Let slip the dogs: US Presidential attack ads January 13, 2008
Posted by franklittle in Film and Television, US Media, US Politics, United States.trackback
In 1984 Wayne Dummond was put in prison for the rape of a 17 year old girl. Convinced of his innocence, and suspecting that Dummond had been railroaded into prison because the victim was related to the Clintons, then Arkansas Governor Mick Huckabee campaigned for his release, which took place in 1999. A year late, Dummond sexually assaulted and murdered a 39 year old woman named Carol Sue Shields.
With the South Carolina Primary coming up a group called ‘Victims Voice’ has started to air a pretty tough attack ad against Huckabee, starring Shields’ mother who ends the ad by saying ‘If not for Mike Huckabee, Wayne Dummond would be in prison and Carol Sue would be with us.’ Mother Jones has the story and the ad.
They also have a feature piece profiling, and re-showing, some of the attack ads used in recent elections, including the notorious one from 2006 targetting Democrat Senate candidate Harold Ford and the 1988 Willie Horton ad used by the Republicans to target Dukakis. The Horton ad was widely perceived at the time as being very damaging to Dukakis who was crippled by the crime issue right through the campaign culminating in him telling moderators during the Presidential debate that he would not support the Death Penalty for someone convicted of murdering his wife, who was a couple of rows away from him when the question was asked. Worth noting that only ads attacking Democrat candidates are shown.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see what impact this ad has on Huckabee, if any. But when the most vicious clash in the last election consisted of Gormley and McDowell swinging handbags at each other in Ranelagh, it’s clear just how much more vicious US elections tend to be.
Jaysus. How do you reply to an ad like that?
The race card is always there to be played
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7845.html
And forget not Ricky Ray Rector.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Ray_Rector
Any sense as to whether there is a political background to the Victims Voice group?
Some info on Keith W. Emis, the Arkansa Republican behind the Victims Voice group
He lists Niall Ferguson, Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman among his favourite writers.
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2007/12/dumond_goes_viral.aspx
Wow, CL, that’s a spectrum, of sorts…
“He lists Niall Ferguson, Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman among his favourite writers.”
None of those people had much time for victims of any
sort.
Victims Voice is apparently called a 527-and it seems there is no way to find out who contributes. A 527 can spend as much as it likes on ads. It looks as if Emis put the YouTube video together himself. But who’s paying for its TV run in S. Carolina? Who does it benefit? Probably Fred Thompson. ( Does anyone know why Fred doesn’t have a bolt stuck in his neck?)
Fred Thompson has rapidly acquired the reputation as the least engaged candidate and least hard working candidate in the Republican primaries… perhaps they don’t see the need to waste one?
The race card is always there to be played.
I’m presuming you realize that Dummond is actually white as is Eugene Fields who is also causing trouble for Huckabee. Sometimes those who favor tougher sentencing and better policing are simply interested in tougher sentencing and better policing. It can be unconnected to race.
I don’t really buy any argument that Hillary Clinton (or Bill) is racist in any way. Whether racists might vote for Hillary to stop Obama is another question, but really I don’t believe that Hillary’s reaching out to them in any way.
It can be unconnected to race, Eagle, but often as not it hasn’t been. ‘Better policing’ and tougher sentencing take a disproportionate toll on blacks, especially young black men, who tend to be the ones getting policed and locked up, something that’s been acknowledged in the debate over sentencing guidelines for crack v. cocaine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/washington/12sentence.html?scp=5&sq=cocaine+crack+sentencing
I do agree with you that the notion of either Clinton being racist is an absurd one. And the business about Hillary’s comments about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the tohubohu about Bill’s ‘fairy tale’ statement have been simultaneously overblown and misrepresented. However, several Clinton surrogates have made remarks recently that seem questionable, to say the least. (That’s also been true of some Obama people, as well, such as Jesse Jackson, Jr.) Either this is a deliberate tactic or Clinton supporters are having a collective attack of foot-in-mouth disease. I find it hard to believe that, apart from any moral considerations, the Clinton camp would take the risk of permanently alienating a voter bloc they’re going to need in November, but anything is possible.
CL, I don’t believe that Rector’s race played a role in Clinton’s decision (and I thought the decision was an appalling one). I also think that most American politicians in Clinton’s situation would have done the same thing, as terrible a commentary as that is.
It was not the political experience of LBJ that brought universal suffrage democracy to the U.S: it was the civil rights movement led by Dr. King. King was the agent of change. And Hillary’s remarks played down that role. Hence the outrage coming from even her own campaign team. Some of the sharpest criticisms of Bill’s and Hillary’s recent remarks have come from people working on her campaign-such as Bill Lynch who is a paid consultant to Clinton.
I’m not suggesting that either Bill or Hillary is racist. But that would not stop them from playing the race card. Bill Clinton pandered to white racists when he broke off campaigning and returned to Arkansas to personally oversee the judicial murder of a brain damaged black man.
The New York cops who pumped 41 bullets into Amadou Diallo did not get up that morning and decide they were going to kill a black man. But as the Stephen Lawrence case in England shows institutional racism can cause severe damage even when there is no conscious racist intent.
But not too much damage has been done yet between Clinton and Obama. I hope both sides cool it.
Jesse Jackson on C4 News while an Obama supporter was making much the same point as you CL re ‘both sides cooling it’. This only helps the Republicans.
Ishmael Reed-an American writer of Irish and African descent-has a good piece on this controversy. The comments of the war criminal former Senator Bob Kerrey are particularly scurrilous.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
A better link
Reed’s article is……unhelpful, I fear.
Fortunately, it appears from recent statements that both campaigns are letting the bugles sing truce.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/15/obama.clinton/?iref=mpstoryview