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John McCain and his new campaign manager: Racy, not racist
So John McCain picked a campaign manager (in)famous for creating an ad with an imagined encounter between soon-to-be-ex-congressman Harold Ford, who is black, and a white Playboy bunny. It’s been tarred by not only a lot of liberal bloggers as a racist ad, but for some reason I can’t divine, the the original Moderate Voice himself:
This hire will not be hailed by:
Those who want to see an end to ads (that raise the issue of race, sexism or religion used even in the typical plausible-deniability mode used in campaigns. The ads go up, eventually they’re pulled down. The consequences linger. There are voters who will vote against politicians who use those ads or embrace those that feel anything goes in politics to claw the way to a victory.
Those independent and moderate voters always felt John McCain was a cut above the rest. This move indicates he hired a very adept and effective political infighter. And this seems to be a cut above AMONG the rest.
First things first. Let’s remember the attention span of the average voter: naught. There’s nothing wrong with this: Politicians’ goal during election season is to get their names out there, which has the side effect of annoying the hell out of voters. It’s the foremost consideration in a voter’s mind: Who is that guy? So if your name recognition is low, you’re screwed. It’s rare they’ll vote for a name they don’t know, unless they’re firmly in the “anyone but” camp.
The second goal: Tar your opponent with a memorable ad. Harold Ford indeed went to a Playboy party, albeit not at the Playboy mansion (as he carefully said when questioned) and apparently with no bunnies prancing in their fur. Now I’m sure a few Republican congressmen here and there have gone to Playboy parties, at the mansion and with otherwise unleashed bunnies. But c’mon – this is Tennessee, a middle state that is nonetheless firmly buckled into the Bible Belt. Can you remember the last time you saw an African-American Playboy bunny? They indeed exist but if you watch Access Hollywood or VH1, they’re not often standing there with Hef on the red carpet.
Politicians lingering with women not wearing their rings is indeed a unique American liability that has often perplexed open-minded, responsibility-free Europeans. So Harold Ford met some bunnies off the mansion grounds. So what? Well, for some reason the anti-Fordies believed this insinuation – that Ford is a ladies’ man, and even worse, a California ladies’ man – would resonate with Tennessee voters.
Let me be clear: I like Ford. He’s a moderate, and seems wholly uninterested in the Vietnam-baiting of his elderly Democratic peers. If he’d been taken on by Tennessee liberals a la Ned Lamont, I’d have cheered and blogged loudly for him. But apparently he was vulnerable to Republican onslaught. He gave them the perfect setup – “Hollywood Harold” (which I think would have been more effective than “Fancy Ford”) cavorting around with slutty LA girls, no matter how tangential his connection to Playboy bunnies is. I never saw any racism in that ad until liberals started bitching about it. It looked like a typical “my opponent has loose morals” ad, and in this case, the accusation was particularly tenuous.
If there’s a Southern strategy, I’m not seeing it. And it doesn’t speak well of liberals and good-government types to make such a tenuous connection to racism.
25 Responses to “John McCain and his new campaign manager: Racy, not racist”
I agree with you, Greg (and I’d add: the ‘racy’ motivation is even more clear when you take into account that Ford in his own ads was portraying himself as a Christian, even running an ad filmed in a church. So, there was definitely the opportunity for the GOP to point out hypocrisy, just as they did when they spoke of the Saturday night Bill Clinton and the Sunday morning Clinton.)
We’ve argued the point ad nauseum here (PLEASE, not another onslaught of explanations of the GOP Southern strategy, how I just don’t get it or how I must not understand how endemic racism is in the South- despite that I have lived here for all of my adult life).
And since Greg brought up Joe’s post, I say that this quote from him is even more disturbing to me:
So apparently Joe is asserting that only people like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh could possibly be of the opinion that the Ford Playboy bunny ad wasn’t a racist ad, and that anyone who isn’t from Mars should plainly have been able to see that. Joe is entitled to his opinion if he thinks it was, but I hope he will reconsider these statements that impune those of us whose opinion differs from his.
First things first. Let’s remember the attention span of the average voter: naught.
Wow, they were just talking about contempt for the electorate on some blog. I thought it was this one. We just threw a bunch of schmoes out who thought we weren’t paying attention.
Go the Wikipedia entry on “miscegenation” if you have any doubts about why some people might view that ad as playing the race card. The last anti-race mixing law in the South wasn’t repealed until 2000. The post was disengenuous in the extreme.
Yeah, there’s no racism anymore because a privledge blogger says he doesn’t see it.
I guess that takes care of that.
I’m guessing this is yet another blogger who’s never actually visited Europe.
Folks, to understand this ad please visit Pam’s House Blend: NRSC hits Harold Ford with ‘Big Pimpin’ web site on March 10, 2006.
But the fact that these laws have been repealed shows that there are now enough fair-minded people in the South that there would be offense taken toward the use of racist ads. In order to believe that the GOP would plan a campaign strategy to appeal to bigots, we have to believe that they would ignore the possibility of backlash from voters who are not racist and are offended by racism.
Holly,
What does that website prove? A commenter on the link you sent said that the website proved that whites don’t think Harold Ford deserves that lifestyle because he is black, and because this person said it makes that the truth? The website and the Playboy bunny ad were stupid, in my opinion (I would very much prefer a focus on issues in campaigns), but it is still clear to me from the Fancy Ford website and the Playboy ad that what campaigners were doing was showing Ford’s hypocrisy. He campaigned as a devout Christian and in Tennessee, that doesn’t mean partying on Saturday night and then showing up in the pews on Sunday. Conservative voters in Tennessee reject that lifestyle, and that was the basis for all of this IMO, not that they reject it for black people.
A point regarding this hiring that I am still waiting for someone to make:
Isn’t this campaign manager the only one that succeeded in getting a freshman GOP canidate elected?
Say what you will about the racism thing – McCain’s primary motivation is winning, and this manager, sour scumbag or savvy strategist, is the only guy who won in 2006.
Sorry, C Stanley. I don’t apologize for what I wrote. Unless I’m mistaken I said in my post who you can fully expect to take a line defending whatever the Republicans do. No apologies on my post for what I wrote. I can’t control what people decide they want to read into and say I wrote. I thought I mentioned two people specifically by name. I’ll have to back and re-read what I wrote.
Joe,
If I inferred incorrectly, then it’s my bad I guess…but the section I quoted seems to me to reflect your own opinion because you listed this as the moderate viewpoint on this hire. And, you did use the wording that these people (moderates) would legitimately wonder this…giving weight to the opinion that Nelson’s past performance was to create obviously racist ads and (IMO) implied that only dittoheads could believe otherwise.
Why, I only saw two names there. I also saw that high up in that post I stated that yes, in my opinion the ad was indeed racist. And people will and can disagree. Which they do. But, no, there’s nothing in there that says anything about all conservatives and all Republicans. (This by the way is my last response in comments for 2006. I do try to say what I try to say in my posts and people can agree or not and discuss them in comments but if people want to read things into what I write, I guess that’s their right.)
Joe,
I think you’re missing the point of my complaint (perhaps my last comment explains it better, or maybe we just aren’t getting each other and should leave it at that). I see that you aren’t accusing all Republicans of being blind to blatant racism, but I also read the comment as saying that the past performance of Nelson was blatantly racist (which then implies that people like myself and Greg are either disingenuous or blind to not see it in the Ford ad). Perhaps you didn’t mean it that way, but saying that moderates would legitimately have that concern seems to imply that this has been a pattern for Nelson (otherwise why would you be concerned that this is what is in store for future elections?)
Honestly it isn’t that big of a deal and I’m not trying to be argumentative, though the more I try to clarify my point I’m afraid it may seem that I’m trying to make a big deal of it- but that isn’t my intention.
Also, there are few things more patronizing than telling other people what they should or should not find racist.
Especially white people telling minorities that certain things aren’t racist or offensive, usually followed up with a “See, there’s not really a lot of racism anymore.”
Right, and Baptists don’t dance or drink. At least not here in the alternative universe.
Thanks, C Stanley. I got a huge laugh out of this:
I grew up in the South and spent plenty of time in TN. You must have missed all the parties and the hungover congregations.
OK, I get your point, Davebo (yes, I’ve been to a Baptist wedding where there were TWO receptions: the official one in the church hall and then the after party across the street at the bar!)
What I meant was that even if the people themselves are hypocritical, they do judge political leaders by these standards (and of course, some of the people do uphold standards and I won’t judge them by saying whether or not they are in the majority)
Woo-hoo! I called this one right!
If you look back at our discussion about this ad on TMV at the time, I predicted the ad’s creators would have people knocking on their door immediately after the election.
It was brilliant not for the reasons folks here are referencing, but for how it targetted the African-American FEMALE vote by linking Ford with White women.
As I noted at the time – a point echoed by Shay, a blogger from Illinois who is Black and female – the issue of Black male interest in white women has long been social concern of African American women.
This extends to paler skinned Black women…one of whom, my best friend actually, was regularly harrassed in high school by darker skinned girls as her skin and features attracted Black male interest.
The beauty of these ads was that – given the deep taboos about these issues in America – no one in the MSM could even mention that one of its key target demographics was Black women.
When you can politically hammer your opponents senseless…and yet the opponents can’t even bring themselves to explain how they were beaten…THAT is political genius!!!
I would also note the structure of the ad seemed targetted for YouTube. Note how the freezeframe of the ad – even when reviewed negatively on Slate etc. – was on an image of the blonde hottie. Thus, increasing the likelihood of its online clickability among males.
Brilliance…perhaps the best political ad I have seen in years.
Thus, I am not surprised at all that McCain hired its creator. He is pooling serious talent.
Amen, Green and let me tell you something else. In my younger days plenty of them spent Saturday night across the tracks chasing tail…the other tail…so it’s always been strange to me to hear concern by whites about black men dating white women. I grew up seeing the other side. black women doing day work never knew what she’s getting into and what kind of problems she was going to have with the man of the house. Sometimes none, sometimes PLENTY.
When one race dominates another, misuse and abuse is dished out by the dominate race to the women.
AS for mcCain, well, he’s smelling himself and thinking he could win. No telling how far a man will go once that blood lust takes hold of them.
Leni Riefenstahl was serious talent too.
Greendreams said: “I grew up in the South and spent plenty of time in TN. You must have missed all the parties and the hungover congregations.”
Heh-heh-heh…
And what about Arkansas?…as in Dick Morris great description of President Clinton’s two sides:
“Saturday night Bill, and Sunday morning Clinton.”
Andrew said: “Leni Riefenstahl was serious talent too.”
Undeniably. That’s why George Lucas gave a homage to her “Triumph of the Will” in the closing scene of the original Star Wars movie.
Not that Lucas is a Nazi…he (at least at that point in his career) simply admired brilliant filmmaking.
I get your snark…but talent is talent. McCain wants to win, and he wants the best.
I don’t know if the brilliance of that ad can be replicated…but if so it does not bode well for Hillary or Obama if so.
(If you look at the original post at TMV, Shay had an interesting analysis on Obama’s own calculations in playing to the Black female voters in Illinois).
The 08 race just got more interesting, I imagine.
My goodness! If you personally didn’t see any racism, it must not have been there!
That statement is really the root of this (imho).
I don’t see the racism in the Ford ad, either (my post from October here). However, I’m also functionally color-blind, and while that can be a good thing, it also sometimes limits my ability to see nuances that others do.
Certainly the ad was subtle, whether there was a “Southern Strategy” in play or not, and as Marlowecan’s comment points out, there are levels and levels to cultural perceptions.
I agree that there are levels and levels to cultural perceptions. By implication, at least, you’re conceding that not everybody comprehends every level.
I would suggest that modern candidate for Senate is like a consumer product being supported by a multi-million dollar marketing campaign. There is, of course, nothing original in that suggestion.
But don’t you think these highly paid professionals are capable of crafting commercials that play to different levels? Including levels that are unsavory yet effective?
Harold Ford is no Willie Horton. But he is still a black man in America. And I would suggest that is a fact loaded with meaning–levels and levels of meaning.
You don’t have to like it. You don’t even have to see it.