Republican presidential field: Mock the 'clown car' at your peril
Clown Car.听An increasingly common term to dismiss the more than 15 Republicans who either have announced or are considering White House bids.
鈥淐lown car鈥� is a feature of circuses, an event to which presidential campaigns often are compared. In the big top stunt, which dates at least as far back as the 1950s, a sizable number of colorfully garbed entertainers emerge from a tiny vehicle. (The New York Times, in a 2001 article, described fitting into a Volkswagen Bug.) The phrase meets many of the tests for a popular political expression: It鈥檚 alliterative, punchy, and most definitely a put-down.
Not surprisingly, Democratic partisans such as Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz have seized on the term. that the tart-tongued Democratic National Committee chair said in a recent Granite State appearance: 鈥淲e鈥檙e here to tell you that we believe families in New Hampshire and across America can do better, and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e here as the clown car of GOP candidates rolls into town.鈥�
Though liberals tend to focus on fringe candidates such as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, more prominent White House aspirants also have gotten the听clown-car treatment. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank typified the genre with a headlined, 鈥淭he Republican field is a clown car.鈥� Milbank focused on Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who actually has compiled a substantive record in his dozen-plus years in the Senate. But Graham鈥檚 trouble earning media attention is what drew Milbank鈥檚 interest: 鈥淭here is little dignity for Republicans as they try to break free of the very large flock.鈥�听
Milbank鈥檚 column provoked an angry response from Fox News鈥檚 Neil Cavuto, who noted that Democrat Bill Clinton was considered quite a long shot when he took on President George H.W. Bush in 1992. 鈥淪o beware those who write about clown cars: More often than not, the joke鈥檚 on them,鈥� Cavuto 鈥淎nd suddenly the ones mocking the clowns in that car, are the clowns driving it.鈥�
While 鈥渃lown car鈥� is a relatively recent construct in political language, the theme of too many candidates potentially degrading the process has been around for a while. Back in the 1988 cycle, journalists borrowed from Disney and to the sprawling Democratic presidential field as the 鈥渟even dwarfs.鈥�
鈥淐lown car鈥� also can refer to the tendency 鈥� even necessity 鈥� of presidential candidates running to the ideological extremes to secure their party鈥檚 nomination, only to face a more moderate electorate in the general election. That鈥檚 troublesome for Republicans in 2016, Politico senior political columnist in a January 2015 piece with the headline, 鈥淕OP clown car runs into ditch.鈥澨齋imon wrote that Republican candidates usually 鈥渁ttack from the right, which can force the eventual nominee farther to the right than the nominee wants to go. This risks losing moderate voters in the general election.鈥�
Though 鈥渃lown car鈥� is an easy jab against Republicans, it sometimes does more harm than good. Kansas Independent Senate candidate Greg Orman found out the hard way in the closing days of his 2014 run. 鈥淥rman derided the stream of GOP surrogates who have come to Kansas to boost Sen. Pat Roberts (R), a three-term incumbent,鈥� at the time.听鈥淧olitical visitors have included Mitt Romney, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). 鈥業t sort of seems like a Washington establishment clown car to me. Every day a new person comes out of that car,鈥� Orman said.鈥� But all that help boosted Roberts, who
Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark write their "Speaking Politics" blog exclusively for Politics Voices.
