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October 17, 2008
Campaigning on image
I promise to get back to Tennessee politics shortly, but I have recently arrived home from a welcome vacation, part of which took place in the Commonwealth of Virginia's Fifth Congressional District.
Virginia's CD-5 is represented by Virgil Goode Jr., who is a Republican -- and who served in the state's Legislature for many years as a Democrat. (He switched parties when he first ran for the U.S. House.) Not surprisingly, Goode seems to enjoy wide bipartisan support, as I encountered several households during my visit that plan to vote for Barack Obama for President, and for Mark Warner (the Democratic Party candidate) for U.S. Senate, but for Goode in the latter's bid for reelection.
Therefore, it could be said that Goode's Democratic opponent, Tom Perriello, faces quite an uphill battle. After all, it's very difficult to defeat an incumbent; and one for whom members of the opposing party are willing to split the ticket is nearly invincible.
However, I was really surprised when I pulled up Perriello's website while writing this post and saw the campaign's photographs of the candidate -- for the image I saw during an ad for Virgil Goode was remarkably different. Until I saw the other photos, I would have reasonably assumed that Tom Perriello is a rather dark-skinned, bearded man of Italian-American heritage, and one whose appearance could be mistaken for, I dunno, a person of Middle Eastern or Afghani ethnicity.
The Goode ad* also mentions more than once that Perriello, an attorney (as is Goode), is an import from New York City. Perriello's Wikipedia bio says that he was "born and raised" in Virginia's Albemarle County, which is home to Monticello and the University of Virginia. It's the contrast in pictures, though, that makes one wonder what the ad is trying to get across. I understand that campaigns use unflattering likenesses of opponents. But you tell me whether or not something else is being implied by the darkness of the photograph.
Incidentally, during the same commercial break, an anti-Obama ad co-sponsored by the RNC and the McCain campaign played, and it seemed like the same thing was happening in that one. The first picture of Barack Obama on the screen was the "blackest" I have ever seen the man look. (And I wasn't reacting to the Goode campaign's portrayal of Perriello, because I hadn't yet seen what Perriello really looks like.)
If this is the best that campaigns can do to convince voters to vote for someone, then our political system is in serious trouble. Unfortunately, I have to believe that these tactics work -- else they wouldn't be used. Let's hope that voters make their choices based on informed opinions about policy differences, and not based on fear of those with a different skin color (especially when it's been falsified).
*Note: I was not able to find an original version of the ad on YouTube or anywhere else. The editorializing around the ad in the YouTube clip I linked is not my own.
US House Elections | By joe lance | 5:11 PM
Comments
"I promise to get back to Tennessee politics shortly"
Just this morning, I was thinking that you going on hiatus during October of an election year is completely unacceptable.
Posted by: davidm. at October 17, 2008 6:11 PM
Wikipedia ? Just a bunch of Liberals editing out the truth!
Get a real source.
Posted by: mickey at October 18, 2008 2:27 PM
Posted by: mickey at October 18, 2008 2:53 PM
Sorry, there is no entry for Tom Perriello on conservapedia.com.
Posted by: joe lance at October 18, 2008 2:56 PM
As Sean points out, fortunately (hopefully?), racism is a luxury we cannot afford in this election season.
I don't think those tactics are going to work nearly as well as they used to. Perhaps, (dare I say it?), the Southern Strategy is, at last, in its final throes.
Posted by: alice at October 18, 2008 6:10 PM