Sen. Sam Brownback found out the hard way that Americans like candidates that share their values and interests. Often times, candidates must adapt their stump speeches to different regions and locales.
The GOP presidential hopeful drew boos and groans Friday at the Wisconsin Republican Party convention when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to focus on families.
"This is fundamental blocking and tackling," he said. "This is your line in football. If you don't have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history."
Oops, wrong team to mention in Packerland.
Realizing what he had said, the Kansas Republican slumped at the podium and put his head in his hands.
"That's really bad," he said. "That will go down in history. I apologize."
His apology brought a smattering of applause and laughter. He tried to recover, saying former Packer Bart Starr may be the greatest of all time, but the crowd was still restless.
"Let's take Favre then," Brownback said. "The Packers are great. I'm sorry. How many passes does he complete without a line?"
"All of them!" more than one person yelled from the back.
"I'm not sure how I recover from this," Brownback said. "My point is we've got to rebuild the family. I'll get off this."
Brownback’s gaffe was reminiscent of John Kerry in 2004, when the Democratic candidate called Lambeau Field “Lambert Field”(note: Kerry did still win the state).
Most Americans are not ideologues. They don’t carefully research each position of the contenders. Instead, they use shortcuts, or heuristics, to make their judgment.
Maybe next time Brownback is in Lake Geneva, he’ll pay homage to the man that Wisconsinites wish was running for President.
