BYU NewsNet - Candidate Advertising

Grover Cleveland won the presidency in 1884 despite having one of the worst campaign slogans in history: “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the Continental Liar from the State of Maine.” Rather than saying something about who he was or what he would do for the nation, Cleveland made his catch phrase, “check out how bad the other guy is.”

Blaine didn’t do much better. He worked his image around his opponent’s illegitimate son by making his slogan, “Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa? He’s Gone to the White House, Ha Ha Ha.” You can imagine the pair made for a colorful race with more fiery accusations than policy debates.

Luckily our present campaigns have come a long way since those days of constant mud-slinging. Now we focus on real issues and realistic problems and promises. We focus on candidate stances, not images … or do we?

The recent John McCain commercial depicting Barack Obama as a celebrity equivalent to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears was definitely a step backward in the political maturity world. As usual, such mockery ends up making the speaker look worse than the subject. After all, what says “vote for me” better than “pick me, he’s too popular and well liked in the public eye.”

And, thanks to Hilton’s refute, McCain hurt himself in another way. According to Hilton, by recognizing her in his commercial, McCain has announced she must be a presidential candidate, too. In her own words, she’s “like, totally ready to lead.”

Obama has had his fair share of the poor advertising too. One ad called McCain’s anti-Obama claims “boloney,” and accused McCain of taking “the low road” and practicing “old politics” in using such ridiculous methods. A bit hypocritical since Obama’s commercial exemplified the same type of “old politics.”

Those tactics are old politics, just like Cleveland and Blaine. And just like Cleveland and Blaine, they still say nothing good for the candidate using them. After decades of whining and finger-pointing candidates, it’s no wonder campaigns have shifted from real issues to personal attacks. The public hears less about policy and things that really matter than they do about the character and personality flaws of the opposing candidate. And what do these slogans say about the candidate once they get elected? “When I’m President, I’ll be quick to point out the flaws in everyone around me as the source to our nation’s problems.”

Save the fight for issues that matter; don’t waste the public’s time and attention on casting Obama as the next candidate for “Girls Gone Wild” rather than a presidential candidate. Laughter may be great medicine, but laughing our way out of a war and economic recession will be an interesting presidential platform.

This editorial represents the opinion of The Daily Universe editorial board. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of BYU, its administration or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.