EDITORIALS : Campaigning 101
Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006
WHAT DOES it say about the
two candidates for governor
that the most memorable moments of Campaign Aught-Six have been contributed by (a ) Michael Dale Huckabee, and (b ) William Jefferson Clinton ? These colorful figures have a way of putting everybody else in the shade. After all, how can a Mike Beebe or even a punctuation-enhanced Asa !—nice enough gents that both are—compete with the Boys from Hope, who know how to do it when it comes to campaigning ?
You may have forgotten The Huck’s moment. It came way back when, pre-primary, at a fund-raiser for Asa ! And the governor indulged in a little payback. Mike Huckabee had the nerve to point out the obvious: that the good old days of one-party, Democrats-only rule in this state weren’t always so good. Can you say Nick Wilson ? Mike Huckabee can. And did. Which reminds us: Mike Beebe still hasn’t explained his indulgence of Ol’ Nick’s grabby ways even after the guy was found out.
Bill Clinton’s campaign moment came just the other day, when he flew into town to raise money for Mike Beebe and the Democratic Party, leaving behind a trail of headlines and quotes in his wake. Without naming names, here’s how Proxy-Candidate Clinton preached to the converted:
“The Republicans basically have a ticket for governor and attorney general that’s fully reflective of the people that have been in total control of the national government the last six years. It’s not really the Republican Party. That’s not fair to the Republicans. It’s a narrow slice of the Republican Party. The people that run things in Washington try to concentrate wealth and power and make sure we’re divided and scared enough to leave them in power in every election.”
Boy oh boy, Billy Jeff’s still got his populist fastball, curve, and change-of-pace. Not to mention a lively knuckler.
Mike Beebe, are you paying attention ? This is how you do it. You start with a broad, sweeping wind-up in the direction of some amorphous Great Evil on the other side of the partisan divide. Then—and this is the beauty of it, the real art of the thing—you pull back. You almost balk at what you’re about to say, which is: Don’t blame all the Republicans. Heavens, no. Some of those folks could be voters. Just blame the narrow axis of evil in charge and only then... let fly. Stee-rike ! You’ve not only whisked one past the opposition but maybe won some of it over. Beeyoutiful.
All that in just four sentences. We may have missed a few subtleties, a nuance here or there—it’s been a while since we’ve parsed Clintonese—but overall we’d nominate the ol’ boy for MVP in this league. And that line about Bill Clinton’s wanting to be fair to the Republicans... brilliant. You could almost see Billy Jeff putting his arm around somebody like the late Rollie Remmel or some other Republican stalwart and explaining, “Of course I didn’t mean you....”
Dang it, we admit it. Come campaign season, to quote the bumper stickers, We miss Bill. And the Huck, too. Especially when the going gets dull and we have to write about—what are their names again?—oh, yes, Messrs. Beebe and Hutchinson. Between the two of them, they could put the whole electorate to sleep before its head hits the pill— zzzzz.
Hurry back, Bill. We’ve still got almost two months left till election day, and we’d like to stay awake for it.
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