Hope Is On The Way?

Edwards's "Hope is on the way" is a really stupid campaign slogan. If Kerry and Edwards are supposed to make the country better, and if we are to believe that they can win, shouldn't hope be here now? But no, instead they're saying that if Kerry and Edwards get elected, then we can have hope that sometime in the future things might get better.

Maybe they should change their slogan to "Kerry/Edwards. We won't actually make anything better, but we'll make you feel good about it."

Comments

[Jesse Walker]

I'm still trying to figure out whether there's going to be another step past the progression from "hope is on the way" to "help is one the way." Maybe "hype is on the way"?

[Jim Walsh]

Or how about appropriating the timeless catch-phrase of a certain legendary animated meta-rodent:

"HEEEERE WE COME TO SAVE THE DAAAAAAAAAY"...

http://www.toonopedia.com/mightym.htm

[John Lanius]

John Kerry: "America can do better, and help is on the way."

I think we need a nanny to make us all better.

[Ken Shultz]

"Kerry/Edward. Taxing and spending, there's always hope."

[Will]

This is a pretty stupid post. I didn't know Reason had gone full bore into out and out bashing of the canidates.

Will Reason endorse G.W. Bush?

Hey Jesse, you smart ass, I don't see you running for anything... so I wouldn't nit-pick a slogan too much if I were you.

[brooklyn dave]

Saw the convention and it was a farce. Same liberal pablum put in a more moderate suit.
Kerry/Edwards "Hope is on the way"
or should it be
SHREK & BRECK "Hopefully we know how to do it better than Bush"......spend your money.

[c]

word on the street is that the "help is on the way" theme is lifted from Bush's 2000 convention address.

Jesse, if you run for something, definitely go with "Hemp is on the way."

[dude]

In 2000 Bush had a bit where he'd say our military is overstreched and underfunded in questionable foreign adventures but if he got elected then "help is on the way." I think he'd say "and I say to america's military, help is on the way!" Something like that.

It's a riff on that.

[Gilbert Martin]

Hope is on the way?

More like BS is on the way - in fact it's already here. The Dem convention overflowed with vast quantities of it.

[Russ D]

Hope is on the wane.

[Jose Ortega y Gasset]

One of my personal favorites of campaign slogans, is "Nixon, now more than ever." That particular button elicited chuckles from 1976 on. In fact, I see a bit humor in wearing the button again this campaign season.

Campaign slogans, at least for the major parties, are usually lousy. "Hope is on the way" seems more lousy than most. If Kerry is elected, there will be no shortage of emerging hopes... businesses hoping he doesn't sponsor new regulations, affluent individuals hoping he doesn't push for higher taxes. Hope is not the sole franchise of the pale and downtrodden... or, by American standards, those without plasma televisions.

Personally, I hope the election is over soon.

[Syd]

I liked Hope in Mumford and hope she arrives soon.

How about, "I'm John Kerry, I'm rich as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

[Paul Z]

"Hope is on the way. And Crosby is right behind." The Road to Oblivion.

[Plagiarizing R Us]

"word on the street is that the "help is on the way" theme is lifted from Bush's 2000 convention address."

Kerry probably shouldn't have let Joe Biden write some of that speech.

[tom]

The most excitement we had all evening was when the technical director swore on the CNN feed.

I bet the union balloon guys were on break.

http://www.drudgereport.com/dnc86.htm

[Neb Okla]

Kind of reminds me of a local vagrant that raps on the street corner with a PA:

"Look to the East, look to the West - OSU Campus is the best - Help is on the way!"

We call him "The Help is On the Way Guy".

Maybe someday he'll become famous like Wesley Willis (RIP).

[Peter K.]

Weren't they saying "Help is on the way"?

If they were saying "hope", that really is dumb.

Coming from a politician, however, "Help is on the way" is especially bad: It sounds like a combination of "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help" and "The check is in the mail".

[PJ Travers]

Kerry/Edwards: Waiting for Mary Poppins.

An existential campaign in deferred responsibility

[Mark Anderson]

I think it's the mark of a pretty solid speech in that the major criticism is the slogans or lack thereof. This and Gillespie's article makes me think this is the first election anyone at Reason has covered. New at Reason: Politican's use Cliches. It's truly shocking.

[Jesse Walker]

New at Reason: Politican's use Cliches. It's truly shocking.

Hmm. Where did Hannah or Nick claim to be "shocked" at anything?

[joe]

I agree with Hanah on the slogan. "Hope is on the way" is a statement of hope, meaning hope is already here.

I guess this is like "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."

[joe]

The lack of clarity left me wondering if the slogan was a reference to "a place called Hope."

[joe]

Also, I don't believe John Kerry has a sister. That's totally John in a blonde wig.

[R C Dean]

No, joe - if hope is already here, then it can't be on the way.

I think this is another sign of the long-term CLinton strategy - I mean, really, for most the delegates "hope is on the way" and "Hillary is on the way" are synonymous.

[Tim Higgins]

Jesse,

C suggested you use Hemp Is On The Way instead of Help, but if it was Hope, you can still use Dope. One thing's for sure - with Kerry's lax Catholicism, there's no reason to fear that the Pope Is On The Way.

[steve]

"Don't give up hope for dope."

--actual Jesse Jackson slogan from the '80s.

[dude]

Neb - that guy was always my favorite vagrant at OSU.

[Jason Ligon]

"C suggested you use Hemp Is On The Way instead of Help, but if it was Hope, you can still use Dope."

Ricky Williams is on the way?

[joe]

"if hope is already here, then it can't be on the way."

But if it's on the way, then we're already hopeful, and therefore, it is already here.

Can God microwave a burrito so hot that even He can't eat it?

[thoreau]

Of all the things in Kerry's speech, how is it that we're hung up on semantic quibble that's subtle by any objective standard? Especially when said quibble is even less significant when compared with Bush's semantic fuck-ups?

"Hope is on the way" vs. "put food on their families". Hmm...

[DnB]

John Kerry: "America can do better, and help is on the way."

Oh..., I thought he said "hell is on the way".

[richard mcenroe]

thoreau -- because there was nothing else in Kerry/Edwards speeches but empty semantics...

[Tim Higgins]

thoreau,

I'll take the guy who meant "put food on their tables" over the guy who meant "you are all so helpless, you must be aboslutely despaired at the prospect of having candidate X as your president, but don't worry! I, John Kerry, have seen fit to bestow upon you lessers my wise and benevolent leadership" in a heartbeat.

[Bo]

Bush / Kerry 2004: We're screwed either way!

[Mark]

How about:
"Kerry/Edwards. Really, I mean look at the alternative."

"Kerry in 04-Replace the horse's ass with a horseface."

"Kerry/Edwards-When you just don't care anymore"

"Kerry 04-Making the nation's lakes safe for hamsters."

[a ghost]

A better campaign slogan would be, "My hard dick is on the way! Yeah, baby!"

[DnB]

Is anyone here in serious need of being lead?

I'd vote for somebody who could competently "manage" this USA mess instead of some flag waving egotistic moron who pretends he/she can "lead" me somewhere I don't want to go.

[M. Simon]

You guys don't get it.

The "hope" that is on the way is the wife of a man from Hope, AK.

Kerry is just a place holder for you know hooooo.

[kat p]

you self righteous idiots suck. you deserve 4 years of dumbya.

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