Yesterday, I praised Henry McMaster for his latest campaign ad. Yeah, the praise was pretty damned faint, and I disagreed strongly with a great deal of what he was saying, but at least it was done with a tone and attitude that made you feel good about South Carolina — or at least got the impression that Henry felt good about South Carolina. And that’s too rare these days from our friends in the GOP.
Take, for instance, the pair of videos unveiled today by the Nikki Haley and Gresham Barrett campaigns.
We have Nikki labeling her rivals with the GOP cusswords “Bailouts,” “Stimulus spending” and “Career politicians” — about as neat a job of giving opponents short shrift as I’ve ever seen (as if those terms sum up the totality of who these men are) — before going on to say, in that hagiographic way she has, that SHE is the one true “conservative.” Whatever the hell that word means anymore. (It certainly doesn’t mean what it did when I was coming up.)
Then we have Gresham Barrett promising to be the meanest of all to illegal immigrants (the scoundrels!), and pass “a common-sense Arizona law.”
Sorry, folks, but neither of these glimpses of your values or your attitudes toward the world in general make me feel good about the idea of you being my governor. Not that you’re trying to please me, I realize; but that’s all I have to go by…
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“Not that you’re trying to please me,”
or me, either, but I reckon the consultants think this will get the people who *will* vote for them out….
What a pity that it will likely work…
I’m going to give a purely political analysis of Haley’s ad and say why I think it’s a good one.
It accomplishes three things:
1. It defines her opponent’s in a negative light. When you’re considered the fourth candidate in a three-way race (although new polling may otherwise…?) this is what you have to do. It’s part of politics.
2. It offers the standard biographical tidbits that usually come with a candidate’s first intro to voters (wife of military man, accountant).
3. It gets her basic message across that she is running on–and even includes the veiled reference to being a break from Sanford (“government we can be proud of”).
Not bad for a 30-second spot.
As for Barrett, well, me and some fellow political friends were taking bets on which candidate would come out with an illegal immigration ad first…looks like I won. It is after all the ad du jour of like every GOP primary out there.
Matt, you could be right that some of the intended audience would get that impression, but it would NEVER occur to me that she is trying to say she would be a break from Sanford. She is THE Sanford candidate, which is why Jenny and ReformSC are backing her to the hilt (Jenny always having been the brains of the Sanford cabal). Her reference to clean and transparent government is a shorthand reference to the Sanford “reform” agenda (some of which would have been reform; some of which would not have been). If you’ll recall, Sanford was all about transparency — until he started working so hard to hold back the info the ethics commission had on him.
But that’s me. I know too much. I know exactly what she means, for good or for ill. You’re right. Someone who knows a whole lot less could get a very different impression, and she’s banking on that.
I think her campaign is banking on the fact that different people will “hear” those words in different ways. I agree with what you are saying though.
But the beauty is that she can go out there, say “I want to give you a government we can be proud of”, and some people hear “anti-establishment/reform agenda/responsive to taxpayers/etc.” and others hear “a leader who’s not going to embarrass the state like the current governor did recently”. As a candidate, she can say one thing and get two different messages across that are both selling points to her campaign.
It’s like being the “Sanford” candidate without being the Sanford candidate.
“But the beauty is that she can go out there, say “I want to give you a government we can be proud of”, and some people hear “anti-establishment/reform agenda/responsive to taxpayers/etc.” and others hear “a leader who’s not going to embarrass the state like the current governor did recently”.”
and the latter would be true of just about any candidate except possible Andre…
The Haley ads are a perfect example of how the current crop of Republicans have no idea of how to govern. You’ll cut spending? Where?
Barrett gets my vote if the primaries were held today. Fact is 7 out of 10 AZ natives support the immigration law put into place… and many of the citizens of AZ are Hispanic (more than 3 of 10). Hopefully AZ is just the first of many states who will implement similar laws. I hope SC puts pressure on employers of illegals which will include both fines and community service and/or jail sentences for those who employ them.
Good point, Kathryn.