The Debatable Land

Meanwhile, in Virginia...

As voting gets underway across the United States, have a look at this TV ad from a Congressional race in Virginia. I do wish we had stuff like this in Britain. This has an authentically salty disgust to it that makes it all seem very pleasingly 19th century. You were allowed to go negative back then, of course...


Great pay-off line: "Gerry Connelly. Too Corrupt, Even For Congress."

[Hat-tip David Boaz who points out that Connolly may be on the receiving end of a bum rap here.

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What do you do when your candidate has a funny name folk don't know how to pronounce? Why, you release an ad like this one for Adlai Stevenson in 1952:

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Reagan vs Mondale, 1984. Reaganomics vs Mondalenomics. It has to be said that not all the claims in this ad were proven correct by subsequent events.

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From 1980, here's Nancy Reagan striding in to bat for her husband.

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A classic theme from Ronald Reagan in 1984. And, of course, an ad designed to drive trades union members into an apopleptic fit.

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Is this the most famous presidential ad of all? Perhaps! Anyway, we're back in 1964 and LBJ wanrs that Barry Goldwater will end up incinerating your children. Tough stuff.

Obama-McCain Round Two

Who won? Well, Obama of course. That's not just my impression. Or yours. It's also the view of the lads* at Election Debates where grizzled debating veterans from Australia, the USA and Scotland each awarded the palm to the Senator from Illinois. This followed Joe Biden's 6-1 obliteration of lovely Sarah Palin.

*Disclosure: yes, some of these chaps are friends and were my contempories back when we swam in these murky debating waters.

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Frank Sinatra cuts an ad for Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and they don't even ask him to sing? And what's with the Mafia Don setting? Strange.

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Divided loyalties? JFK reassures voters in 1960 that they need not fear a Roman Catholic in the Oval Office.

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An instant classic from 2004 as the Bush campaign returns to a favourite theme, first used, I think, by Nixon in 1972. Note too, whe wussy, hyper-european classical music...

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"In your heart, you know he's right..." was a slogan that more or less conceded defeat. Also: the America of riots, swindles and general moral depravity, looks a lot more exciting than anything dear old Barry Goldwater offers in this 1964 ad:

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Dedication. Humanity. Good Sense. Fine virtues all. But enough to win an election? Jimmy Carter hopes so in 1980. But, dash it, there's something a little forlorn about this ad:

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This time we're going back to 1956 and this short, but to the point, Adlai Stevenson advert. More than anything else, it reminds one of how long Richard Nixon was at the centre of affairs. He's the dominant political personality between FDR and Reagan. Nixonland indeed.

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I wish they still made ads like this one for Gerald Ford in 1976. Check out the jaunty music and the fab 70s kitsch of it all. Not a bad message either.

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The contrast between this jaunty, jolly ad and what we know of Richard Nixon's character and temperament is quite striking. "Nixon Now", from 1972, is mesmerising. Amazing stuff.