They remind me of my kids in the back seat during a long trip.
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The Negativity Game
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 30, 2003; 9:26 AM
The negativity watch is under way once again.
Here's how it works. The candidates love beating each other up, but they also love playing the victim. A presidential contender might be beating his rivals senseless, but if he gets what he deems an unfair right hook, he loudly complains that he's shocked and appalled that Senator So-and-So would stoop so low as to challenge his integrity.
In other words, he started it, ma!
It's a clever strategy, since voters say they hate negativity (although they almost always respond to negative ads). No candidate wants to be seen as wielding the hatchet.
When Dick Gephardt first attacked Howard Dean over his 1995 remarks about restraining Medicare spending -- a perfectly legitimate issue -- Dean indignantly replied that he was disappointed in Gephardt and, besides, he'd delivered a lot more health care (as a doctor and governor) than the congressman ever had.
Sometimes, when the candidates aren't playing the negativity game, reporters do it for them. The media crave negativity because it makes for more exciting stories ("Senator Smith slammed Congressman Jones yesterday, calling him a boob and a bozo, as their war of words escalated. . . . "). So much more interesting than the details of Wesley Clark's child health insurance plan.
Thus it is with Dean's latest television ads, which have caught the eye of Slate's William Saletan:
"The press is pouncing on him. 'Dean's New Iowa Ads Attack Rivals,' says the Washington Post. 'Dean Becomes First in Campaign to Attack Fellow Democrats,' says the Times. And look who shows up in the articles: spokesmen for Kerry and Gephardt. The Post quotes Kerry's campaign manager, Jim Jordan, saying, 'No one here can remember any Democratic candidate going up with negative ads in October.' The Times tells readers what transpired backstage: 'an intense round of press releases, phone calls and e-mail messages from opponents' campaigns to reporters debating how negative the spots were. Mr. Kerry's staff quickly e-mailed the advertisements' scripts to reporters with the subject line "Dean goes negative."'
"Do the ads live up to the hype? Hardly. In the New Hampshire ad, Dean says of Iraq, 'The best my opponents can do is ask questions today that they should have asked before they supported the war.' In the Iowa ad, he says of seniors' prescription drug costs, 'Instead of fixing the problem, the best my opponents can do is talk about what was said eight years ago. . . . For years, the politicians in Washington have talked about health insurance and a prescription drug benefit, and all you got was talk. But in Vermont, we did it.'
"That's it. No names. All issues. By my count, Dean's complaint about Iraq applies to at least four candidates, and his complaint about prescription drugs applies to at least five. When you draw a distinction that separates you from all the other electable candidates, it's more accurate to say that the distinction is about you, not them. I prefer to reserve the word 'attack' for something more pointed."
Just wait -- it'll come.
In fact, check out this blast from Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, as reported by the AP and Hotline:
"Trippi 'complained to' Gephardt's camp 'about an episode' at an Oct. 28 Gephardt campaign event in Des Moines, where a Dean campaign staffer was 'pushed and grabbed' and 'subjected to verbal abuse' by Gephardt staffers. Trippi, in a letter to Gephardt manager Steve Murphy: 'I urge you to find the staff member responsible and fire him, and send a strong signal to the rest of your staff that behavior of this kind will not be tolerated.' Gephardt spokesperson Erik Smith, in response: 'These allegations are absolutely untrue. We've allowed Dean staff to attend our events for months, but this individual was disruptive and belligerent. Unfortunately, the Dean campaign is resorting to dirty tricks instead of addressing the issues.'"
If that weren't enough, the Dean camp upped the ante in an e-mail to reporters:
"An openly gay Dean for America staffer who attended an event for Congressman Dick Gephardt in Iowa (as is common practice among campaigns) was pushed and grabbed by Gephardt staffers, one of whom derided him as a 'faggot.' "
Tough stuff.
Nor is this incident, recounted by the Boston Globe, particularly pretty:
"Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign cut its ties yesterday to a controversial Arizona state representative who belittled the political prospects of a Kerry rival, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, because he is an Orthodox Jew who does not campaign on the Sabbath.
"But a Kerry spokesman said that the campaign's manager in Arizona, Mario Diaz, was remaining on staff, even though Diaz was present when state Representative Ben R. Miranda made the comment to at least one other Arizona politician."
Roger Simon sniffs out when politicians are playing rougher than it seems, beginning with John McCain sounding off to Newsweek on Iraq:
" 'This is the first time that I have seen a parallel to Vietnam,' McCain said, 'in terms of information that the administration is putting out versus the actual situation on the ground.'
"TRANSLATION: Bush is lying. McCain tried to dress it up by saying there is a difference between the 'information that the administration is putting out' and what is actually happening in the real world. But the translation is clear."
Then there's Al Sharpton's blast at Jesse Jackson Jr. over the congressman backing Howard Dean:
" 'Any so-called African-American leader that would endorse Dean despite his anti-black record is mortgaging the future of our struggle for civil rights and social justice. . . . ,' Sharpton, who is African-American, said.
"TRANSLATION: Any black leader who would endorse a white guy when he could endorse a black guy, namely Al Sharpton, is selling out the civil rights movement, according to Sharpton. And, although he choose to attack Dean for having an 'anti-black record,' this is the same thing as calling Dean a racist, something Sharpton has never done to Dean's face, even though they have debated on national TV several times."
You gotta be able to crack the code.
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