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Attack Ads II: Vietnam and the 2004 Presidential Election

© John Jefferson

August 22, 2004

Sen. John Kerry has recently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming that the sponsors of the Swift Boat Veterans against Kerry ads are working in conjunction with the Bush/Cheney campaign. While the FEC will not likely make this a huge issue and will probably not investigate anything before the November election, the controversy brings to light important issues.

First, attack ads have become part and parcel of any viable candidate's arsenal. A candidate seeking a "kinder and gentler" campaign is entirely naïve. We're living in a violent society. War is a daily reminder of that. It was only a matter of time before politics absorbed some of the abundance of animosity.

Second, in recent elections, the candidate who is sneakier with regard to 527s running attack ads usually wins. Bill Clinton's "It's the Economy, Stupid" ad totally negated any standing the first President Bush could have had on his own record, including decisive victory in the Middle East. Bush did successfully capitalize on the "Willie Horton" ads in 1988, a shrewd campaign ad that claimed to expose the failure of Governor Michael Dukakis (D-MA) t properly control criminals allowed to leave prisons on furlough.

Third, and perhaps, most strikingly, personal military service is a polarizing attribute. Republicans are apt to magnify the importance of military service while Democrats are apt to associate military service as something that makes a man less human. Republicans see the glass as half empty; Democrats see the glass as half full. Both sides want to fill the rest of the glass but disagree on how to do so.

527 groups, named for their IRS classification number, also known as Political Action Committees, are bagmen who do most of the dirty work because they have enough distance from a candidate to create a plausible deniability. President Bush will never come out and publicly say that he applauds the attack work done by the 527 sponsoring the Swift Boat ad. In fact, he has come out recently on Larry King Live and said he supports a ban on all 527s.

With three months left in this presidential campaign, it will be interesting to see how long the new controversial ads linger in voter's memories. Given the short memories of most Americans, and the desire to move forward to new things, the best strategy for both sides may be to simply create new ads at a regular interval.