Wouldn’t you know it? North Carolina figures in two of “The 10 Dirtiest Political Races in U.S. History,” according to the magazine reason: Free Minds and Free Markets in its November issue. The upcoming issue doesn’t appear to be online yet, but readers can find it eventually at this site.
The magazine, in an article by David Mark, assesses the worst ads in more than two centuries of U.S. politics, beginning with the 1800 campaign for president in which opponents of Thomas Jefferson called him “a fraud, a coward, a thief and ‘a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.’” Whew.
The two N.C. races cited were the 1984 campaign between Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican, and Gov. Jim Hunt, a Democrat. Helms taunted Hunt “as a liberal flip-flopper” and asked, “Where do you stand, Jim?” Hunt proved capable of nastiness, too, showing an ad with “right-wing death squads in El Salvador.”
The magazine also cited the 1990 Senate race of Helms versus challenger Harvey Gantt. The Helms campaign showed the notorious “hands ad” of a white person tearing up a job application as the announcer describes how the job went to a minority.
One N.C. race the magazine missed – or perhaps didn’t think was so bad: the 1950 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate between Frank Porter Graham and Willis Smith. One anti-Graham campaign flyer that year blared, “White People Wake Up.”
Monday, October 09, 2006
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4 comments:
I actually enjoy the negative ads, they add spice to boring campaigns.
Some of the early negative ads that I remember were from presidential campaigns. One was a child playing with flowers in a field, then an atom bomb suddenly explodes. I think that was a negative ad directed towards Goldwater. Another was a man watching tv and an ad appears on the tv saying Hubert Humphrey for president and the man starts laughing hilarously when he sees the ad, like it was a big joke.
While the ads may be considered nasty, truth does ring in them. They reinforce our perceptions of the candidates.
Jack--
The political atmosphere in Raleigh is still less than refreshing. In fact, it's gotten so bitter around the Capital City that if I go out and get some new glasses, somebody might say I am making a shady contribution to Speaker Jim Black even if I get my new frames and lenses from somebody else!
A nice well written and informative post.....
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