It is election season and political campaigns offer the curmudgeon plenty of material for a post. First, my friend, Tom Petros, is running for state office. I have never actually known anyone who was running for office this well. I would not bet on Tom’s campaign. Tom is a democrat in North Dakota. Second he has a Ph.D. I don’t think voters will ever know much more about Tom and both factors will work against him.
The 30 second television campaign ad signifies to me all that is wrong with the political process. Just what can you really explain about the complex issues we all face in such a short time frame. Take a picture of the candidate in working clothes talking to working people. I guess we all work. I mean people who earn their living in construction, farming, or an energy industry are considered real working people. If you don’t want to go with the working man theme, take a picture of the candidate with a rifle or shotgun out in the field. Show a flag or a military picture if possible. Mention you are “fighting” for something. Explain how many generations your family has lived in the state. Then, if there are a few seconds left, use a catchy phrase and possible work in a sound bite focused on an actual issue. My favorite meaningless phrase of this season is the “North Dakota way”. Evidently there is a secret way of doing things that folks who grow up here understand that has eluded the rest of us. Evidently it is passed down from generation to generation like a secret hand shake. I guess if you live in North Dakota you should support anyone who has learned this secret way of doing things.
My favorite “campaign logic” is used in an ad by now Govenor Hoeven who is seeking election to the U.S. Senate. For anyone who does not know, North Dakota is one of only a few states that has done quite well in these difficult economic times and is actually running a budget surplus. In typical North Dakota fashion, however, there is a movement to squirrel these funds away in a rainy day funds. It is what I as an Iowa farm boy refer to as the farmer logic. You never say times are good. Times are either bad or they will likely be bad next year. Anyway, the logic of the Hoeven ad is that anyone who has been so successful as the governor should apply these same principles and set the entire country on a more productive path. I will admit that Governor Hoeven has not screwed things up, but the state of the ND economy is not a function of brilliant leadership. North Dakota happens to be sitting on the Bakken Formation allowing for an oil drilling frenzy not present elsewhere (at least for some time). When energy costs go up elsewhere, a state with oil, coal, and wind power will do very well. The ag economy has also done very well in recent years. Then there are all of those Canadians flocking across the boarder (with our blessing and with money) to buy stuff and then go home. Finally, North Dakota has a very sparse population and probably with good reason. It can be a difficult place to live and this factor may limit many of the social challenges faced in other states. So, if you happen to be sitting on top of tremendous energy resources, have a second area of the economy that is doing very well, have few serious social problems, and the opportunity to sell lots of stuff to people with money, I know someone who can set you on a productive path. Of course, if you are in this situation I could probably do the same.
I think ads share some characteristcs with Twitter. There is not much there and you need to add a lot from your own knowledge. If you like someone, you agree with what they have to say and if not, you disagree. You fill in the blanks according your own biases. At least with Twitter, the 140 characters change from tweet to tweet. With the ads, they must assume the few seconds of content are quite difficult to understand because they repeat the same message time after time after time.