Although I can appreciate the cleverness of a well executed, tough political ad as well as the next cynical voter, I really don’t like it when the atmosphere get toxic, when campaigns try to trick voters by obfuscating the facts and intentionally mislead people, or just outright name call. I hate that. It’s beneath them and the office which they seek to hold, especially if they’re vying for the post of commander-in-chief.
However political pundits, along with a large body of research, tell us that it’s those negative ads that help win elections. The charges in those ads remain with you, like an insidious ear worm. The positive ads, the ones that are all motherhood and apple pie with a crisp flag snapping in the wind in the background while the candidate looks regal in front of it, conventional wisdom says that they make little difference when we are deciding for whom to vote.
Even though folks will say that they don't like negative ads, a University of Georgia advertising professor wrote on CNN's web site that they're used for one big reason: "The answer is simple: They work. And they work very well." She added that, "There is some evidence that negative messages may be more likely than positive ones to passively register [with viewers.]"
So, on the day before the New Hampshire primary, I surfed the internet and culled two different kinds of ads from the remaining GOP presidential candidates' web sites to compare and contrast the positive ads with the negative ones.
The Good
In this pro-Mitt Romney ad, with inspirational music and images, Ann Romney takes to forefront to try to soften the straight-laced businessman. (Romney did himself no favors today in the softening department by using the phrase "I like being able to fire people," which will, I predict, appear in a political ad very soon.)
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman’s campaign neatly packaged up Huntsman’s rebuttal during the final debate this weekend to Romney’s assertion that by serving as the U.S. ambassador to China under President Obama, Huntsman wasn’t putting his party first.
Here, Huntsman says that his election would be the answer to the nation’s “trust deficit.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich explains his belief that government doesn’t create real jobs.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul takes a rather loud approach with this “Big Dog” ad which seems more like it’s promoting a pro wrestling match rather than a presidential candidate.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s family-centric “Pop-Up” ad describes him in a very general way without attacking anyone else.
This “Morning in America” type of ad from Texas Governor Rick Perry shows a much better side of him than he has exhibited in the debates.
Showing posts with label Rick Perry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rick Perry. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Notes on Politics: Chris Christie’s Head Fake, Bono’s ‘F’ Word Campaign, Occupy [Your City]
Christie a Presidential No-Go
I must admit, I was disappointed to learn that New Jersey’s outspoken governor, Chris Christie won’t be running for president . . . as he has repeatedly said he would not, despite the lure of the siren’s song emanating from the lips of those who are desperately dissatisfied with the current GOP field.
I think Christie’s a smart, tough, work-with-anybody kind of person who would’ve brought much-needed pragmatism and leadership to the race. I’ve appreciated how he’s actually fielded questions with honesty and realism – like when he was asked why he was cutting funding for public school when he was sending his own children to private school – and think it would have been refreshing to see him go toe-to-toe with Mitt Romney, who often reminds me of a car salesman, and Rick Perry, who seems as though he’d rather be anywhere than talking policy while wearing a suit and tie.
And as for all the naysayers who were griping about Christie’s weight and saying he’s a bad role model, they were outright annoying and sanctimonious. I can’t stand the sanctimony. Christie’s in the business of developing and implementing public policy, not sashaying down a catwalk in a size zero sports jacket, sprinting up and down a basketball court or running a marathon. Last time I checked, he wasn’t jonesing to become an underwear model. Would he make a good poster boy for good health? No, and he’d be the first one to admit that. But he wasn’t being considered for either of those posts. He was being considered as a potential presidential candidate based on the contents of his head, not his stomach.
Bono’s “One” organization has released a new public service ad aimed at energizing us regular folk to be galvanized to act and pressure those with power to do something about the African famine, to intercede in some fashion. Featuring, of all people, Mike Huckabee, along with Jenna Bush, George Clooney, Kristen Davis, Michael Bloomberg, Arianna Huffington and Rob Lowe, to name a few, the ad tries to combine the shock of the “f” word (“f” standing for “famine”) with anger. It’s a dark and twisty kind of ad, clever.
The hodgepodge of folks -- many of them college students and members of unions -- who have been demonstrating in New York City as part of a loose group called “Occupy Wall Street,” have called for Wall Street types, who’ve fared well in this down economy, to pay a price for their recklessness. They want jobs and a whole bunch of other things, and they see rich, corporate titans, bankers and the assorted Gordon Gekkos of the world as standing in their way. They aspire to what one newscaster called, “An American Autumn” (to complement an Arab Spring, one would guess).
As some 700 people were arrested over the weekend for blocking the Brooklyn Bridge, the movement against “corporate greed, unemployment and the role of financial institutions in the economic crisis,” as the New York Times put it, has spawned other “Occupy” groups in cities across the country including Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, with anti-corporate, anti-banker actions/protests slated for Memphis, Minneapolis and Baltimore and a ton more locales. The central organizing web page, Occupy Together was created by some of the movement’s un-leaders (they don’t have official “leaders” per se, but some leader-y type person had to put together the web site) to “provide people with information about events that are organizing, ongoing and building across the U.S. as we, the 99 percent take action against the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”
Here’s how the “Occupy Together” movement looks to an English columnist who said we’re witnessing “the dissolution of the American Empire:”
“We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: Studied, got into college and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.
Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?”
So, is this the left’s answer to the conservative-leaning Tea Party? Imagine how wild it would be if the “Occupy Together” people and the Tea Party people actually got together on something . . .
I must admit, I was disappointed to learn that New Jersey’s outspoken governor, Chris Christie won’t be running for president . . . as he has repeatedly said he would not, despite the lure of the siren’s song emanating from the lips of those who are desperately dissatisfied with the current GOP field.
I think Christie’s a smart, tough, work-with-anybody kind of person who would’ve brought much-needed pragmatism and leadership to the race. I’ve appreciated how he’s actually fielded questions with honesty and realism – like when he was asked why he was cutting funding for public school when he was sending his own children to private school – and think it would have been refreshing to see him go toe-to-toe with Mitt Romney, who often reminds me of a car salesman, and Rick Perry, who seems as though he’d rather be anywhere than talking policy while wearing a suit and tie.
And as for all the naysayers who were griping about Christie’s weight and saying he’s a bad role model, they were outright annoying and sanctimonious. I can’t stand the sanctimony. Christie’s in the business of developing and implementing public policy, not sashaying down a catwalk in a size zero sports jacket, sprinting up and down a basketball court or running a marathon. Last time I checked, he wasn’t jonesing to become an underwear model. Would he make a good poster boy for good health? No, and he’d be the first one to admit that. But he wasn’t being considered for either of those posts. He was being considered as a potential presidential candidate based on the contents of his head, not his stomach.
One’s ‘F-Word’ Campaign
Bono’s “One” organization has released a new public service ad aimed at energizing us regular folk to be galvanized to act and pressure those with power to do something about the African famine, to intercede in some fashion. Featuring, of all people, Mike Huckabee, along with Jenna Bush, George Clooney, Kristen Davis, Michael Bloomberg, Arianna Huffington and Rob Lowe, to name a few, the ad tries to combine the shock of the “f” word (“f” standing for “famine”) with anger. It’s a dark and twisty kind of ad, clever.
Hey, it’s a lot better than rebooting “We Are the World.”
Angry About the Growing Financial Inequities Between a Small Percentage of the U.S. Population and Everyone Else? Occupy [Your City]
The hodgepodge of folks -- many of them college students and members of unions -- who have been demonstrating in New York City as part of a loose group called “Occupy Wall Street,” have called for Wall Street types, who’ve fared well in this down economy, to pay a price for their recklessness. They want jobs and a whole bunch of other things, and they see rich, corporate titans, bankers and the assorted Gordon Gekkos of the world as standing in their way. They aspire to what one newscaster called, “An American Autumn” (to complement an Arab Spring, one would guess).
As some 700 people were arrested over the weekend for blocking the Brooklyn Bridge, the movement against “corporate greed, unemployment and the role of financial institutions in the economic crisis,” as the New York Times put it, has spawned other “Occupy” groups in cities across the country including Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, with anti-corporate, anti-banker actions/protests slated for Memphis, Minneapolis and Baltimore and a ton more locales. The central organizing web page, Occupy Together was created by some of the movement’s un-leaders (they don’t have official “leaders” per se, but some leader-y type person had to put together the web site) to “provide people with information about events that are organizing, ongoing and building across the U.S. as we, the 99 percent take action against the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”
Here’s how the “Occupy Together” movement looks to an English columnist who said we’re witnessing “the dissolution of the American Empire:”
“We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: Studied, got into college and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.
Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?”
So, is this the left’s answer to the conservative-leaning Tea Party? Imagine how wild it would be if the “Occupy Together” people and the Tea Party people actually got together on something . . .
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