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... w candidate after merely eight years. Nixon also portrayed himself as his own man, with little or no help from his staff. This way he was able to show his independent status to a growing politically self-sufficient majority. But a shift in ones image is not enough in todays presidential campaign system. A candidate must convince the public that he is the best man for the job and in many cases this means demonizing the opposition (Wayne, Democracy, 164).
This negative advertising was never utilized better then when Bill Clinton along with his redneck superstar consultant James Carville was wielding the brand. In 1992 against George Bush and Ross Perot and in 1996 against Bob Dole and Perot again, Clinton and his aid Dick Morris were masterful in using soft money, money spent by outside interests not in direct support of a candidate, to advance his cause while tearing holes in his opponents credibility. In 1992 Clinton consistently attacked Bush's integrity and was so effective that it seemed to many that Bush was not adequate in any function of the presidency (Newman, 16). He toted Bush as a tool of big business and backed it up with facts and figures from Bush's record. More important than this would be the specific targeting of negative ads to certain regions, crafting the ads to manipulate the public response in just the right way to elicit the desired response (Newman, 18). In 1996, Clinton employed similar techniques to the 1992 campaign but with a significant handicap to his image and credibility.
The Paula Jones and Whitewater scandals had damaged Clintons marketing potential along with the health care debacle but, in a seemingly miraculous move, Clinton came back to take the presidency once again. He did this largely in part with the issue ads paid for by soft money and used against his opponent, Bob Dole, in strategic areas. This utilization of pro-issue / anti -candidate marketing tools made Clinton better in the public mindset by default. Of course he was not letting his own image stay in the muck with those scandals but instead he reversed them and he and the Democrats slowly gained ground in the congress.
The strategy is simple and it worked almost to perfection, in this case it got Bill Clinton elected president twice. This use of negative advertising is not new to American politics. It has been around since the 1800 s and the time of Thomas Jefferson when accusations of a graver nature were made such as the raping of women and gross debauchery if Jefferson was elected. Candidates have always had to draw distinctions between themselves and their opponents and it has been done a national level more or less. But with the national media and a hounding press corps along with Americans insatiable need for more dirt and intrigue, the rise in these negative ads has increase dramatically. This brings in the final and perhaps most important key to a good presidential image, the press.
In Joe Klein's book Primary Colors, reporters are referred to as sports, short for scorpions. Perhaps this is a bleak outlook on the presss role in a political campaign but in many ways the terms holds some validity. The press is usually the only direct connection to the candidates that the people have and what they consider to be important about the candidate is what they will report. This in turn is what most Americans will think is important about a candidate from policy stances to an off-color quipping remark.
The press can make or break a candidate especially in the primaries. This is the most crucial of all times to have the backing of the press in order to stay in the race. The media will give a candidate momentum which inspires donors to give him more money and that creates more momentum. This is a vicious cycle that puts the press at the heart of the matter.
In any political campaign a candidate must look good to the reporters and the news media, not necessarily the people. The media in a sense become the people, or usurp their role without the diversity of opinion or the common self-restraint that most people have. Candidates and voters alike become disillusioned with the system and become cynical as a response. Most Americans come upon this very honestly but the system perpetuates itself, creating more and more distrust.
The press covers more of the negative actions of the presidential candidates, which makes the public increasingly cynical causing the press to print a larger number of negative articles. Candidates then have little choice but to make negative ads or sling mud in order to reach the public attention away from the press. From here the press does something very odd, they throw support to the one candidate that seems to have the most momentum in order to create a front runner, while the other candidate is waiting in the wings for six months down the line when the press switches gears and suddenly the other candidate is leading the pack. This style was nearly perfected this year in the Gore/Bush election.
Momentum swung from one candidate to the other almost like clockwork, six weeks with Bush and then six weeks with Gore leading only to have Bush suddenly surge in the poles to take a slim lead right before elections. Whether it was good journalism or a self-fulfilling prophecy no one can say but it is no small coincidence that Bush and Gore are so close in the poles. These arbitrary movements in the presss opinions affect voter opinion of the candidates validity as president and therefore their estimation of the candidates image and character. The press expanded their influence even further this year when they began to call elections for certain candidates in east coast states before west coast states had a chance to finish voting.
Some voters on the west coast may have been influenced into avoiding the poles. This is just another way the press abuses their powers. The presidents image in an election setting is determined by many different factors. From media to marketing public and press alike closely scrutinize the presidential character. The history of the emergence of an image centered voting public is very important as well. The decline in the parties influence and marketing ability making it necessary for candidates to go out on their own and sell themselves to the American public.
This includes the actual selling by the candidates afflicting the public with multiple negative images. The use of these ads and how they affect the media coverage has also been important. Finally the medias over involvement in candidates affairs and their biasing of the people against politics and the candidates. All these build up to show the presidential image of our current political system.
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