I found the phrase “serve up red meat to the crowd” in the following sentence of Washington Post's article titled “Michele Bachmann steals the show in Iowa”:
Michele Bachmann served up red meat to the crowd at the Iowa conservative principles conference Saturday, slamming President Barack Obama as a Jimmy Carter retread, dissing the Mitch Daniels "truce" call for social issues, and saying she wants a "waiver" from the last two years of White House leadership.
And I saw “serve red meat speeches" for breakfast in the following sentence of an article in the Buzz (http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/gop-candidates-serve-red-meat-breakfast)
At the Brokaw-McDougall House in Tallahassee early this morning, Republican candidates served red meat speeches for breakfast at the kick off for the whistle stop tour through North Florida.
What does “serve red meat” mean exactly? Obviously it’s not ‘meat that is dark brown in color when being cooked” as defined by COD. Is this day-to-day usage or political jargon? What is the origin of this phrase?
Best Answer
This expression is meant to conjure up the idea of a bloodthirsty pack of carnivores (here the audience of a speech).
The orator takes a fast track to popularity by throwing to the crowd the victim they expect. For instance he might vilify a personality or a piece of legislation he knows they dislike particularly.