fish, and a small mammal. So this is not civil.
However, if an amphibian were by chance to whoop the bejesus out of a simian in a Presidential debate, that would be cool and then we could all agree to vote for him, and finally heal the political wounds that currently run throughout our great Republic.
Just my two cents.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m pretty sure that either Newt promised to introduce Herman to some new women, or vice versa.
dmsilev
@BO_Bill:
I want a refund.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
Well, there ARE all those ex-wives just hanging around with nuthin to do . . . .
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
LOL to the ROFL!
cynn
The Replicants are hilarious. Cinderella’s sisters frantically preening for the ball.
Southern Beale
Herman Cain just endorsed Newt Gingrich. Which tells you everything you need to know about them both.
Villago Delenda Est
If you can’t go one on one with the barely sentient sack of goo that is Leslie Blitzer, you’re in pretty sad shape.
No audience screaming for blood to feed him energy, and Noot is lost.
capt
Loved this whole piece. Good work, great visuals and most excellent writing overall.
Kilkee
@BO_Bill: Really, Bill: “simian?” That’s all you got?
trollhattan
@BO_Bill:
Ha-ha, you just called the president a monkey.
Iz our BOBs learnin’?
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
This.
A Romney loss will simply solidify the notion that the GOP fucked up (again!) by having a nominee that was not “conservative” enough.
Who’s waiting to take up the ball in 2016? Why Alaska’s (or is she Arizona’s now?) own Mooselini.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
And that’ll have been the narrative for two elections in a row, which is going to drive the base several times as batshit as they are right now. If they nominate Romney and lose in 2012, imagine what kind of freakshow they’ll put up in 2016.
Alison
@The prophet Nostradumbass: He was quoting someone else, AFAIK he didn’t say who it was…but whoever it is obviously is a genius :P
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@Anne Laurie: Has no one noticed that there are several browsers out there, each one of which gets 20 “free” peeks at the NYT. I mean, say 5 browsers times 20 equals 100 “free” articles a month. How many more do you want, or need?
SiubhanDuinne
@Chris:
What’s the shelf life of popcorn?
SiubhanDuinne
@BO_Bill:
Quite right, BOB. Characterizing disgraced former Speaker Newt Gingrich as an amphibian is utterly uncivil to fish-small mammal life forms inclusive.
moops
The likely course of events will be: Romney wins the nomination, then tacks to the center, HARD, on economic issues, big populist stuff, OWS levels. The 1% will not believe it and will know that Romney is a capitalist douche in his heart and being a cynical pol, so this won’t cost him anything in the election. Compassionate Conservatism V2.0 from the Bishop.
The base will briefly wake up from their stupor and realize a) they’re actually poor fucks that are struggling and could use some help b) the other guy is black. (after the election point ‘a’ will be wiped from their minds.)
Independents will realize a) The middle class is currently doomed and they could use some help, and b) the other guy is saying the same thing, but he’s black. No work will be required to have the I’s forget what they just learned one week ago.
He might win with this. He will certainly make it very close.
post election the R’s will not think they failed for failing conservatism. They will realize that populist economic justice rhetoric from an R can take a hopeless campaign and make it a real race. They don’t even have to actually enact ANYTHING they promise. The bubble will have them think something else. They can vote in any tax cut they like, remove any regulation, take Wall Street contributions, business as usual. Nobody will call them on this, and those that do won’t be invited in Fox or CNN or given candidate access.
It is the only sane path for them, given demographic and polling trends.
Newt’s already shown you can co-opt OWS rhetoric for your own needs, and do it better.
you heard it here first.
RedKitten
The mind boggles, really. The GOP has had a long time to prepare for this, and THIS was the best they could come up with?
No matter what, the 27%ers are going to be pissed off. Either Romney will get the nomination (and most likely lose), which will send them into “no true
Scotsmanconservative” fits, or by some freak accident, Gingrich will get the nom, lose spectacularly, and the base will quite literally poop themselves with rage.I almost hope it’s the former. With that bunch, I’d rather have them pissed off at their fellow Repubs. They seem to be a little less willing to commit violence against them. Whereas if GoldenBoy Gingrich loses, I seriously fear for the President, his family, and anybody with a (D) after their name.
General Stuck
@RedKitten:
Teehee
Xecky Gilchrist
@moops: He might win with this. He will certainly make it very close.
Bookmark it!
Nikita
@moops:
And that right there is my biggest fear and nightmare scenario. That subconscious belief that a White guy will do a better job than a Black guy/minority/woman. First you prime independents up for a change (he tanked the economy! Raised taxes! is in over his head!), then you present them with a seemingly sane, non-frothing-in-the-mouth alternative white guy.
I hate to cry chicken little but I am positively terrified of November.
Chris
@moops:
Oh that might work.
I’m told that a hundred years ago, it was popular for a certain type of politician in the South to fire up their audiences with talk of Damyankees, carpetbaggers, New York bankers, robber barons and other moneyed elites reaching out to exploit poor old Dixie… And then, once safely in office, to promptly turn around and sign a dozen concessions, contracts, tax cuts and other nice deals with those same Damyankee Carpetbagging Robber Barons, because hey, those elections don’t pay for themselves. So basically we’d be back to that again.
I don’t know, it could work. But frankly if eight years of Bush and the utter disaster that was 2008 still didn’t convince them of anything other than “we have to be more conservative, damn it!” I think it’ll take more than just losing another election for them to chance their tune, even if they don’t mean it.
WereBear (itouch)
We have more Independents than ever before; because they are too ashamed to admit they are Republicans. So they know what’s going on. They just won’t admit it.
elftx
@The Dangerman:
She probably has her eye on staying at one of Adelson’s loverly hotel and casinos..wink wink, nudge nudge..”Hatikvah” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatikvah)
The Dangerman
@Nikita:
There a lot of wildcards/minefields to navigate prior to November (USSC decision on Obamacare, price of gasoline, etc.), but I think Obama wins and it won’t be THAT close.
redshirt
I believe in Barack.
moops
@Chris:
I’m not certain either. It is the correct political strategy. switch to the old south style fake populism. There are a lot of northerners that are susceptible to populist rhetoric and are dumb and ….. given a choice of equal rhetoric would prefer someone white and coiffed.
but, there are a lot of hard core conservatives that have a big stage to trip them up. Grover would crap his pants during the election, until someone nudges him and gives him a big wink.
Bush did tack to center, and he won his elections. conservatives will not tolerate an R that governed from the center, but they are fine with someone campaigning at the center. heck, you could campaign to the left of Obama. It would cost you nothing. The base is NOT voting Obama. Just toss in some dog whistles and you get enough base turnout. Romney has tossed it the dog whistle, since he can’t go as far as his opponents, but in the general ? fair game.
Jeffro
@WereBear (itouch): I think that’s right…something like 10% or less of the country is actually ‘independent’, they lean strongly enough one way or another that they should just consider themselves Rs or Ds and identify that way.
It’s a bigger problem with the Rs than Ds though ;)
chrome agnomen
we are going to stomp the right wing candidate into a mudhole this november. bookmark that! the houses of congress? just dunno.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Nikita: I’m not terrified but I think it will be a close race no matter what happens. I am more than a little surprised that Dems aren’t making more of a direct connection between Romney’s tax returns and the trickle-down economics that are pretty much the entirety of his and the GOP’s platform. I was so glad to hear Obama use that phrase in his KS speech, but it’s since disappeared. I can only assume it doesn’t poll well, which surprises me.
Jeffro
@The Dangerman: Instead of 53-46%, Obama should win about 51-48% of the vote this fall. Our media will no doubt portray this as a complete lack of a mandate despite being bigger than W’s 2004 win.
Obama’s EVs should still come in north of 300, so while it’s important to get out there, I doubt it will be a real nail biter…
General Stuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I kind of think the Obama team is letting the goopers destroy each other, and staying out of the way. At least till it becomes obvious it will be Romney, if that is what GOP voters decide. There will be plenty of time to define Romney, once he gets the nom.
Jeffro
EDIT: the above % numbers are Obama – McCain %s from 2008 (and then Obama – Romney projections from 2012), not a range.
Obama got 365 EVs in 2008, so even if a few midwestern states flip, I think he’ll keep above 300 EVs and win the whole thing. It would be nice if Gingrich was the nominee and we suddenly turned into Blue Nation, but oh well – I will take 320-218.
Chris
@WereBear (itouch):
Either that, or they have the Republicans’ number but they, for whatever reason, absolutely will not consider voting for those awful liberals. This partly explains the Ron Paul phenomenon. God forbid that the people who finally realize they’ve been wrong look across the aisle to see if maybe, maybe, the people they’ve been cursing for so long might have been right.
@moops:
Oh, sure… The Southern Democrats post-Civil War are just the first and most blatant example that came to mind, but I’m sure there’s a market for that in much more than just the South.
Maybe the base wouldn’t mind them campaigning at the center. Guess we’ll have to see if they’re bold enough to try it – but still, given how stirred up and polarized they are right now, it’s just possible that it wouldn’t fly. By 2016 it might, though.
I always thought the reason Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative” and got the media to sell him as a moderate in 2000 was that he was coming after half a decade of Gingrich’s ultra-confrontational, ultra-ideological shenanigans, which more often than not had backfired. Right now it looks like the Tea Party Movement’s already alienated a ton of people the same way, so by 2016 things may be looking up for “moderate, centrist” sounding Repubs.
feebog
Fuck that. I am fired up an ready to go. I am working on the campaign of a Democratic Assembley Candidate here in SoCal. Our chances are slim and slim, but we are going at it tong and hammer. If you are terrified at November, then get off your ass and get involved. Get behind a local candidate, or get involved in the national campaign. There will be plenty of opportunities as the campaign heats up. I don’t came if it is Dog on Car, Man on Dog, or Dog on any Bitch he can find, we are going to clean their clocks.
moops
Heck, the Bishop might be able to capture the racists if he plays it right in the general. Something that gets the confederates to examine some of the early tenets of Mormonism as being right true and all. while not poisoning the evangelicals.
The base might be accessible once he clears the primary contenders aside.
He could push hard of voter fraud as an issue. That’s solid base red meat that the media is utterly incapable of calling out.
the correct strategy, executed properly, makes this close. as close as he could have made it given that more people are D than R these days. Romney just has to channel Newt’s fake economic populism to tie up the I’s.
jl
Nice post, but I think the name is Bobdole, not BobDole.
amk
@BO_Bill:
keep jerking to that wet dream, you racist redneck.
(being as civil as possible here)
Jay C
Best comment on Newt Gingrich I’ve seen so far – courtesy good old BobDole hisself…
Calouste
@Suffern ACE:
I am sure the Monster Raving Loony Party could use a few more candidates, particularly in the constituency of Barking.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jay C: I’ve always thought Bob Dole sank to the level of his party. He should’ve been better than he is/was.
Triassic Sands
For some reason when Erick, Son of Erick, was mentioned I must have thought it would be a good idea to check out RedState (for the first time in a long, long time it seems). Once there, I regretted by decision, except I learned that schizophrenia is caused by having an abortion.
Yep, “psychiatrist” Leon Wolf writes that “Reading in between the lines, it is reasonable to assume that the woman’s first abortion may have been a contributing factor in her mental illness.” Her mental illness is said to be schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder.
RedKitten
@Jay C: That is the most delightful thing I’ve read in a while.
Cataphract
Shouldn’t that be the “CSS Oblivion?”
gravie
In the past two days, two different acquaintances who are enthusiastically Republican (yeah, I know) have used the words “hang my head in shame” in reference to Newt. His role now seems to be wreaking vengeance on the Republican party for not supporting him.
PTirebiter
she wants fame, she wants money, she wants powerful connections
she wants everybody in this room here to look in her direction.
can’t say if she wants a man with lips just like Mick Jagger, rod stewart’s hair or keith richard’s stagger. but I don’t think it’s much more complicated than that. If Rush had been offered The Price Is Right back in the day, he’d still be bellowing “come on down” and it would have been a win win for everyone.