October 11, 2004

You can run but you can't hide

The president really liked the line, you can run but you can't hide. But what the hell did he mean by it? Some observations of this classic movie line:

  • It's almost always spoken by the bad guy
  • It happens around the end of the second act when the good guy, oppressed by the bad guy gets away to regroup before the good guy's final victory
  • The good guy is generally running away, thus the run in the phrase
  • To retain the tension the villain needs to look very powerful at this point
  • It should only be used once. Two or three times turns this cliche from a fierce statement to farce

None of this applies here. Certainly Kerry was not running away at that point. Yes, he is running for office, but I don't think that's what the president meant.

I think he meant that Kerry can't run from his record. But that is a very unusual use of the phrase. So he needs to say that Kerry is running away from his record. Which turns the phrase into the unworkable; You can run from your record, but you can't hide from your record.

Has the president ever seen a movie where this line was used? Has Rove? Have the speech writers? They must not have because this line went horribly wrong.

Posted by jherr at October 11, 2004 07:13 AM
Comments

Thought I'm sure you've seen this already, for those who haven't this is absolutely hysterical! It's certainly bi-partisan at least:
http://www.jibjab.com/
and click on the two songs "this land.." and "it's good to be in DC"
Probably not best in the work environment--at least not at full volume.

Posted by: eigga49 at October 12, 2004 01:21 PM
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