As we prepare to head into a hot blistering summer, the presidential timber for 2012 is already taking shape. Barring late entries by Sarah Palin and possibly Rudy Giuliani and a few others; the Republican field will most likely consist of Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and the wildest card of them all, the ``intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement, Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
Whether any of these candidates have the clout or a compelling narrative to unseat Barack Obama in the bruising months of the campaign battle that lies ahead, remains to be seen. But one quick way for a campaign to catch the attention of voters, especially the wide swath of independent voters, is to fashion a short catchy campaign slogan that will distinguish a candidate from their opponents; such as Harry Truman’s ``Give ‘em Hell, Harry!’’, , William Henry Harrison’s ``Tippecanoe and Tyler Too’’, and Ronald Reagan’s ``Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago.’’?
Taking a peek at the Republican candidates campaign slogans, none of them appear to have come up with a memorable phrase or one that separates them from their opponent. Mitt Romney, for example, is going with ``Believe in America’’; Tim Pawlenty says its ``Time for Truth’’, Newt Gingrich invokes ``The Future Together’’, Herman Cain says ``We Need a Real Leader with Real Solutions’’, while Ron Paul, probably the best of the bunch, demands we`` Restore America Now.’’
But if you think these slogans fall flat, remember that Barack Obama needed some convincing before settling on his 2008 signature slogan,, ``Yes We Can.’’ David Remnick in his book, `` The Bridge: the life and rise of Barack Obama'' writes that ``Obama thought the phrase was too banal, but both [David] Axelrod and Michelle Obama convinced him it would help rouse the spirits of African-Americans and other voters who had grown so accustomed to hard time and their own sense of resignation.’’
Remnick additionally points out that the phrase ``Yes We Can’’ was first coined back in 1972 by the United Farm Workers, led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who fashioned the slogan `Si, se, puede'', ``Yes We Can’’ or ``Yes, it can be done.’’ Soon after that, in 1974, second baseman Dave Cash of the Philadelphia Phillies began using ``Yes We Can’’ as a team rallying cry; the slogan was reported to have given struggling Mike Schmidt the confidence he was lacking, propelling him to a breakout season in which he led the National League in home runs with 36.
Given the unnecessary racket over the legitimacy of his birth certificate, you would have thought Team Obama would have capitalized on such nonsense by promoting the slogan: ``Barack Obama: Born Made in America.’’
The word slogan, by the way, means a ``battle cry’’, which is derived from the Scottish-Gaelic word, `` sluagh-ghairm.’’
So what exactly makes an effective campaign slogan? According to Audrey A. Haynes, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia and co-author of a number of journal articles on campaign strategy, including ``The Media, the Campaign and the Message’’, published in the Journal of Political Science (2003) ``a good slogan’’ Haynes stresses, `` must do many things: catch the attention, be understandable - you have to be able to figure out what it means and who it applies to or the candidate does not get the benefit.’’
Based on Haynes criteria, it’s easy to see why Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection mantra ``Its Morning Again in America’’ struck such a responsive chord with the electorate: it suggested the economic recovery that took hold in 1983-brought America out of the recession that dominated the landscape during much of the 1970’s. It also evoked a stronger military might sorely missing during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
Yet another effective reelection battle cry was Abraham Lincoln’s ``It's best not to swap horses while crossing the river’’, a resounding message to voters that he had brought the country this far, better to keep him in office considering there is still so much unfinished business. This slogan was actually taken from a speech Lincoln delivered to the National Union League on June 9, 1864, in which he said: ``It is not best to swap horses while crossing streams.''
And after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson pushed the country into war, Warren G. Harding in 1920 campaigned from his front porch in Marion, Ohio, waving the slogan ``Return to Normalcy’’, a clear message of returning to what it was like in America before being subjected to the ravages of the Great War.
Another beneficial line of attack when constructing a campaign slogan is to accentuate the strong personality traits of the candidate or the disastrous consequences that would befall the country if your opponent is elected.
Lyndon’s Johnson’s `` The stakes are too high for you to stay at home'', a line from the infamous Daisy commercial, which depicted the Republicans and Barry Goldwater as extremists, capable of unleashing a nuclear bomb-resonated with the electorate and played a large part in LBJ’s landslide victory. Equally damaging to Goldwater was the 1964 September-October issue of FACT Magazine which polled 12,350 psychiatrists asking the question: ``Is Barry Goldwater fit to be president? 2,417 doctors replied, of those 1,189 said, ``no, he wasn't fit to be president.'', 657 said he was, and 571 said, they would have to examine the patient to give a professional response.
Harry Truman’s personality profile certainly received a positive jolt with the ``Give 'Em Hell, Harry!’’ slogan which Truman never used himself, nor was it written for him by a campaign staffer. There are actually conflicting accounts as to the origin of the phrase. One version attributes its origin to a campaign supporter who yelled out the line during a whistle-stop in Harrisburg, Illinois; others maintain the phrase originated with Truman’s running mate, Alben Barkley, who once urged the president: ``Mow em’ down Harry,’’ prompting Truman to respond, `` I’m going to fight hard, I’m going to give em’ hell.’’
George W. Bush in 2000 swayed a number of independent voters to his side of the ring with his ``Compassionate Conservatism’’ slogan, suggesting, if elected, he would lend a sympathetic ear to many of the social issues typically ignored by more dogmatic Republicans. William Safire in his ``Political Dictionary’’ points out that ``Compassionate Conservative’’ was a term that could be traced back to a 1981 New York Times interview in which Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch objecting to the proposed cuts to the Peace Corps told reporter Judith Miller, `` I'm a conservative and proud of it, but I'm a compassionate conservative.'' Bush’s other slogan:``No Child Left Behind’’ wasn’t all that original either, it was a phrase in fact first used by Marion Wright Edelman, head of the Children's Defense Fund Action Council, in referring to her charitable foundation.
Of course, the electorate has been known to respond well to popular songs, which when heard on television or radio, reminds voters of the candidate. Bill Clinton, for example, went with the popular Fleetwood Mac song, ``Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow'' as a campaign slogan, suggesting to voters that the future is full of bright possibilities with Clinton and Al Gore in the White House. One of Harry Truman’s 1948 campaign slogans was ``I’m just wild about Harry’’ a Eubie Blake song that became popular in 1921 from the Broadway musical ``Shuffle Along’’, while Irving Berlin, performing at a Dwight D Eisenhower fundraiser at Madison Square Garden in 1952 sang, ``I like Ike’’, a song from his musical, ``Call Me Madam’’ which quickly took hold as Eisenhower’s infectious campaign jingle.
Most importantly, prospective candidates need to steer clear of slogans that can backfire on them. In 1844 when Whig candidate Henry Clay rolled out the campaign slogan ``Who is James Polk?’’, even some red-faced Democrats had a hard time citing Polk’s credentials. But as the campaign wore on, the slogan created some badly needed name recognition for the dark horse Polk, who just barely edged Clay by the narrowest of margins. Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 slogan ``He kept us out of war’’ only a year later to bring the country into war, inflicted considerable damage to his reputation among many Americans.
Another campaign slogan gone bad was when Herbert Hoover came to be associated with the slogan: ``A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’’ during his successful 1928 presidential campaign. Less than eight months after taking office, the legendary Wall Street crash plunged America into the depths of the Great Depression. Interestingly enough, the ``chicken in every pot’’ slogan never appeared in any of Hoover’s speeches. A member of the Republican Business Men Inc. , however, did post an advertisement in The New York Times on October 30, 1928 titled: ``A Chicken for Every Pot.’’ Hoover’s Democratic opponent, Al Smith, during a speech in Boston, began quoting from the advertisement, which included the following words: ``Republican prosperity has reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial chicken in every pot. And a car in every backyard, to boot.’’ It was only after the Depression hit, did the advertisement resurface and become associated with Hoover’s false sense of prosperity for the nation.
The most recent campaign slogan to backfire on a candidate in a harmful way was George H. W. Bush’s ``Read my lips – no new taxes’’ assertion, which was originally a sound bite from his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention. When in 1990 Bush agreed to a deficit reduction program, which included a tax increase, his credibility in staying true to his Conservative principles arguably cost him some badly needed votes in his loss to Bill Clinton two years later.
Many years ago in a David Frost interview, singer Elton John said that when all else fails when struggling to write a song-he would inevitably write a ballad. You can never go wrong with a ballad or words to that effect, the British singer and composer told Frost. So too with presidential campaigns, when all else fails, write a catchy slogan about the future. FDR had ``Drive ahead with Roosevelt’’, Richard Nixon had ``For the Future.’’
It’s probably no coincidence, then, that President Obama (along with Newt Gingrich) is sticking with a tried-and-true slogan in calling attention to the ``future.’’ Team Obama is going with ``Winning the Future’’, while Mr. Gingrich is promising voters ``The Future Together.’’
With 13 million Americans still looking for work, the budget deficit spiraling out of control, and the Republicans offering few workable solutions to America’s frightful economic condition, the ``back to the future’’ approach is probably the best fit for 2012.
-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
May 31, 2011
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