Political messages that work, and those that don't

Got this one today complements of a piece I read in Salon the other day. The article was about the success of Moveon.org, a political site that among other things has been raising piles of money for Democrats lately, but what caught my attention were two quotes, one attributed to Howard Dean's campaign and one to John Kerry's. I thought I'd present them as testaments to good and bad political messages. They are similar in that they both respond to Bush's first campaign ad that attacks the Democrats over their opposition to Iraq. First, the one that doesn't work:

John Kerry ran a similar response, with a commercial that makes use of footage of Bush in a flight suit. "George Bush's ad says he's being attacked for attacking the terrorists," says the spot's narrator. "No, Mr. President, America's united against terror. The problem is, you declared, 'Mission accomplished,' but had no plan to win the peace and handed out billions of contracts to contributors like Halliburton."

Why doesn't this work? For two reasons: first because the message is muddled by trying to force two ideas together that don't naturally fit together, that is 1) Bush had no plan after the war was over and, 2) He gave billions of dollars to Halliburton, of which Cheney was a director before becoming VP. The second reason is that I don't think either of the messages will really resonate with people. The idea that Bush had no plan might strike people as factually true, but it doesn't really speak to the big question of what we should do about it now. The idea that Bush is funding Cheney's old firm with government money is not even directly stated, and even if it was, I don't think that it would move people to action that aren't already going to vote against Bush. I think the reason for this is because, in the big scheme of things, ensuring another 9/11 doesn't happen is much more important to people than whether or not some company got a little extra coin through knowing people. I think you could even say that it's even expected to a certain degree by people.

Now for the one that I thought worked. Once again, in response to the same ad:

It mimics the Bush spot, showing the president giving the State of the Union address. This time, though, a narrator says, "He misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction." Then the scene changes to Dean on the campaign trail, and the ad says, "Howard Dean is committed to fighting terrorism and protecting our national security. But Howard Dean opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. He believes it's time we had a foreign policy consistent with American values. And it's time to restore the dignity and respect our country deserves around the world."

I have to say first that the message here isn't awesome, but there are a couple of things I do like about it, unlike the first one. First, it brings up a point that is much more important than whether or not Halliburton made some extra coin off of the war, that is, the president intentionally misled the nation into believing there was a threat from Iraq, thereby costing America billions of dollars and hundreds of lives fighting a war that, in its heart, was an act of deception. But what I really like about the ad is the last two lines. I've spoken to several people down here, some of whom are quite centrist, and there is a prevailing attitude that regardless of whether the war was a good or bad thing this administration caused America to make decisions that adversely effect the image of the country, and international arrogance is not what they want this country to be about. Now, I'm sure that Brad is going to read this at some point and I'll get a phone call from him disagreeing with me because of foreign policy goal x, but the real point of the matter is that I think there are people out there who are ready to hear this message. Furthermore, I think this message could lead to a positive movement against the recent neo-conservative tilt in foreign policy, which would be something that could only improve the overall global situation.

The fact that I liked the Howard Dean one shouldn't be taken as a blind act of allegiance, although it is because he conveys messages like this that I supported him in the first place. It only shows, perhaps unfortunately, how sunk Kerry's campaign is right now at a time when they desperately need something to pull them out of the oblivion they seem to be heading for.