Medicare, Technical Truths, and Videotape
Fool , produced by
Greg Stevens for Dole/Kemp '96.
The Democrats and
Republicans accuse each other of lying about their respective Medicare
proposals. In fact, neither side is lying: Each selectively cites facts and
offers proof. The Republicans say they want to limit the increase of Medicare
spending to 7 percent. This is not a cut, they say, just a slowdown in the rate
of growth; the president wanted to cut, too. The Democrats maintain that the
Republicans' increase in spending is below the rate of medical inflation (the
Republicans respond by pointing to the general rate of inflation). The
president trimmed the program only a third as much as the GOP plan--which also
would have prevented millions of seniors from choosing their own doctors, and
would have denied coverage for services like diabetes blood tests (which
Gingrich now promises will be a priority in the next Congress).
Despite the bickering, the
Republicans know that Medicare is not their issue. Voters are more likely to
believe the Democrats on Medicare and more likely to believe the Republicans on
tax cutting, which means that there is a limit to what political ads can do to
reshape ingrained attitudes. So until now, the Dole/Kemp ads ignored Medicare
almost entirely and engaged in a struggle to make welfare, taxes, and character
the defining terrain for voters. Fool , produced by Dole consultant Greg
Stevens, abandons that agenda to respond on an issue where Republicans can at
best neutralize, not prevail.
This is the rare kind of
response ad that actually and almost exclusively responds. Fool is
entirely defensive, despite the obligatory knock on the other side's accuracy.
The spot's life begins dangerously, with an excerpt from the Clinton/Gore ad
that not only references, but reinforces the charge that Dole sought to cut
Medicare. The second scene even shows Dole with the singularly unpopular
Gingrich--the Clinton campaign's favorite piece of videotape. Fool 's
opening is frontal, audacious, maybe foolish, but the Dole strategists
obviously decided to take the chance. The red "Wrong" stamped across the scene
is a standard technique that does little to detract from the effect of seeing
Dole with a man widely seen, fairly or unfairly, as the Darth Vader of
Medicare.
The next scenes carry the
AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) logo and use quotes from one of
the lobby's letters as third-party proof that the Dole-Gingrich Medicare
proposal was only to "slow" the program's growth--and both parties did it
anyway. The next quote--about "finger pointing"--seems to point the finger at
Clinton. But the AARP fiercely complained that the excerpted quotations were
not true to the organization's letter--which did not take sides against
Clinton. The Dole campaign agreed to pull Fool off the air (perhaps, in
part, because some inside the campaign thought it was too defensive and raised
the salience of Clinton's best issue).
In the next scene, Dole
huddles with seniors on a neighborhood street (is this Russell, Kan.?). The
narrator says: "The AARP agrees with Bob Dole"--the words leave the impression
that they agree on what's just been said, and then the narrator continues--"on
a bipartisan plan to fix Medicare." The chyron goes even farther: "The AARP
agrees with the Dole plan . ..." The admaker would no doubt defend this on the
basis that the AARP wants a bipartisan solution; Dole says he does; ergo ... a
truly tenuous technical truth.
The Dole campaign's purpose
was not to win on the Medicare issue--it can't overcome a perception that
basic--but to neutralize an issue which has hurt so much that Jack Kemp
recently complained that the Gingrich budget was a disaster for Republicans.
The spot ends with a brief nod to the offense: "Don't let Clinton fool
you"--and notice what's underlined. "Fool," of course, is supposed to have a
double meaning: That's what you are if you vote for him.
But then
the spot disappeared, and now Election Day dawns.
--Robert Shrum
Robert
Shrum is a leading Democratic political consultant. His deconstruction of
political ads is a weekly feature of Slate during the election
season.
