This week, the Georgia gubernatorial race brings us an internet advertisement which is going viral and potentially will end up as the worst political ad of all time. Currently, the “Willie Horton” ad from the 1988 Presidential election is widely believed to hold that title. Floyd Brown, the man responsible for this ad which aided in bringing down Michael Dukakis, has been hanging out with our own absentee Gov. Tim Pawlenty, but that is neither here nor there.
This brings me to the ad which I consider to be the worst I have ever seen. Let’s rewind to 1994, when super-mega-ultra right winger Allen Quist was endorsed by the Independent Republican party for governor over incumbent Arne Carlson. The primary would prove to be a no-holds-barred affair, which featured Quist in his attempt to use his brand of conservativsm to “retake” the party (which would in the not-too-distant future after that shed the word “independent” from its name) by taking down Gov. Carlson, generally judged to be a centrist.
Quist lost to the popular Carlson in a landslide.
I was only the age of 10, however one advertisment from that bloody primary struck me as particularly farcical despite my young age. In fact, I still remember it to this day in all of its inflammatory glory.
Here’s how Dane Smith explained it in a September 3, 1994 story in the Star Tribune:
Video and audio (Ad 1): Throughout this 30-second ad, a man wearing a suit and a President Clinton mask dances with another suited man, who has his back to the camera and is supposed to be Gov. Arne Carlson. Their dance opens with children’s voices singing to the tune of “Love and Marriage.” The lyrics are: Clinton and Carlson, Carlson and Clinton, go together on a lot of issues.” As the men dance on, a narrator says: “They’ve raised your taxes. They support government-run health care that will lead to rationing. They support gun control as an answer to crime. They favor legalized abortion into the ninth month. And neither Clinton nor Carlson has ever been endorsed for governor by the Independent-Republican Party. On Sept. 13, elect the real Republican. Vote for Allen Quist.”
Bill Clinton: never endorsed by the IR party for Governor. That might have been the most obviously absurd assertion in the ad, but Smith’s analysis shows it wasn’t the only one:
But the ad ’s claims on gun control and ninth-month abortions have been criticized as distortions by IR Party chairman Chris Georgacas. Carlson and Clinton did raise taxes, but Carlson also cut spending programs and balanced the state budget. And although Hillary Rodham Clinton lavishly praised the MinnesotaCare program, which Carlson helped initiate, Carlson has been critical of Clinton ’s health care proposal. The ad is supposed to be humorous and light, but the Clinton mask, the shadowy background and the disembodied dancing shoes give this ad a strange and ominous quality. Quist’s campaign manager, Leon Oistad, offered the unsolicited disclaimer that the dancing has nothing to do with the gay rights issue, which has become a symbolic dividing point between Carlson and Quist.
Yes, in perhaps an unprecedented move, the state chair of the IR party publicly criticized his own endorsed candidate in a separate Strib story saying the ad “stretches the truth to the edge of credibility” and could cause the losing side in the primary to “sit on its hands, won’t vote, or worst of all, support Democrats.”
Now it’s developing that, having already registered a domain name, Allen Quist is a likely candidate for congress against Rep. Tim Walz.
If Quist ultimately decides to run, my only hope is that he will run ridiculous, off-the-wall TV ads again. We can never have enough whacky spots like Quist’s from 1994, especially in this age of YouTube and viral video.
Oh, and seeing Walz win with 70 percent of the vote would be cool too, I suppose.
By the way, does anyone have video of the “Dancing Carlson and Clinton” ad? If so, please upload it to YouTube immediately; the “new generation” must see it!
