Potential Attack Ads

The most devastating attack ad of the 2004 election was arguably the "whichever way the wind blows" piece created by the Bush campaign.  In the advertisement, footage of John Kerry wind surfing in the ocean is shown while a narrator describes his history of political flip-flopping.  Flip-flopping, it seemed, was the biggest weakness of either of the candidates at that point in time.

Now it seems the only chance the GOP has to defeat President Obama in the 2012 general election is himself a documented flip-flopper – Mitt Romney.  This, in other words, is the most preferable choice for the Republicans who want to realistically take back the White House.  If the wind surfing ad was able to sway as much public opinion as it did, then imagine the potential for dramatic attack ads in the upcoming election cycle.

All Democratic political strategists would have to do before the general election would be to play clips of the candidates, followed by a narrator asking, Is this who you want for president?  In the best case scenario, it would be a message similar to the wind surfing ad; in the worst scenarios, clips from interviews like the following will be played:

When asked a direct question regarding United States foreign policy with Libya, Hermann Cain was unable to give a direct response.  This lack of a direct response is by no means a stylistic choice; he simply did not know what, exactly, the interviewer was asking, let alone an actual answer to the question. He equivocated and fumbled through the response for over five minutes, attempting to somehow make himself looks good.  He emphasized once again the unimportance of having foreign policy knowledge, as he could always “look up” facts if a situation presented itself.  Moreover, Cain gave the overtly partisan non-answer to the question:  he disagreed with how President Obama handled the crisis without really knowing what he did in the first place.  In other words, he felt that it was his duty to disagree with a Democratic president on principle.  Only later did he backtrack somewhat from this idea, when it was explained to him that many Republicans actually agreed with the president on the matter.

If Cain does not become the GOP nominee, then maybe the attack ads will look something like this:      

Realistically, this could be a case of bad nerves.  However, this flub is also a terrible mistake for a presidential candidate, as not only does it lend itself to detrimental sound-bites, but it also looks bad for the candidate when the entire question and answer sequence is viewed.  If nothing else, the potential nominee should be comfortable enough with his or her own plan that, even when placed under stress, the candidate should be able to access major points without a problem.  Ultimately, an attack ad using this video would need no framing.

Again, if Mitt Romney – the flip-flopper – becomes the nominee, then there is the potential for another wind surfing ad.  Republican strategists must not be sleeping well at night knowing that this is likely the best possible outcome of the GOP nomination process.