Political documentaries can be fascinating but sometimes there’s a hitch that limits their accessibility: the filmmakers’ point of view becomes so strong that it boils down to the “good guys” and the “bad guys.” The problem with that is that everyone thinks it’s the other side that’s bad so you get a) political documentaries that preach to the choir, b) political documentaries that are shunned by the opposite side, c) political documentaries that have limited commercial shelf-life since their audience is limited to those already agreeing with the point of view and they point to it as proof (which the other side rejects).
But now there’s a DVD on the 2004 presidential election that can be viewed, enjoyed and be instructive to ALL sides — and should be REQUIRED VIEWING for anyone interested in going into politics, to present political operatives of all (or no) parties and to people who seek to learn the 2004 election’s lessons and WIN.
The DVD: So Goes The Nation, is directors James Stern’s and Adam Del Deo’s gripping primer on how to win — and lose — an election.
And, in fact, if you watch this and go back and look at what happened in 2006, it’s clear the Democrats LEARNED these lessons (although the lingering question remains whether they’ll forget them by 2008). Plus the Demmies built on them. In 2004 they lost by going after independent voters and not paying attention to getting every Democrat-leaning voter out but in 2006 got their base out to vote AND the independent voters.
But, as So Goes The Nation shows in 2004, the Democrats had to learn some painful political lessons the hard way. Among them: stay on message, don’t let yourself be dragged into being baited into committing political-suicide-by-mouth by saying dumb things that will be used against you; while seeking out independent voters is important, don’t forget to go out to get every single possible voter of your own party and make sure you get them to the polls; answer charges such as the Swift Boat Veterans’ attacks immediately and don’t assume the charge will simply fade away or wait until later.
And, above all, pick a candidate who has his political act together.
The DVD’s title refers to the fact that since 1960 every Presidential campaign winner had won Ohio. But Ohio is actually more of a peg for a movie about the national campaign in general — a movie laid out coolly, clinically, sans demonizing either side but unsparingly brutal in its assessment (via interviews from both sides) of what went wrong. Two key things that went wrong: John Kerry was a flawed candidate and the Democrats’ efforts to get out voters was too simplistic and disorganized to triumph over the GOP’s well-oiled and elaborate efforts (which the Democrats emulated in 2006).
What makes So Goes The Nation so delicious is that its “subplot” is really about the top, middle and lower campaign operatives on both sides, what they did, what they hoped for and how they judged what happened. You get big names from both sides such as national committee chairmen Terry McAuliffe and Ed Gillespie, campaign managers Mary Beth Cahill and Ken Mehlman, and political campaign pros like Paul Begala and Matthew Dowd. And none of them remotely resemble the screeching ideologues on radio or cable talk shows (or some blogs at the height of their rage). The most fascinating and colorful is Democrat Begala, who does not spare his party (or Kerry) often brutal criticism (and is far more likeable here than he is on CNN).
Those who expect the film will confirm Ohio was stolen will be disappointed. It shows no evidence of that and, in fact, shows how the Republicans outplanned and outworked the Democrats. It shows you the grand strategies, how things played out locally with volunteers on both sides, the battle of the TV political ads and how and why one side prevailed. And it shows that campaign operatives on both sides agree on a lot of the post-election analysis.
The irony about 2004 is that Democratic and Republican operatives agreed on one point: it was truly a LOUSY YEAR to be a Republican. So this time the Democrats felt they had a perfect candidate, one with a war record. But in the end (as the film shows) John Kerry proved to be the self-destructive Wily Coyote to George W. Bush’s Roadrunner. In one truly revealing segment, So Goes The Nation chronicles how Republican operatives tried to lay a trap so Kerry would bite at the bait and say something as politically suicidal as “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.â€? And, as they watched on live TV, they saw him bite the bait and then gobble up the whole rod. And they knew: END GAME.
Why? Because one of the key themes that emerges is the need for a campaign to stay relentlessly on message and limit the themes to a few understandable ones. And also because what the public says may not be what public actually wants or expects. For instance, Begala notes how everyone says they hate negative political ads — but they WORK.
In the end, So Goes The Nation confirms (again) that American elections are more about the “science” of getting votes than a vigorous interaction of “political” ideas that the political process presumably requires. “It’s got nothing to do with right or wrong,” says Republican vote seeker Leslie Ghiz.
So Goes The Nation documents how elections hinge on the science of moving people to make desired choices, a single-mindedness of relentless and well-organized political boots on the ground, battlefield-worthy rapid response and someone at the top who does more political scoring than toe-stubbing.
Without these factors, so goes the election…
REQUIRED VIEWING FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN POLITICS.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.