Posted on 09/03/2004 9:00:52 PM PDT by Petronski
NEW YORK - Before a recent rally for President Bush in Las Cruces, N. M., campaign officials showed the crowd a video featuring John Kerry's shifting explanations of his stands on issues. The audience broke into laughter toward the end as a catchy theme from a popular `60s TV show accompanied the clip: "They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning/ No one you see is smarter than he." That tack was hardly unusual. In fact, on the campaign trail and at this week's Republican convention, Bush and other GOP speakers reduced Kerry to a punch line: a flip-flopping Boston Brahmin with a Senate record that's best used as joke fodder.
Bush campaign officials say the pokes are all in good fun, a light-hearted way to illustrate the differences between Bush and Kerry.
"Too often, those in Washington resort to name-calling and negativity to attempt to make a point," said Scott Stanzel, a Bush campaign spokesman. "There are other ways to point out the differences between the president and his opponent."
Kerry campaign officials aren't laughing. They say the Republican attempt to be funny at Kerry's expense has a vicious edge that often crosses the line.
"Frankly, George Bush can't talk about any economic successes, he can't talk about 1.4 million people losing their health care, 1.3 million people falling into poverty," said Phil Singer, a Kerry campaign spokesman. "He's covering up by trying to be funny on the campaign trail."
Experts on political humor say the zingers against Kerry serve two purposes: First, they allow Bush to go after his opponent without being seen as an attack dog.
"Humor has long been known as effective negative advertising and a way to deflect criticism upon the person making the negative attack because you laugh, if the joke is good," said Paul Gronke, the chairman of the political science department at Reed College in Portland, Ore. "Good political humor always has a biting edge to it."
The bite in the Kerry jokes, Gronke said, is designed to shrink Kerry, make him look un-presidential. "By bringing Kerry down a notch by not taking him seriously, this encourages the audience not to take Kerry seriously."
Second, using humor helps burnish Bush's image as the guy you'd like to have a beer with, said John Orman, a Fairfield University professor of politics and author of books on the role of celebrity and music in political campaigns.
"He wants to show that he's the affable, more approachable, more likable individual," Orman said.
Humor has long been a fixture of presidential campaigns, Orman said. He recalled Democrats attacking Richard Nixon's 1968 choice of Spiro Agnew, then a largely unknown Maryland governor, as his running mate by running a commercial with Agnew's name on screen with a laugh track.
These days, candidates such as Kerry and the Rev. Al Sharpton have all tried to parlay laughs into votes by appearing on such TV shows as NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show" on cable's Comedy Central.
What's different about Bush's humor assaults on Kerry, Gronke and others say, is that it appears to be a big part of his campaign strategy. During almost every stump speech, Bush draws laughs - and attention to his call for medical-liability reform - by jabbing Kerry and vice presidential nominee John Edwards, a North Carolina senator who was a successful trial lawyer.
"I don't think you can be pro-doctor and pro-patient and pro-plaintiff attorney at the same time. I think you have to make a choice," Bush said in Columbus. "My opponent made his choice, and he put him on the ticket."
Orman said such humor plays well with a candidate's political base, but it could turn off other potential voters.
Indeed, Republican Party officials asked conventioneers to stop wearing Band-Aids with purple hearts painted on them - designed to mock the alleged mild nature of the wounds Kerry suffered in Vietnam that earned him three Purple Heart medals - after receiving complaints from veterans. And some Republicans quietly expressed concern that Sen. Zell Miller's, D-Ga., keynote speech sarcastically flailing Kerry might anger and energize Democrats.
"If you go too far against your opponent there could be a backlash from the undecided, the independent and unaffiliated voter," Orman said.
Howlin, could you pinglist this for me?
What a bunch of pussies.
Well, I'll be laughing all the way to the voting booth.
Just think what the poll numbers would look like if President Bush hadn't driven away his base of "true" conservatives.
What a bunch of Girly Men.
Well, er, uh...OK!!!
Dear me!
This BITING humor is devastating for Kerry and he cannot respond without looking mean, as he is a humorless man.
Did Republicans make Kerry a punchline, or is being a punchline his 'personal truth?' LOL
Everytime I want to call Kerry a pussy (which is, well, every time), I flinch and call him prissy. I'm afraid to offend the ladies here.
Thank you, Howlin, for putting truth to power.
John F*ckin' is well worth a barrel of laughs. Let's wait til we get to the SNL skits.
I'm serious; these are people who have been laughing at George Bush for reading a BOOK to kids!
To hell with them. They weren't going to vote for Bush anyway.
He can win this without the Constimatooshinalists.
Oh yeah, referring to Kerry as "Flipper" is sooooooo vicious. I guess we'll just have to rise above it all and refer to Kerry the way Kerry's ilk refer to Bush: let's start with Hitler, AWOL, war profiteer, et cetera, ad nauseum.
NOTE TO KERRY: If you think whining is fitting of a candidate for the Presidency, you really aren't cut out for the job. Sheesh...
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