The Camelot Campaign (op-ed)
JFK’s assassination (November 22,
1963) was acknowledged last year. It was the 50th
anniversary. November 2014 Kennedy wasn’t mentioned.
51st anniversaries aren’t remembered, but November 3rd was the 50th
anniversary of the 1964 presidential election. Kennedy’s
successor Lyndon Johnson defeated Republican nominee Barry Goldwater
in a historic landslide. Had Kennedy lived 2014 could have
marked the 50th anniversary of The Camelot Campaign.
As early as 1962 President Kennedy believed Goldwater would run against him. The two entered the senate together, were adversaries, but were good friends. Both shared a disdain for how campaigns were conducted.
Goldwater wrote an article outlining what made a good opponent in a political contest. Goldwater said, “It’s fine to oppose but don’t hate, keep your sense of humor, always oppose positively, and applaud your opponent if he is right.”
Kennedy agreed, Goldwater mentioned in his memoir, “Kennedy thought if we could engage in a serious dialogue--direct the voters’ attention to the nation’s major problems--and then offer alternative solutions, we would be making a constructive contribution to the public’s understanding of the complexities of government.”
Both believed a presidential election should be a referendum on public policy, and not a repeat of 1960 when Kennedy and Nixon sparred in the nation’s first televised presidential debate.
The cameras favored Kennedy and were unfavorable to Nixon. Many felt the television turned the election into an anti-intellectual image contest and not a test of ideas.
To avoid the trap television threatened Kennedy and Goldwater made a gentleman’s agreement. They wouldn’t run as rivals demonizing the other seeking support as the lesser of two evils.
They would campaign as a team.
Their plan was simple, travel the country together and debate in front of live audiences. Goldwater said, “We would lift this presidential campaign above the petty, conniving scheming which flawed every political race…we would present the American voters with an opportunity to make a reasoned decision based on contending political philosophies rather than personality.”
Their radical plan would have changed political campaigns for good.
But the bullet that killed JFK also aborted the Kennedy-Goldwater Camelot campaign, catapulted Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the presidency, and birthed the infamous Daisy attack ad.
Johnson and Goldwater didn’t have a gentleman’s agreement. Johnson’s political plan was simpler, humiliate the opponent and applaud his defeat.
Johnson used the television to promote a different kind of image in his favor. Daisy was a commercial that showed a little girl in a field picking petals off a flower while a man’s voice preformed a countdown to zero. Then it cut to an image of a nuclear explosion. The ad aired once, but its message was clear. Goldwater was a warmonger that couldn’t be trusted with America’s nuclear capabilities. The commercial turned Goldwater’s presidential aspirations into the mushroom cloud it depicted.
During the 2014 November midterm elections close to $1 billion was spent on television ads designed to distract or turn off. And turned off voters that didn’t bother to vote celebrated the 50th anniversary of Daisy, while the country still waits for The Camelot Campaign.
As early as 1962 President Kennedy believed Goldwater would run against him. The two entered the senate together, were adversaries, but were good friends. Both shared a disdain for how campaigns were conducted.
Goldwater wrote an article outlining what made a good opponent in a political contest. Goldwater said, “It’s fine to oppose but don’t hate, keep your sense of humor, always oppose positively, and applaud your opponent if he is right.”
Kennedy agreed, Goldwater mentioned in his memoir, “Kennedy thought if we could engage in a serious dialogue--direct the voters’ attention to the nation’s major problems--and then offer alternative solutions, we would be making a constructive contribution to the public’s understanding of the complexities of government.”
Both believed a presidential election should be a referendum on public policy, and not a repeat of 1960 when Kennedy and Nixon sparred in the nation’s first televised presidential debate.
The cameras favored Kennedy and were unfavorable to Nixon. Many felt the television turned the election into an anti-intellectual image contest and not a test of ideas.
To avoid the trap television threatened Kennedy and Goldwater made a gentleman’s agreement. They wouldn’t run as rivals demonizing the other seeking support as the lesser of two evils.
They would campaign as a team.
Their plan was simple, travel the country together and debate in front of live audiences. Goldwater said, “We would lift this presidential campaign above the petty, conniving scheming which flawed every political race…we would present the American voters with an opportunity to make a reasoned decision based on contending political philosophies rather than personality.”
Their radical plan would have changed political campaigns for good.
But the bullet that killed JFK also aborted the Kennedy-Goldwater Camelot campaign, catapulted Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the presidency, and birthed the infamous Daisy attack ad.
Johnson and Goldwater didn’t have a gentleman’s agreement. Johnson’s political plan was simpler, humiliate the opponent and applaud his defeat.
Johnson used the television to promote a different kind of image in his favor. Daisy was a commercial that showed a little girl in a field picking petals off a flower while a man’s voice preformed a countdown to zero. Then it cut to an image of a nuclear explosion. The ad aired once, but its message was clear. Goldwater was a warmonger that couldn’t be trusted with America’s nuclear capabilities. The commercial turned Goldwater’s presidential aspirations into the mushroom cloud it depicted.
During the 2014 November midterm elections close to $1 billion was spent on television ads designed to distract or turn off. And turned off voters that didn’t bother to vote celebrated the 50th anniversary of Daisy, while the country still waits for The Camelot Campaign.
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