Comments on: Closing Arguments In Iowa

By: MadisonGuy

MadisonGuy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:21:53 +0000

Since the caucuses are mostly about ad dollars, press preening, and Ordeal by Sleep Deprivation and Total Exhaustion on the candidate side, there must be a better way. Why not try this? A Modest Proposal.

By: PhysioProf

PhysioProf — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:04:00 +0000

If McCain starts to do well, we are going to be seeing a lot of the Bush hug photo, nu?

By: mui1

mui1 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:00:53 +0000

Aren’t McCains numbers alarmingly up in New Hampshire. Red flag alert. I’d rather have party splitter Huckabee. Or maybe not.

By: mui1

mui1 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:56:35 +0000

McCain. He needs a takedown. Populist he is not IMHO. “I don’t love corporate America and DC lobbyist money people, I love America so much I make everyone angry.” Is there a kiss picture somewhere, besides Chimpy and Lieberman?

By: CarolynU

CarolynU — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:47:41 +0000

Hunter: awfully amateurish. Fine for state senate, but not for the Presidency.

By: Prairie Sunshine

Prairie Sunshine — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:47:37 +0000

I absolutely agree with you, Christy. The closer ads are part and parcel of the candidate brand and why that appeals to different people in different ways.

Once did grad school study in mass comm theory, so this is like revisiting that whole “powers of persuasion” time for me.

By: mui1

mui1 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:47:18 +0000

My issue is that Dodd get so little coverage that he needs to at least pack a little of what he’s about in.

By: mui1

mui1 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:45:34 +0000

Huckabee: all fetuses are created equal. Family is great. (Screw the little guy, and forget about civil rights and a decent competitive science education. You can all swim in the creationist pool with me.)

By: CarolynU

CarolynU — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:44:51 +0000

True, and I admire Dodd greatly too. But as a last minute ad, that people might see as they head out the door, I think it’s good, particularly when he comes out and asks them to caucus for him in such a natural way. I think if he had started breathing fire about the Constitution and rule of law he might have lost people.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:43:40 +0000

I think it depends on pre-perceptions about the individual candidates going into the viewing. The funny thing is, as I’m reading down through the comments, when you look at comments from folks who didn’t like Sen. Clinton to begin with, you see a lot of correlation with folks who didn’t find the ad all that moving. Folks who weren’t as vehement in their dislike of her had a better reaction — and it is those folks that the campaign is trying to reach, I think, and does so fairly successfully if our little comment section is any indicator (which, scientifically, it’s not really a representative sample, so there you are…just anecdotal).

The same is true for all the other candidates, not just Clinton. No idea why I noticed this as I was reading down through, but I did, and then started making mental notes of folks who strongly dislike Biden…and hated his ad, or strongly dislike Giuliani and really hate his ad (although, frankly, it’s really creepy, so unless you are an insane apocolypse now kinda person, I can’t imagine being turned on in any way by that one)…etc., etc.

I watched all of these ads more than once, to try and burn out any personal opinions of the individual candidates and just study them for production value, for script and content, for visual and emotion, and to try and think about them from a “person who doesn’t care about minutiae in politics” but more of a fresh look at the candidate approach as I was writing this up. I hope that came through a little bit in the writing…