ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: RAY L. GARLAND
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
UNDERDOGS dream of the improbable suddenly transforming the political landscape while those comfortably ahead wish only to run out the clock.
In the Virginia Senate race, Democratic challenger Mark Warner got a feast of improbability when the guru guiding his opponent's campaign decided it was time to go negative. What they produced was a farrago of half-truths, the most obvious being the now-famous missing head of Sen. Charles Robb from the body that is shaking hands with former Gov. Douglas Wilder while a beaming President Clinton blessed the union of two old enemies in time to save Robb's Senate seat in 1994.
Mark Warner, then chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, was looking over Robb's shoulder, which wasn't good enough to make the point Greg Stevens & Co. had in mind. Blind to the fact Mark Warner would surely remember where he stood in a published photo, or recognize his own hands, tie and watch, the producers blithely attached Mark's head to Robb's body.
Aside from the detachable head, the spot is a study in the capacity of a mere 30 seconds to convey a vast variety of "facts" and images. If you've written or seen a half-minute of spoken copy, you know how small it is. But the modern TV ad combines this with rapidly changing pictures and printed slogans. This is now such a specialized "art" that no candidate can hope to do his own, which is causing a great disconnect in American life between the content of campaigns most people see and the conduct of a public office, which few can discern in much detail.
While the movable head got the headline, we might linger over the rest of the story. The commercial began by trying to discredit the millions Mark Warner had spent building himself up and attacking John Warner's record, mainly on "cuts" in Medicare.
But the complexities of Medicare could hardly be covered in 30 seconds and Republicans have yet to find a way to answer Democratic demagoguery on a sacred cow whose appetite has to be slowed before it consumes most of the federal budget. In fact, by growing more than twice as fast as the economy, there is a theoretical point at which Medicare would absorb the nation's entire domestic product.
To answer the Medicare charge without answering it, the ad flashed stills from previous Mark Warner commercials with the words "dirty," "stupid," "reckless" and "dangerous" superimposed. The Richmond Times-Dispatch was given as the source of these epithets. Indeed, that was the newspaper's opinion of the Democrat's effort to discredit John Warner on Medicare. But the object of this exercise wasn't to answer the Medicare charge, which was never mentioned, but to discredit Mark Warner's entire campaign.
Those who produced the ad had two other objectives in mind. They wanted viewers to know Mark Warner was a wealthy "insider" who had raised millions "to elect the country's most liberal politicians." Also, that his vast fortune, now pegged at $150 million, came from "taking advantage of big government loopholes not available to average working people."
The first claim is plainly true. Mark Warner was introduced to Washington by Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who now serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As a very successful fund-raiser for the DNC in the '80s, Mark Warner undoubtedly helped to raise millions for liberals. He also met people with money who were glad to invest in franchises to operate cellular-phone service the government was foolishly giving away.
Mark Warner himself called the cell-phone lottery a giveaway, but seems on solid ground in saying it was publicly advertised and available to all. The issue of whether he was helped by undue influence or favoritism has never been raised. My guess is he was the right man in the right place with the sense to understand the situation, but political connections didn't hurt.
This being TV, a picture was wanted to clinch the story line of a liberal among liberals. Then, why not leave it as it was? If Robb doesn't qualify as a liberal, who does? Wilder, who suggested a racial motive behind the ad, made the same point. "If they wanted to convey a liberal connotation, they should have kept Robb's head in the picture and have him explain his speech on same-sex marriages."
As befits magicians who must never give the trick away, John Warner's ad agency zipped its collective lip. But not before one of the partners let slip the senator had given strict instructions to make no campaign reference to his "friend" Robb. Nothing wrong in that. Robb is keeping a low profile in Mark Warner's campaign, which is likewise appropriate. Senators of different parties representing the same state should be circumspect. But this little sidebar does take us back to 1993-94, when the actions of John Warner against Republican candidates seemed designed, at least in part, to save the embattled Robb.
While the ad illustrates the power of a 30-second spot to present a multiplicity of words and images designed to leave a single negative impression, you have to question the wisdom of the Republican doing what the Democrat wasn't doing. That is, tying Mark Warner to Bill Clinton, who is said to be leading in Virginia, and Doug Wilder, who might be thought to have influence with black voters not unfriendly to John Warner in the past.
When confronted, John Warner could give no reason why Wilder was included, adding, "I did not make the ad." Quite by accident, the senator put his finger on the nub of the problem. Ads, which are the campaign for most voters, have no reality to the candidates who run them.
Though the doctored ad was a definite black eye, Sen. Warner showed a sure touch by promptly accepting blame and offering profuse apologies. While he could hardly do otherwise, not all candidates in such situations are so surefooted. When he emerged on the Virginia scene and even during his first years in the Senate, the smart set saw Warner as all face and no fabric. But in picking a path through the mine field of politics, he has few equals.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times columnist.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB