LBJ’s 1964 attack ad ‘Daisy’ leaves a legacy for modern campaigns

Washington Post ^ | September 5 | Drew Babb

[a fool in paradise]

“They told me if I voted for Goldwater, we’d get in a war. They were right — I voted for him and we’re in one.”

Damn Romney/Rockefeller Republicans for being "They"...

[a fool in paradise]

In 2000, there were ads and phone calls saying that if Bush was elected president, black men were going to be dragged behind cars in chains across this nation.

Then there was Joe Biteme Biden saying “They’re gonna pull y’all back in chains” when he spoke to an audience of black voters about Romney/Ryan in 2012.

[matthew fuller]

The Kennedy clan buried the Zapruder film for about seven years. That’s the only one that was widely known about for many more years.

[a fool in paradise]

Odd. The Washington Post ignored the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the Pentagon by Bill Ayers. Wonder why?

That was more of an EVENT.

This anniversary is like remembering where you were when Michael Jackson’s Thriller was first broadcast. A media created event.

[Sivad]

I was a teenager at the time but I recall that it created enough
of a stir that it was discussed in the papers and on other networks
besides NBC. Come to think of it aren’t the Rats gifted in the art
of throwing phony crap against the wall and then backing
off but knowing something will stick? In this case the continual
discussions and stories about it amounted to free campaign ads
for Johnson.

[Gay State Conservative]

Kennedy was widely hated also

He was certainly hated by some.There were more than a few who hated him simply because he was Catholic.Being a Catholic myself his religion means nothing to me either positive or negative.I have a fair amount of respect for JFK.In fact he's the last prominent Rat for whom I have *any* respect.Why do I respect him?

1) "We will support *any* friend,oppose *any* foe" (compare that to the Rats of today).

2) "Let *them* come to Berlin!" (Far more like Reagan's Berlin speech than like Osama Obama's)

3) "A rising tide lifts all boats" (said in support of big,across the board,tax cuts)

[DuncanWaring]

It’s been remarked on at least one occasion “They told me that if I voted for Goldwater, we’d end-up in a land war in Asia. I voted for Goldwater, and sure-enough, we ended-up in a land war in Asia”.

[DuncanWaring]

LBJ...who said he would never send American boys to fight a war in Vietnam.

Heard a tale of a woman who voted for LBJ in '64 because he was the "peace candidate".

Four years later her son was killed in Viet Nam.

[Swede Girl]

I agree 100%. Lyndon Johnson was so terrible for the country. Things could have been so much better under Goldwater at that time.

[elcid1970]

The spookiest moment in that ad was when the little girl looked upward & the camera zoomed in on her pupil until everything went dark, then the atomic blast (footage from Alamogordo in July 1945, BTW).

IMO the Goldwater campaign was doomed from the start; it was said America just wasn’t ready for three Presidents in one year.

At least the conservative movement got its start in 1964, and sixteen years later the Dems again smeared the Republican candidate as a nuclear madman.

Only the tactic failed miserably & Ronald Reagan swept into office in a landslide. Twice.

[exit82]

IMO the Goldwater campaign was doomed from the start; it was said America just wasn’t ready for three Presidents in one year.

I never thought of it that way--thanks for the insight.

[elcid1970]

I was fifteen at the time & even then I could see that Lyndon Johnson owned the media so thoroughly that it would have made FDR jealous. “Doing what JFK would have wanted done” was the mantra in the WH press room.

Barry Goldwater already possessed a distinguished resume but the talking heads turned him into little more than a troublemaker (read his online bio - he was amazing).

The media didn’t turn against LBJ until about the fall of 1967 - Vietnam, antiwar protests, counterculture, etc.