March 30, 2015

Scott Walker's Wisconsin gloom mousse has a testy undertaste, a macho, testy undertaste!

At Yahoo Politics, Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward has a piece titled "Scott Walker’s gloomy pitch for the presidency." Walker, we're told, once "used the word 'worry' or 'worried' 12 times in the space of 15 minutes":
“As a parent today, I’m worried. I’m worried for our country,” Walker told a few hundred conservative activists in a darkened amphitheater, standing in front of a red stage curtain. “I’m worried about my sons and your sons and daughters, my nieces and your nieces and nephews and grandsons and granddaughters, and I’m worried that we’re headed down that same path that worried me years ago in my own state.”
Ooh! The darkened amphitheater. The red stage curtain. Oh, no: Worry! 

Walker is telling us what's wrong with America. Why not what's right with America? The obvious answer is that if things are going swimmingly, then we should want another Democratic President.

Ward's writing fits squarely into the genre called They'll Tell You Who They're Afraid Of.  He proceeds to blabber about "an undertone of testiness in his stump speech, leavened with chest-swelling machismo fueled by his defeat of a recall effort in 2012 and his re-election in 2014."

Testiness and machismo seem like the opposite of gloom, but I guess gloom is the overtone and testiness is the undertone, while machismo is the leavening.

I won't accuse Ward of mixing metaphors. I think he's got a consistent food-prep metaphor going there.

It calls to mind that line from "Rosemary's Baby." Rosemary takes a nibble of the mousse that the devil-worshiping next-door neighbor has tainted with a knock-out drug and worries: "It has an under-taste. A chalky under-taste."



What's in this mousse anyway? "Mousse," in Wisconsin, we call it "mouse," because we are as naive-or-sinister as the Satanist next door. It's gloom mousse, but it has a testy undertaste, a macho, testy undertaste!

32 comments:

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...a testy undertaste...

I'm having trouble with the metaphor, as I don't actually know what testies taste like.

Bob Boyd said...

I'm calling Bullwinkle on the gloom mousse metaphor.

campy said...

So the MSM has obliterated the Cruz campaign already and they're back to dumping on Walker? I thought they'd "move on" to Rubio.

Ann Althouse said...

I was going to do a language thing about testicles, Ignorance, but the OED makes it clear that the "testi" in "testiness" means head. And a testy person is headstrong, not testosterone-feuled. But I think Ward thought he had 2 related concepts there with "testiness" and "machismo."

chickelit said...

A testy undertaste...

...sounds like teabagger lingo!

Ann Althouse said...

Clip added.

traditionalguy said...

I thought Walker sent all his time arranging Amnesty for dirty Hispanics needed by Koch Brothers on their wage slave plantations. That's the story du hour.

Beta Rube said...

This is a derogatory op-ed piece masquerading as news.

I miss Garage, his Walker hatred is out and proud, not like these weasels of the national press.

BarrySanders20 said...

Is it permissible to refer to Hill as testy, or is that one of the banned adjectives? It does have a masculine flavor.
Good sleuthing in the origin being unrelated to testicles.

CWJ said...

Yahoo Politics -

Both the title of an internet provider of third rate content and the author's attempted characterization of Walker's style.

Consider the source. You have to be pretty far down the list to write for or be picked up by Yahoo.

campy said...

I miss Garage

How can you miss him if he won't go away?

MayBee said...

You don't really say "mouse" in Wisconsin, do you?

Bob Ellison said...

Good candidates listen to their crazy critics. I remember thinking Tom Daschle couldn't seem to utter a sentence without saying "I am saddened".

"I'm worried" is a disheartening phrase. He should go for things like "the future is bright" and "we're gonna get out of this place".

Ronald Reagan projected optimism as much as possible. I think he must have had a little card saying "be optimistic!" in front of him when he spoke. All candidates should do that.

Darrell said...

Never take a bite out of a mouse.

Marc in Eugene said...

Yes, MayBee-- really, in Wisconsin mousse is pronounced with an ow rather than an ou? Perhaps AA is making a joke we're not catching.

robother said...

I love the smell of testosterone in the morning!

Darrell said...

When you order chocolate mousse in Madison, the waitstaff lectures you about race.

Darrell said...

When you order chocolate mouse in Madison, the waitstaff lectures you about race.

Wince said...

Scott Walker is the devil; he wants to drug and rape us.

"Perhaps you'd better have your legs tied down in case of convulsions."

Minnie: As long as she ate the mouse, she can't see nor hear. Now sing.

Mrs. John F. Kennedy: I'm sorry to hear you aren't feeling well.

Rosemary: It's just a mouse bite.

Mrs. John F. Kennedy: Perhaps you'd better have your legs tied down in case of convulsions.

Rosemary: Yes, I suppose so. If it was rabid...

Mrs. John F. Kennedy: If the music bothers you, please let me know and I'll have it stopped.

Rosemary: Oh, no, no, no. Please don't change the program on my account...

Mrs. John F. Kennedy: All right. Now, try to sleep. We'll be waiting for you up on deck....

Rosemary: You... you had me while I was out?

Guy: It was kinda fun in a necrophile sort of way.

Sprezzatura said...

I saw one of his stump speeches on cspan.

I did find it funny when he was talking about ISIS coming for his family and the families of the audience members.

That stuff seems to work for a lot of R primary voters. Old white folks eat that stuff up.

Andrew said...

So the the Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward of Yahoo is familiar with the taste of taint.

Skeptical Voter said...

Well as long as we're talking food prep metaphors here, I'd add that the writer of this piece of drivel has served up a "meadow muffin". Or if you want to vary that and go the dessert route, "a road apple".

Still it's good to see the East Coast press get all wee wee'd up about these fellows from the middle of the country. Their mantra is, "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid For These Fellows Are Not Like Us!"

There are some among us, myself included, who would call that a good start.

gerry said...

I was going to do a language thing about testicles, Ignorance, but the OED makes it clear that the "testi" in "testiness" means head. But I think Ward thought he had 2 related concepts there with "testiness" and "machismo."

Egad, I hope he included trigger warnings for undergraduate rape-phobic females in the headline.

cubanbob said...

Beta Rube said...
This is a derogatory op-ed piece masquerading as news.

I miss Garage, his Walker hatred is out and proud, not like these weasels of the national press.

3/30/15, 9:08 AM"

Thumbs up! When it comes to Walker, there is no ambiguity with Garage which is in a way rather honest and refreshing.

Matt Sablan said...

How is this different from Obama feeling the need to fundamentally transform America?

Get this: Non-incumbents want to change things.

Known Unknown said...

I did find it funny when he was talking about ISIS coming for his family and the families of the audience members.

I know the point you are trying to make (re: fear mongering), but the reality of smuggling a dirty bomb across the Mexican border is not out of the question.

MaxedOutMama said...

But who really thinks that everything is going swimmingly in America?

Worry resonates with the electorate, because we are rationally worried. We want someone in government who pays attention to our worries, and tries to do something about them.

Sprezzatura said...

"smuggling a dirty bomb across the Mexican border is not out of the question."

I'd love to see a pol suss out this personalized scenario even a little more than Walker does, just in case some members of the 95%-white-primary need a little more of a nudge. E.g.:

"The D's are weak on defense and won't name terrorism, hence ISIS will bring a dirty bomb from their Iranian friends in Tehran to Tijuana, and then they'll cross the boarder with illegals who will steal your job and/or social security check, and then they'll drive to Iowa to blowup you and your kids. Vote for me and you won't be killed by ISIS!"

averagejoe said...


"Walker is telling us what's wrong with America. Why not what's right with America?"

Right, Walker is real anti-American. Elect Walker and we'll be longing for the days when we had a real pro-American president like Hussein Soetero, who is always so positive about America and its citizens. In my opinion, what's wrong with America is that we elected an anti-American to be president- Twice! That indicates something deeply troubling about its citizens, and something dangerously unhealthy for the nation.

Ann Althouse said...

"Yes, MayBee-- really, in Wisconsin mousse is pronounced with an ow rather than an ou? Perhaps AA is making a joke we're not catching."

Yes. You're not catching an allusion to something in Rosemary's Baby. If I had made a longer clip, you would have heard it.

Marc in Eugene said...

Ah, thanks! :-) I've never watched that movie, only seen snippets here and there. I occasionally tell myself, 'you should!', with respect to that and other significant pop culture events but, eh, perhaps next week. Am trying to listen to Schoenberg and those people lately: they're as much modernity as I can deal with for the time being.

Marc in Eugene said...
This comment has been removed by the author.