Comments on: 3:00 AM: I Know What You Said Last Night http://election2008.teambio.org/2008/03/08/300-am-i-know-what-you-said-last-night/ Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:13:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Liberal Jarhead http://election2008.teambio.org/2008/03/08/300-am-i-know-what-you-said-last-night/#comment-1497 Liberal Jarhead Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:15:10 +0000 http://election2008.teambio.org/2008/03/08/300-am-i-know-what-you-said-last-night/#comment-1497 A couple of things both parties should have figured out a long time ago are that first, as you note, candidates bashing each other just contributes to a lot of voters seeing all of them as unworthy of their votes and staying home on election day; second, that for either party, when candidates sling mud at each other while contesting for the nomination, they're also giving the other party points to use as cheap shots in the general election. As you also noted, it seems to indicate a lack of worthwhile things to say about the issues. That "red phone ringing at 3:00 a.m." ad reminds me of the ad the Johnson campaign used against Goldwater, using a sequence with a cute child as a lead-in to the ominous implication that if Goldwater were elected he'd get us into a nuclear war. It did affect a lot of votes, and I've seen it cited as the first example of a slick TV attack ad. Of course, after Johnson won, he went on to escalate the Vietnam war from an obscure scuffle involving mainly some special forces troops to what it became. So much for him being the candidate of peace and restraint. A couple of things both parties should have figured out a long time ago are that first, as you note, candidates bashing each other just contributes to a lot of voters seeing all of them as unworthy of their votes and staying home on election day; second, that for either party, when candidates sling mud at each other while contesting for the nomination, they’re also giving the other party points to use as cheap shots in the general election.

As you also noted, it seems to indicate a lack of worthwhile things to say about the issues.

That “red phone ringing at 3:00 a.m.” ad reminds me of the ad the Johnson campaign used against Goldwater, using a sequence with a cute child as a lead-in to the ominous implication that if Goldwater were elected he’d get us into a nuclear war. It did affect a lot of votes, and I’ve seen it cited as the first example of a slick TV attack ad.

Of course, after Johnson won, he went on to escalate the Vietnam war from an obscure scuffle involving mainly some special forces troops to what it became. So much for him being the candidate of peace and restraint.

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