The Economy Redux

The television ads continue, and the candidates are taking it to President Bush on the economy, but with varying degrees of success. Below, my reviews of the recent TV offerings by Edwards, Gephardt, and Kerry, with suggestions for improvement.

John Edwards is a frequent advertiser on the evening news in Eastern Iowa. His current ad, shot with the cinema verite hand-held camera style, shows Sen. Edwards addressing a room of people (a very multicultural group, and one that hits all age demographics, too). Edwards begins with "It is outrageous that this president has turned a five trillion dollar surplus into a five trillion dollar deficit," and then notes that the nation doesn't have money to address important concerns like college education and health care because Bush gave a huge tax cut to the richest people in America. "We need a president that will stand up for the working people in America," he concludes, to this group's smiles and applause.

Dick Gephardt hits Bush on the economy, too. "I want to stop George Bush and fight for America's middle class," he opens, noting that "George Bush has lost more jobs than any president since Herbert Hoover." Edwards's and Gephardt's TV ads have that "it's the economy, stupid" theme that propelled Clinton into the presidency a decade ago, and Gephardt makes that clear by comparing the failed economic policies of Bush I and Bush II.

Stylistically, though, Gephardt's ad is a bit stiff and awkward. Gephardt's narration continues through the commercial as he appears in several different scenes. In each, he is talking to small groups of people (in one, it looks like three nodding Stepford wives surrounding him), and then his address changes from talking to the people in the scene to talking to the camera. This technique might have been a nice idea on paper (hey, let's have Dick address the people in the scene and then the home viewers, too, as if they are there with him, too), but it doesn't look right on the screen. The effect is to call attention to the phoniness of the people in the scenes with him. He's not really talking to them, they're just nodding props. (Not that the folks in Edwards's ad aren't props, too -- the perfect multicultural make-up points to that -- but at least Edwards looks like he is really talking to them.) Note to Gephardt's ad makers: either show him talking to people, or directly address the camera, but don't have him look away from people to address the camera in the same scene.

So far, Gephardt looks better on paper. (Slight pun intended.) His direct-mail ads are good, particularly the most recent full-size, two-sided mailer. One side shows a smirking Bush and says "He Must Be Stopped." (This sort of approach is one that will certainly motivate Democrats.) The flip side has a picture of Gephardt, with "He Can Stop Him." Why Gephardt? He cites a recent Zogby poll that says he's the only Democrat who beats Bush among independent voters, and that he can carry the Midwest. (With poll results constantly changing and Wesley Clark added to the field, Gephardt will only be able to stand by this claim for a short while, but give him credit for trying to generate some momentum.)

Sen. John Kerry's ads are slick, but rather vague and passionless. It begins with the familiar imagery of Kerry in Vietnam. "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" (I'm sure we can make the connection to our present Iraq occupation, but Kerry plays it much too conservatively to actually say this. Anyway, this ad isn't about the present war, it's about Kerry having courage.) We soon learn that the questioning voice is the voice of 25-year-old John Kerry, as he testified before Congress in 1971. "Ever since then he has been on the frontline of fights that matter," the ad says. What has he done in the past 30 years? According to the ad, Kerry has 1) fought for "a women's right to choose," 2) "sounded the alarm on terrorism years before 9/11," and 3) "stopped George Bush and oil companies from drilling in the Arctic for oil."

The ad then turns to perhaps the most underwhelming statement yet heard in this crop of TV ads. Kerry says "We need to get some things done in this country." To his credit, he lists a few of those "some things": affordable health care, rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy, and "really investing in our kids" (whatever that means). Even Kerry's big jab at Bush is much more vague than what Edwards or Gephardt say. "But right now, too many in politics are afraid to take on powerful interests. Or, they're like George Bush and they're working hand-in-hand with them." Note to Kerry's ad makers: be more specific, hard-hitting, and don't try to run your candidate for the presidency on the basis of what he did when he was 25 years old, no matter how good it was. The Kerry ad concludes with a screen "The Courage to Do What's Right in America" and Kerry's voice-over: "I believe the courage of Americans can change this country." Yawn.