Few days ago, I had a post on the nastiest political ads of all time. I cited the one run by Gov. Pat Brown against Ronald Reagan. (Brown has a little black girl on his knee. He tells her, “You know, it was an actor who shot Lincoln.”) And I cited the most despicable ad of all time: Lyndon Johnson’s “daisy” ad, against Goldwater.
Several readers wrote in to say, “What about the ad run by the NAACP against George W. Bush? The one that linked him to a lynching?” Oh, yeah: That was pretty high on the despicability meter too. It was then that I checked out of the NAACP, I think — gave up on it forever. Or maybe that happened during the Reagan years, when Ben Hooks kept calling the president a racist. Can’t remember. Either-or . . .
I was also discussing bumper stickers, here on the Corner. And a reader wrote, “In my highly liberal St. Paul neighborhood, I saw a car that had two, and only two, bumper stickers. The first: ‘Hate Is NOT a Family Value.’ And the second: ‘The Road to Hell Is Paved with Republicans.’” For some reason, our reader sees a contradiction. To many others, no contradiction would be apparent.
Finally, a reader mentioned a bumper sticker I found charming — it was seen in Louisiana during a gubernatorial race. It supported Edwin Edwards, the famous rogue, against David Duke, the famous, or infamous, Klansman. The sticker said, “Vote for the Lizard, Not the Wizard.”
P.S. Another sticker for Edwards, against Duke, was “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.”