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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJonathan Alter: How Super PACs Will Keep The Campaign Clean
http://www.nationalmemo.com/how-super-pacs-will-keep-the-campaign-clean/How Super PACs Will Keep The Campaign Clean
May 25th, 2012 5:28 pm Jonathan Alter
Strangely enough, the 2012 presidential campaign, expected to be the dirtiest in modern memory, may end up being relatively clean.
Thats because both sides agree that the economy is the central issue and that sideshows like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright arent persuasive for voters. Karl Rove and Larry McCarthy, the creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad, think harsh personal attacks against President Barack Obama will backfire, and theyre offering more subtle messages of economic disappointment instead.
Even economic assaults can boomerang nowadays. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, an otherwise strong Obama supporter, dealt the Obama campaign a blow last weekend on NBCs Meet the Press when he said he was nauseated by an Obama ad lambasting Mitt Romneys tenure at Bain Capital LLC. The presidents defense of the ad, in which he said there are folks who do good work in private equity, was too complicated to be effective.
The controversy surrounding the Bain ad and a proposed Wright ad from a super-PAC backed by Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD), suggests that when paid media in the presidential race ventures out-of- bounds, free media will exact a penalty. (House and Senate races are another story.)
We can still expect a misleading and overwhelmingly negative campaign, but the distortions and outright lies will be mostly about the candidates records and positions, not their race, religion and standing as patriotic Americans. I dont mean to be pollyannaish, but that represents a step up from the gutter.
snip//
Ive long argued that when youre talking about the most powerful job in the world, all biographical facts relationships with old pastors, management of companies, religious practices, even old girlfriends are at least potentially relevant. But this year, with the country facing a stark choice in hard times, they will be derided as distractions from an unusually substantive campaign.
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Jonathan Alter: How Super PACs Will Keep The Campaign Clean (Original Post)
babylonsister
May 2012
OP
babylonsister
(171,105 posts)1. No comments? Hmmm... do you think Alter is right? nt
spanone
(135,919 posts)2. i don't buy it. he is being pollyannaish. the thugs don't play fair.
karl rove hasn't even begun.