Hillary's dark, fearful children-sleeping spot has forerunners in the annals of political advertising that will no doubt be much discussed. Here's one of them, LBJ's"Daisy" spot, used against Goldwater in 1964. Wow!!! In comparison, Hillary's seems almost tame:
Then, probably a closer model: Walter Mondale's "Red Phone" ad that he used to beat Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic primary. We're reading in some places that this spot was done by Roy Spence, a Texas ad man who joined up with Hillary's campaign after Iowa, which we didn't know. Even this spot is harsher than the one Hillary put up today:
Via The Observer.
Some Democrats will no doubt view this as an unfortunate, negative turn. The flip side: Obama would eventually face this issue with the Republicans and McCain, so he may as well try to deal with it now.
The difference is that McCain has real national security and military credentials; Hillary has kind of faux credentials as a First Lady and a member of the Armed Services committee for a couple of years. Are they strong enough to carry this off?
She's also a woman. On the one hand it's amazing that the first serious female candidate is playing a strong, decisive military card, on the other hand you wonder how voters will react to the closing image of a woman taking the call at 3 am. If there are any sexist stereotypes lurking out there in Texas, this will draw them to the surface.
Comments (2)
and the Obama response...
"Obama, calling it "a legitimate question'' yet accusing the Clinton campaign of using "fear'' tactics, had this to say about the ad this morning:
"I don't think these ads will work.... The qeustion is not picking up the phone. The question is what kind of judgment will you exercise when oyou pick up that phone. In fact we have had a red phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. President Bush gave the wrong answer. Sen. Clinton agve the wrong answer... Sen. McCain gave the wrong answer.''
Obama, saying he "exercised the right judgment,'' said that is what he will bring to the White House. ""I will never use the threat of terrorism to scare up votes.. Tthat is the judgment we need at 3 a.m.''"
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/clinton_ad_who_should_take_3_a.html
Fear Mongering Anyone?
Did somebody from the Bush politcal team dream up the Red Phone ad?
"One of Clinton's laws of politics is, if one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to make you think, if one candidate's appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes. You better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope."
Bill Clinton October 25, 2004
Personally I'm going to follow Bill's advice!
Obama 08