Canned ads, stale words ensure flavorless races
Politicians are having a good deal of trouble finding issues that resonate with voters this election season. Homeland security, Social Security, Iraq, Israel, health care- none of this issues seem to strike a chord. How to differentiate yourself from your opponent? Well, if you can't do it on the issues, you can do it the old fashioned way- by using negative advertising to paint your opponent as the Embodiment of All That is Evil.
The election could come down to the old football strategy of "three yards and a cloud of dust." It is telling that the AFL-CIO, a major bulwark of congressional Democrats, has pulled its television ads to concentrate on maximizing voter turnout.
"They're brilliant," says Bernadette Budde, senior vice president of the Republican-leaning Business and Industry Political Action Committee. "That's what we've been telling everybody: It's all about who gets to the polls."
Less than two weeks from now, as voters dutifully trudge to those polls, it is unlikely that there will be much brooding about the future of Western civilization. Instead, the predominant emotion may well be relief that the campaigns are finally over.
For while the political implications are indeed large, the tactics employed by both sides have been depressingly small-minded.
If you think politicians are being small-minded now, just wait until after Election Day. Once some of these bland martinets are in office, it will be like a three-ring circus without the ringmaster. Of course, that really isn't all that different from what we have now, is it??
