March 12, 2008 11:40 am
—
Why is political slime so effective? First look in the mirror. If the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t take this personal.
If it does, try to grow bigger feet. I’ll explain. But first, some examples.
The swiftboating of John Kerry in 2004 worked. It made patriotic Americans doubt a patriotic American who fought and was injured in Vietnam.
So they elected George W. Bush to the office — even though his handlers couldn’t explain his absence from the national guard for almost a year — when he was young, because they liked his “values” better.
Years earlier, the Willlie Horton revolving door ads did in Michael Dukakis, whose 15-point lead over George H.W. Bush evaporated everytime potential voters saw a likeness of Horton walking out of prison. Horton then committed a rape and an assault in Maryland after being released.
Massachusetts put the “prisoner furlough” program into effect before Michael came into office. But Dukakis got the blame, anyway. Over and over and over.
The little girl who supposedly got blown up by a nuke in an LBJ ad against Barry Goldwater in 1964, also worked.
You need to remember, 44 years have passed, and we’re still here, even if LBJ and Goldwater are long gone.
Think maybe the Dems were trying to scare you to gain votes?
It worked. LBJ won by a landslide.
Anything you can say that might appeal to racial or religious prejudices, or war mongering, will work for the same reason horror films work at the box office.
People love to scare themselves, and just about any kind of bigotry will suffice in getting some people frightened.
Occasionally, the ads do backfire.
Like the one in South Carolina recently where Bill Clinton (once known by some as America’s first black president) made what appeared to be “race baiting” comments, hoping to marginalize Barack Obama as a candidate for black voters only.
That might have helped ease his wife into the White House, had it worked.
To their credit, the voters of that state, repudiated the former president’s code talk and gave Barack Obama a decisive victory in the state.
Hillary benched hubby for about two weeks for throwing a dirty haymaker that didn’t connect.
But after the Clinton-Obama love-in debate after potential voters criticized the negative campaigning, the Clintons were right back at it.
The recent pictures of Obama wearing a white Kenyan headdress in 2006 tried to scare gullible voters into thinking Obama was a muslim extremist and a terrorist.
Children who vote will buy this, even those in their 80s.
Kenyans, of course, were rightly outraged to see their religion defiled in such a way, but hey, anything to convince stupid Americans that their prejudices are right on.
“Of course I don’t think he’s a muslim,” said Hillary, when asked. “At least not that I know of...”
Hillary, so much talent. Too much ambition. You’re better than this. So stop it.
What’s this, a picture of Hillary wearing a Muslim head dress in Africa in in 2006?
It’s enough to make you want to recall McCain’s alleged affair with a lobbyist 20 years ago, isn’t it?
There you have it. Three good people, all destroyed by slime. Obama has maintained a relative positive posture on this campaign, but sometimes his aides speak from the heart, saying Hillary is a monster.
Is it because he can’t say she’s a monster, so a lieutenant takes the hit for him, then resigns immediately?
Campaign professionals know the polls will fluctuate for a day or two when this stuff becomes public knowledge.
Just throw it and see what sticks. That’s what we call democracy in this country nowadays.
What’s unfortunate about all of this for Democrats, is that they haven’t had two candidates this talented running for president in decades.
Still, the Democrats are going to lose in November, and it’ll be the biggest choke job since Wilkie lost to Truman. The perfect political storm should be showing up on radar for the next seven weeks, leading up to Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Republicans have taken to John McCain, like a child to castor oil. Right wing rabble rouser Rush Limbaugh has been having a nervous breakdown on his radio show about it.
Temper tantrums have finally begun to subside on Fox, as conservative talk show hosts do their best to see that Hillary overtakes Obama.
This they do by actually voting for her in the primaries to get her past Obama so they can throttle her by re-recruiting the religious right in time to destroy her in November.
Onward Christian soldiers..
Meanwhile, the two Democratic contenders will spend the next seven weeks tearing each other to smithereens. McCain will use this time to create a third-rate romance, low-rent rendezvous, with the the far right of the Republican party.
Both know it’s not the real thing, but hey, he doesn’t look so bad in the dark, highlighted by the red and green neon lights, does he?
At least, they tell themselves, he’s not Hillary! He’s not a Clinton!
Take that tawdry McCain/Republican affair and add in the sound bites the two Democratic candidates are airing daily about each other, and those snippets ought to just about do in the Demos in November.
By summer they’ll be saying Obama is a secret operative of Al Qaeda, that his wife hates America and that McCain spent seven years at the Hanoi Hilton, which is the one true thing, while Obama wasn’t saluting the flag, which is false. He wasn’t saluting during the playing of the national anthem, which is OK.
But facts take all the fun out of it, right?
In the end, the Republicans will elect a George W. Bush clone to the White House, and the war will continue for, oh say, 100 more years.
If this were a country which allowed grown ups to vote, such ads would fail. The candidates with the best plans for solving problems and uniting a world where hatred is at the boiling point, would finally be heard, and we’d get a better class of government.
Don’t get me wrong. I think all three candidates (not counting Ralph Nader) are good candidates. I just don’t like the methods any of the three are using to get our votes.
If we could put away our fur-lined prejudices that keep us so warm with hate-filled comfort each night, we might yet find a path toward peace.
But you’ve seen Linus and those Peanuts cartoons.
Putting away the security blankets is a tough job for frightened children.
And let’s face it, we’re never going to grow up and have big feet.
We’re addicted to the fear, too much.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
Photos
