I heard a delightful short segment on NPR this evening while driving home. The interviewer had Frank Luntz – the GOP wunderkind of evil propanda — and George Lakoff of “framing” fame on the line. She asked Luntz if “cut and run” was going to work as a way for the Administration to re-gain support for the war. Luntz thought it was a very fine way to talk about the war — to shake out the cowards and elevate our trust in the stand and fight types.

Lakoff then explained the little “inconvenient truth” that people didn’t want to hear: George Bush was right. Mission was accomplished back then; the war was won. Our army defeated their army. End of story. Since then the US has been an occupying army. There is no winning an occupation. The only thing to do with an occupation is to end it.

Now the delightful part: Luntz seemed v-e-r-y rattled by this turn of events. He even allowed as how it might convince people of Lakoff just kept repeating it — like he was doing in this very interview!. (Unfair, unfair!)

George responded that by the time progressives repeated “occupation army” as often was the GOP repeated “war on terror” there would be a balance of assertions and people could make up their own minds. Lakoff was absolutely self-posessed, thanked the interviewer graciously, never got sharp or beligerent, just showed what a different frame did to reveal the truth.

I nearly side-swiped an SUV on Doyle Drive I was so happy!

For more on Lakoff here is his Rockridge Institute.

For more on Frank Luntz you can start at his site. (I don’t think you could afford him, though — even though he is a recent believer in Global Warming.)