VIDEO: LBJ knew how to frame nuke happy conservatives

[yurbud]

The current talk of using nuclear bunker busters in Iran reminded me of this commercial from the 1964 presidential race, when LBJ was running against uber-hawk Goldwater.


Rather than hollow me-tooism, this is how LBJ framed those eager to use our nuclear arsenal.




http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/timeline/years/1964b_l1.html


Another on nukes,

MERELY ANOTHER WEAPON?



Some of the outside groups might have done stuff this good, but most of the candidates including Kerry seemed to be in a contest to see whose commercials could be more bland, inoffensive, and forgetable.

People still talk about this one. What the hell happened? Are all the current Democratic consultants fifth columnists or retarded?

[AX10]

1. kick

[Selatius]

2. Democratic consultants fifth columnists or retards? I say BOTH

There's more than enough corporate cash floating around Congress to buy more than a few advisors, consultants, public relations gurus, and "experts" on managing campaigns.

Of course, if you're not dealing with plain old greed and "conflicts of interests," then you're just dealing with outright incompetence.

[yurbud]

8. these guys would have trouble make a good mortuary commercial

[bryant69]

3. Different times

That commercial could work today, I think - but it would be more of a gamble. There are a range of possible reactions, some of them positive and some of them negative.

One thing that's hard for Democratic Undergrounders to do is to seperate out how they look at President Bush from the way other people look at him.

I don't think our current Democratic Consultants are fifth columnists, in the sense that they are purposefully betraying the party. I'm not keen on accusing people of betrayal because they favor different political tactics than oneself.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[yurbud]

5. "fifth columnists" is partly hyperbole, but being bland is a loser every

single time.

A few years back here in CA, Jerry Brown's sister was running against Pete Wilson. In a heavily Democratic state, this should have been a slam dunk. I was moving from being a republican to more consistently a Democrat or lefter. I was open to voting for her, but she campaigned with such bland, inoffensive platitudes, that I literally couldn't remember a single thing she said.

[Redstone]

4. GREAT find! Keep spreading it around, would you? Too bad we don't have

enough $$ to make a new, color version and run it on the networks.

Redstone

[yurbud]

11. even Move On hold's back a bit from being this direct

[400Years]

6. I bet the networks would refuse to run an ad like that now.

[yurbud]

9. yep--too effective

[yurbud]

7. value of the potential negative reaction--viral marketing

If some people are offended, they will tell others about it, who might quietly agree, or it could lead to discussion of the underlying issue that could change the offended's mind.

At any rate, LBJ got far more value out of that commercial than the cost of producing and broadcasting it.

Most Democratic commercials now get two points across at best: this is our candidate and the office he is running for. People will forget even that though if it's not in a memorable container.

Given the GOP advantage with their noise machine, times call for being a little more out there.

[yurbud]

10. The rest of them could be run today with almost no modification (LINK)

http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/timeline/years/1964b.html