Election ad 'plays on fear of Arabs'

Guardian ^ | 03/12/04 | Suzanne Goldenberg

[Pikamax]

Election ad 'plays on fear of Arabs'

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday March 13, 2004 The Guardian

The re-election campaign of President George Bush provoked a new controversy yesterday, with a television ad campaign using a picture of an olive-skinned man to illustrate terrorism. As a voiceover warns that Mr Bush's presumptive opponent, John Kerry, is soft on terrorists, a split-screen shows people at an airport, and a young man with flickering eyes who turns menacingly towards the camera.

The ads are the most aggressive so far - targeting John Kerry by name. Arab Americans said the campaign played on racism and fear, and could inflict further damage on a community marginalised after September 11.

"When they turn around and say John Kerry would be soft on terror, they don't use a picture of Osama bin Laden. They use a young good-looking, Middle Eastern male turning around looking furtively," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which called on the Republicans to change the ads.

Amid the furore, there were suggestions yesterday that Mr Bush's strategists are seeking such controversies to shore up Christian Right support.

Although the first round of the campaign ads last week were criticised for images of flag-draped coffins at the charred shell of the World Trade Centre, such imagery has played well to Mr Bush's core supporters. So has Mr Bush's support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

Meanwhile, Mr Bush has been assiduous in courting the party right. On Thursday, he addressed an evangelical Christian convention, putting himself firmly in their camp by reiterating his opposition to stem cell research, abortion and same sex marriage.

In preying on bigotry, Republicans may have calculated there was little need to court the Arab American vote. A new poll yesterday put Mr Bush's approval rating at just 32% among the sizeable Arab communities living in swing states such as Ohio and Michigan.

[ozzymandus]

Zogby is a RAT functionary. It's time the pubs made this known to the voters.

[ServesURight]

Man, did you hit the nail on the head. Anything Bush says will be portrayed as "attacking Kerry."

[dan1123]

No, they are campaigning for Kerry, plain and simple. The media obviously wants Kerry to win, and Bush to lose. So the news is just another front of the Kerry campaign. You can see it merely based on what stories are highlighted. There is no sense of fair play.

This isn't about trashing a campaign ad, it's about campaigning for Kerry.

[NJJ]

I'm thinking that the reason we have not had any serious terrorist attacks since 9/11 is not because we are so good, but rather that al Qaida knows that any attack before November will improve Bush's chances of being elected and we know who they want to win.

By the way, I think Kerry fits Bush's description of, "If you support Terrorists . . ."

[pfflier]

Here's news. Terrorists from Arab counties have left us wary of Arabs.

[Savage Beast]

Maybe somebody should inform those yahoos at the Guardian that the Sept. 11, 2001 attack was by Arabs.

[GeronL]

The libs are just livid that W had the temerity to run any campaign ads at all. In their world, Kerry gets to trash W all he wants, and W is supposed to take it.

Which is exactly the way the media is covering the campaign

[Paul Atreides]

It's sickening, to put it mildly.

[Probus]

Wonderful line, that!

[weegee]

michael barone's almanac blog

Clinton seized the national attention after the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 and, with the help of Dick Morris, set the theme: angry white males [read: Newt Gingrich and his House Republicans] bombed Oklahoma City. This, plus Gingrich's excesses, lowered the House Republicans' standing with the public; I should have seen this and didn't. Even more grievously, I failed to suggest that Clinton could employ something like his triangulating strategy, standing above liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, to strengthen his standing with the public. This he had effectively done by the end of 1995, and in 1996 the Clinton campaign shrewdly ran ads all across the country, except in Washington, New York and Los Angeles, while the Dole campaign, out of money, could put nothing on the air. There is an old rule in politics that presidents get in trouble in their second terms because out of hubris they go too far and therefore cost their party many seats in the offyear election. But Clinton had his hubris in his first two years and learned shrewdly from his setbacks.

The media never chastised Bill Clinton for politicizing the OKC bombing.

He even sent the FBI on a wild goosechase investingating the "right wing extremists" as this country's leading threat to national security. There was even the phoney "rash" of church fires that proved to be non-existent.

[weegee]

Here's an example of FDR politicizing WWII.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[weegee]

[weegee]

A newbie troll on another thread tried to make the claim that the "I want FDR to stay and finish the job" was a 1940 campaign poster and that was about finishing the "depression".

Here is another poster by the same artist (James Montgomery Flagg). Note the same "Finish the job" slogan. There can be no doubt as to its meaning.

[Samwise]

When the Democrats attack, it's campaigning.

When the Republicans campaign, it's attacking.

It's a doublespeak kind of thing.

[Spotsy]

It appears Bush is being prohibited from running a campaign this year.

Indeed. The Dems are trying to goad Republicans into submission - no judges, no redistricting, no W campaign.

The Hill pubbies better shake a leg and start spreading the good word - with energy and enthusiasm - for President Bush.

[Spotsy]

A newbie troll on another thread tried to make the claim that the "I want FDR to stay and finish the job" was a 1940 campaign poster and that was about finishing the "depression".

The dems are unencumbered with facts or history. Hence, their incoherence and inconsistency.

[NYCVirago]

That poster is a great find. I thought I remembered FDR campaigning on a "stay the course" type strategy during WWII.

[weegee]

"Don't change horses midstream"