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.
I’m a tech journalist who’s making a TV show about a college newspaper.