It’s a political ad, so take it for what it’s worth, but I sort of enjoyed this John Edwards campaign commercial:
We all have different priorities when we cast a vote, but if your highest priority is the financial well-being of the middle class, I think Edwards is your best bet. On the other hand, if your priorities are increased spending in Iraq or tax cuts (particularly for the wealthy), you’ll probably want to go elsewhere.
Of the three Democratic frontrunners, I like him the best. My wife is certainly a fan, and she’s a Republican. Go figure…
Pretty words, but completely general. What does it mean and what policies does it imply? Most/all politicians says they’re fighting for the common man and not responsive to special interests. But in most cases, it’s just talk.
To try to get specific:
-From the video, we can infer that he’s interested in health care, but what does that mean in terms of a policy where the devil is in the proverbial details?
-He shows a farmer or two. Should we infer that he’s a big fan of farm subsidies?
-He talks about the working class and shows pictures of the hard-working poor, but will he say anything about the payroll taxes that crush them or the lame Social Security payouts that result?
Pretty words without specifics? Sure. It’s a campaign ad. I don’t think many politicians could be successful by getting overly detailed in a commercial. I think television commercials are pretty well relegated to just making you feel and can’t try too hard at making you think too deeply.
OK, I agree that it’s nice by the norm the public has established for political ads. But from the ad, you seemed to infer that “if your highest priority is the financial well-being of the middle class, I think Edwards is your best bet.” (Or maybe your applause for Edwards were unrelated to the ad?) I don’t see any significant evidence of that in the ad or from his campaign/candidacy (from what little I know about it).
I think you can infer that the concerns of the middle class and downtrodden are a priority of his by the content of the ad. The thirty second spot is constraining, but you can still learn a lot. Remember Bush’s ad that just showed a bunch of terrorists training? It didn’t give any specifics, but in that case there weren’t any specifics to give. He was just asking his supporters to piss their pants all the way to the polls–and they did.