Time for Tuck
One of John McCain’s Arizona constituents is Dick Tuck.
Remember him? Tuck is the guy who made negative campaigning fun. His favorite victim was President Nixon. During one of Tricky Dick’s “whistle-stop” train tours, Tuck wore a brakeman’s uniform and signaled the engineer to start moving the train in the middle of Nixon’s speech. At a Nixon rally in L.A.’s Chinatown, Tuck put up a “Welcome Nixon” banner that in Chinese read “What about the Hughes loan?”, a reference to a scandalous loan Howard Hughes had made to Nixon’s brother. None of Nixon’s staff could read Chinese so the banner stayed up as a backdrop throughout Nixon’s speech. At Nixon campaign indoor events, Tuck posing as a fire marshal would offer reporters a miniscule count for attendance.
Before it was over Nixon and GOP strategists were muttering oaths and looking anxiously over their shoulders and around corners for the next Tuck attack on their carefully orchestrated campaign.
While Tuck could be worrisome and infuriating, he wasn’t lethal or malicious. Even Nixon supporters found themselves smiling at his antics. Later, Tuck’s roguish rapier wit gave way to the far more effective bludgeoning style of negative campaigning. When the Willie Horton ad appeared in 1988, it spelled the end for both Dukakis and Tuck.
Bur now, with John McCain as the Republican candidate, maybe it’s time for Tuck to come back. Who better than Tuck – now living in Tucson--to prick the hypocrisy of the “Straight Talk Express”? Who better than Tuck to get under McCain’s thin-skin, to bring to the boiling point that legendary McCain temper?
Admittedly, there are problems. Tuck’s demented schemes that tormented Nixon were raucously reported because the media didn’t like Nixon. Today’s mainstream press adores McCain. Also, today’s political skullduggery is conducted more on the Internet than at campaign events.
In the 1960s after the day’s political rally, reporters gathered in the most prominent local hotel bar to regale each other with Tuck’s latest escapade. Reporters don’t drink anymore. No longer is there a Jack Germond holding court with his midnight musings of candidate foibles and consultant mischief that helped educate us all.
Now we have the no-accountability of 527 “swift-boating” campaigns that tarnish the reputation of a decorated Vietnam War hero and convince a wide swath of gullible voters that Barack Obama is the Muslim Manchuria candidate.
No sensible campaign can deal with that.
Which is why we need Tuck.
Remember him? Tuck is the guy who made negative campaigning fun. His favorite victim was President Nixon. During one of Tricky Dick’s “whistle-stop” train tours, Tuck wore a brakeman’s uniform and signaled the engineer to start moving the train in the middle of Nixon’s speech. At a Nixon rally in L.A.’s Chinatown, Tuck put up a “Welcome Nixon” banner that in Chinese read “What about the Hughes loan?”, a reference to a scandalous loan Howard Hughes had made to Nixon’s brother. None of Nixon’s staff could read Chinese so the banner stayed up as a backdrop throughout Nixon’s speech. At Nixon campaign indoor events, Tuck posing as a fire marshal would offer reporters a miniscule count for attendance.
Before it was over Nixon and GOP strategists were muttering oaths and looking anxiously over their shoulders and around corners for the next Tuck attack on their carefully orchestrated campaign.
While Tuck could be worrisome and infuriating, he wasn’t lethal or malicious. Even Nixon supporters found themselves smiling at his antics. Later, Tuck’s roguish rapier wit gave way to the far more effective bludgeoning style of negative campaigning. When the Willie Horton ad appeared in 1988, it spelled the end for both Dukakis and Tuck.
Bur now, with John McCain as the Republican candidate, maybe it’s time for Tuck to come back. Who better than Tuck – now living in Tucson--to prick the hypocrisy of the “Straight Talk Express”? Who better than Tuck to get under McCain’s thin-skin, to bring to the boiling point that legendary McCain temper?
Admittedly, there are problems. Tuck’s demented schemes that tormented Nixon were raucously reported because the media didn’t like Nixon. Today’s mainstream press adores McCain. Also, today’s political skullduggery is conducted more on the Internet than at campaign events.
In the 1960s after the day’s political rally, reporters gathered in the most prominent local hotel bar to regale each other with Tuck’s latest escapade. Reporters don’t drink anymore. No longer is there a Jack Germond holding court with his midnight musings of candidate foibles and consultant mischief that helped educate us all.
Now we have the no-accountability of 527 “swift-boating” campaigns that tarnish the reputation of a decorated Vietnam War hero and convince a wide swath of gullible voters that Barack Obama is the Muslim Manchuria candidate.
No sensible campaign can deal with that.
Which is why we need Tuck.
posted by Victor Kamber | 11:42 AM
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