May 21, 2004

Design for Kerry

Posted by Eszter

A propos election designs, check out Designs on the White House. Their goal is to generate great T-shirt designs for the Kerry campaign and then sell them to support the campaign. There will be some public voting and then voting by a list of judges (which for some curious reason does not include any Timberites;). They have sevaral themes: Best Pro-Kerry Shirt (positive spin, no mention of Bush), Best Anti-Bush Shirt (negative spin, must mention Bush), Best Issue Shirt - Domestic, Best Issue Shirt - Foreign, Funniest Shirt, Best Retro Shirt, Best Get Out The Vote Shirt and Most stylish. Be sure to check it out and also get those creative juices flowing and submit your own designs/quotes!!

I noticed the W has made it on to their list. Great minds think alike. (Hey, I can say that, it wasn’t my idea, it was a friend’s.) Oh, and for those interested in some W wearables immediately, here they are. I have added some circular Ws and some baby options in response to commentators’ requests.

UPDATE: As expected, others had thought of and implemented the W design a while ago. Take your pick: one, two, three, four. Thanks to a reader for pointing me to these sites.

Posted on May 21, 2004 05:03 PM UTC
Comments

In truth, the anti-W shirt is perfect for the liberal crowd since they have trouble articulating their visceral hatred of Bush except in terms of hating Bush himself.

I much prefer these shirts.

Posted by Justin @ RSR · May 21, 2004 05:35 PM

Sorry, OT, but I think Crooked Timber needs a front-page commentary on this, Stanley Fish’s bowing out in the NY Times (he’s retiring):

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/opinion/21FISH.html?th

Out with a whisper? It surprises me; I think he’s basically saying to academics, “Stay in the Ivory Tower.” What do you suppose prompted him to end on this note?

Posted by Willie Mink · May 21, 2004 06:37 PM

The other designs are okay, but yours is clearly the best. I’ve ordered one (to hide my now-distinctly-unfashionable “Dean for America” one…).

Posted by william · May 21, 2004 07:24 PM

Great idea, I’ve already altered my shirt with Bush branding the jackass, (you know the one!). On the back it now has in Sharpie “W:TCB”.
My young communists for Gore shirt has “ABK” as an update.

Posted by megapotamus · May 21, 2004 08:08 PM

Thanks for the DOTWHO link!

Willie, I wrote about something about Fish’s piece here.

Posted by Kerim Friedman · May 21, 2004 08:17 PM

I’m voting for Nader. Kerry is a disgrace to the country and to the party.

Posted by Jim · May 21, 2004 09:19 PM

Check out what Stewart’s wearing (along with his Utilikilt) in the new Dykes to Watch Out For

Posted by synchronicity · May 21, 2004 09:33 PM

jim, you want to elaborate on that?

Posted by mark · May 21, 2004 10:08 PM

…trouble articulating their visceral hatred of Bush except in terms of hating Bush himself.

I’m having this sentence bronzed. An incredible achievement.

Posted by Zak Catem · May 22, 2004 03:54 AM

…trouble articulating their visceral hatred of Bush except in terms of hating Bush himself.

That’s the best convoluted tautology I’ve seen all year. Bravo, Justin.

Posted by Peter Murphy · May 22, 2004 04:27 AM

Not very good shirts…

Posted by Giles · May 22, 2004 05:03 AM

He’s right though. I’ve been trying to find ways to express my hatred for Bush in terms of interpretive dance and chromatic harmonies, but I’m just not up to the task.

Posted by Zak Catem · May 22, 2004 05:51 AM

The sentence actually makes perfect sense. Your agreement with the phrase actually proves my point.

While I think Kerry is a nice guy, I have issues with his issues (his waffling on the issues for example demonstrating the abscence of a core).

While you may have issues with Bush you express it as a Bush hatred and thus undermine your argument.

Posted by Justin @ RSR · May 22, 2004 01:30 PM

Justin is right. You Bush-haters should be polite about your hatred. Dignified with your disgust. The etiquette of expressing dislike is important. You don’t want to do something so incredibly rude and offensive to the President as wearing t-shirts with a crossed W on them. Or even - gosh - vote him out. That’d be horrible and inhuman, dare I say, cruel treatment.

You’re going to make poor Georgie cry. As if he didn’t already have so much to worry about. He’s running a country, unlike his opponents who can do nothing but criticise him. It’s always, always opposition. Haven’t they got anything better to do? That Kerry, he’s the worst, he even thinks he can take George’s place, who does he think he is? Those ungrateful anti-Bush barbarians, they know nothing of how democracy works.

Posted by pepi · May 22, 2004 02:01 PM

Justin: So what you’re saying is, words mean exactly what you meant them to mean when you said them? Good luck with that.

For what it’s worth, the feelings I have about Bush resemble regret more than hatred. I think he’s a false and stupid man, but I don’t hate him for it. If you’ve been reading some of the more sensible liberal political commentary, you’re probably already aware that people on the left have far more concrete concerns with Bush’s administration than the dubious and pointless accusations flip-flopping the republican machine is attempting to get re-elected on.

Posted by Zak Catem · May 22, 2004 02:14 PM

Zak Catem wrote:

”. . . the left have far more concrete concerns with Bush’s administration than the dubious and pointless accusations flip-flopping the republican machine is attempting to get re-elected on.”

As long as you’re having sentences bronzed . . .

Posted by Nat Whilk · May 22, 2004 03:53 PM

Yawn…here goes. Given two candidates, if candidate A is so dangerous than only masochists, delusional end-of-the-world cultists, and weapons manufacturers benefit, it is indeed a perfectly expected and legitimate political position to support candidate B while concentrating on the lunacy of candidate A. Greater brains than mine can reel of a shopping list of people supported by the previous and current administrations because they weren’t as bad as the alternative (Chelabi is possibly an example).

Kerry does have one or two good points as well.

The presence of thick right-wing trolls on CT should not let CT readers underestimate the intellectual strength of the right-wing - it really is quite misleading!

Posted by hj · May 22, 2004 07:27 PM

hj wrote:

“The presence of thick right-wing trolls on CT should not let CT readers underestimate the intellectual strength of the right-wing - it really is quite misleading!”

About what percent of the bright right-wingers do you think fall into each of the categories you
listed above ((i) masochists, (ii) delusional end-of-world cultists, and (iii) weapons manufacturers)?

Posted by Nat Whilk · May 22, 2004 08:05 PM
Followups

→ Oh my god, the Mother Lode!.
Excerpt: It were Crooked Timber who got me all fired up about bumper stickers, and now they direct us to the jackpot. My favorite is the one that says "BUSH: born on third base, thought he hit a triple."...Read more at McCord

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.