Governor Huckabee using the Kantas for Trustee playbook?
8 Comments Published by Augur on Monday, November 19 at 2:46 PM.
I just ran across the advertisment below for Mike Huckabee, who I still think could surprise folks in Iowa. He is following the proud example of juggernaught that was the Chris Kantas for U of I Trustee campaign from a few years back, and invoking the great Chuck Norris to deliver his message of hope and change to the voters. Never underestimate the power of humor in politics!
Labels: humor, politics, student government, U of I
I saw this ad and loved it, and as somebody on another blog said, I'd vote for Huckabee for neighbor any day of the week.
I do wonder about the effectiveness of this ad though. Maybe this is just snobbery against rural people, but do Iowans really know about Chuck Norris facts? Particularly the conservative Republican Iowans Huckabee is seeking votes from? People who visit collegehumor.com might be persuaded by this kind of thing, but I'm not so sure about anybody else.
As to how effective this sort of thing is:
"Christopher Kantas, junior in LAS, won the election for Student Trustee. Kantas received 3,920 votes, while other candidates Mike Trojanowski and Nina Fuentes received 1,482 votes and 1,020 votes, respectively."
Mike Huckabee has nothing on the organizers of the Kantas campaign, U I Pol. No comparison. :)
And what did Kantas do for the U of I? Oh yeah, NOTHING!
Ryan - Student Trustee isn't really an activist role, they don't generally create new programs and events, or spend any money. What a trustee does do, is represent the views of students and the broader student body to the BOT. Without being in the meetings with Kantastic, there really isn't a great way to tell what he did and did not do as trustee.
I do believe he had the faith and confidence of Chairman Eppley which is important if you want the board as a whole to take your views seriously. Contrast that w/ the service of a Nate Allen, who would rather see his name in headlines than make things happen for students.
The ad was enjoyable. I think it shows that the Republican party isn't really looking for "anyone but Hillary" but really for anyone but Romney and Giuliani. Maybe Huckabee is the guy. He's certainly ascendant in Iowa.
My comments are so infrequent that they sometimes feel more like an interruption than anything else, but Brian, you saw this ad and LOVED it? I would join Allan in saying it's enjoyable but not much more than that. More than anything, I think it's a sad reflection of how prudish/boring presidential campaigns truly have become. And we've covered that topic too many times to count, but can't we all agree that these are among the least humorous of the Chuck Norris facts out there? Honestly, almost all of the Kantas slogans were funnier. Most of the 2008 candidates could run much edgier ads. McCain's irreverence, for instance, is probably one of the only things keeping his campaign alive--it's obviously not the money--and others would do well to follow his lead.
I don't feel optimistic about political campaigns being really fun anymore when I see ads like this. I am disappointed that we've set the humor bar so low that this ad is side-splitting to people.
Jon,
Yeah, I feel kinda dumb in retrospect saying I "loved it." I did merely enjoy it, and laughed at it, but I realize that's mostly because this sort of thing is so unusual in political campaigns, not really because it's actually all that funny.
I do stand by my assertion that a lot of people just won't get it. But maybe I'm just out of touch and totally wrong about that.