Kairos and Politics

Over the past few days, rhetorical ploys by both president Bush and the Cardinals organization have given us good examples of how people attempt to argue or persuade while considering kairos--the ancient rhetorical principle of "right timing," unveiling a proposal/making a statement that deeply considers how one's message should be presented at the right rhetorical moment.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos

On one hand, we have parts of Dubya and other folks in his administration calling for the Iraqi government to set a deadline to curb/stop the civil war (aka "sectarian violence" in the MSM), which is an idea that should have been called for years ago, but Prime Minister al-Maliki responded to these ideas for deadlines with this terse but trenchant statement: "I am positive that this not the official policy of the American government but rather a result of the ongoing election campaign. And that does not concern us much." [emphasis added]

So the administration, mired in a struggle to keep the House and Senate in GOP hands, is trying to make "lemons out of lemonade" to help candidates. What's next? Is the administration going to bring back the color-coded system of terror? Will Nov. 6th be an orange or red alert day to imply to the voters that they should "stay the course" with the GOP? Oh wait, Bush isn't using that fun little three-word phrase anymore...

That lemonade tastes bitter.

On the other hand, the Cardinals organization in cahoots with Mayor Slay and other leaders unveiled the proposal for a wonderful looking Ballpark Village the morning before the Redbirds won the World Series. As residents of the St. Louis area are awash in the glory of winning it all, their business and civic leaders calmly ask for 100 million.

And they'll probably get it.