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Political Punches

Aired January 13, 2004 - 10:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Other political news. Political punches and verbal daggers. Do you think this year's presidential race is a dogfight, well, try the world of political advertising. Democrats, Republicans and their supporters are duking it out in a variety of media. There's one group out there. It's called moveon.org, and it's announcing the winner of its anti-administration ad. It's called "Bush in 30 Seconds."
In a moment, we will get one Republican consultant's reaction to the ad. But first, we bring in Eli Pariser, the campaign's director of moveon.org, live from New York.

Good morning.

ELI PARISER, CAMPAIGN DIR., MOVEON.ORG: Good morning.

KAGAN: Tell us about the contest. How does it work?

PARISER: Basically, we went to people outside of the beltway, all across America, and asked them to make political ads, which counter the Bush administration's spin. And over 1,000 were submitted, and then people in the public could vote on which ads they preferred. And we're going to run the winning ad very widely in the next week.

KAGAN: All right, well, let's get right to it and look at the winner.

Very emotional, showing child labor, implying that it will be the children and the young people of America that will pay off the huge deficit. Who put that together?

PARISER: Well, it was a gentleman named Charlie Fisher. And Charlie actually was a registered Republican until 1992, but he made this ad, I think, because he was concerned about where Bush's policies are taking us. And because this huge, huge deficit, which is going to be something that not only our children, but possibly our grandchildren are paying off.

KAGAN: And what did Charlie Fisher get for winning?

PARISER: Well, he gets all the honor of being a winner. And his ad gets on TV. That's all we were offering people. But people stepped forward with the most creative, and poignant and funny ads. It was really just amazing, you know, the creativity that people put into this. KAGAN: Well, one person's funny is another person's offensive. And as I said, we will be hearing from a Republican counterpoint in just a moment. But some of these ads, a lot of people think, went too far, including the one that makes allusions to Adolf Hitler.

Let's look at part of that.

Eli, any second thoughts on putting this one out there? I know this wasn't the winning ad, but this seems to be the one that seems to be getting the most attention.

PARISER: If you like.

KAGAN: Sorry.

PARISER: This ad was actually one of 1,000. And you know, we regret having it on the Web site, but I'm actually surprised the media is giving it so much attention. This is sort of what happens in Democratic decision making. You get genius and you get some nuts. And basically, what's happened here is the RNC has fixated on this add, trying to distract people from the really powerful critiques that were made in the finalist. You know, this is basically a smear campaign.

KAGAN: I'm kind of surprised that you're surprised. Let's say it was one of your guys. What if the Republicans had put together an ad comparing Adolf Hitler to Bill Clinton a few years ago? I think democrats would have been just as offended.

PARISER: Well, no, I mean, I think we don't stand behind that statement. We find it offensive as well. But what -- it's quite hypocritical for the RNC to attack this ad, an at the same time allow allies, like Grover Nordquist, who compared taxing the wealthiest Americans to the Holocaust to get off scott-free. Or when they compared Max Cleeland, a triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, to Osama bin Laden. It's basically transparently partisan, and I'm surprised people give it that kind of credit. And actually what's happening now is that Jewish groups like the NJDC are looking at the GOP much more closely, and saying, you know what, you know, he who is without sin should cast the first stone.

KAGAN: I think we have one more ad to look at. And you say this goes to the humor point, so let's see if we can roll that last ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George! you left our child behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: This playing off the one child left behind. Who put this one together?

PARISER: This is a gentleman named Christopher Fink, and it's a really funny ad. You can actually watch the whole thing on our Web site, Bushin30seconds.org. And this was just one of the entries. You know, there are lot of them that are just so humorous, I think they're really going to be able to cut through the president's spin.

KAGAN: So people can see it. Tell me the Web site one more time, moveon.org, right?

PARISER: Well, it's Bushin30seconds, and that's with a "3-0." And yes, you can watch all of the finalists, and there's some really great ads on there.

KAGAN: And of course Bigger point of all of this is getting more people involved in the political process outside the beltway. Eli, thank you for that. Appreciate it.

PARISER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Let's get to point and counterpoint reactions from the ad campaign. Let's bring in Kim Alfano, a Republican consultant, the head of Alfano Leonardo Communications. All these tough names today, Kim.

KIM ALFANO, GOP CONSULTANT: Hey, lots of good Italians in there.

KAGAN: There you go. She joins us live from Washington. Good morning.

ALFANO: Good morning.

KAGAN: All right, from someone in the biz, can you at least give hats off? Clever campaign, a way to get people involved in the political process.

ALFANO: You can give hats off to maybe the quality of the ads, but the -- it's sad when you look at them that an organization, you know, headed by a bright young guy like Eli is spending all its time on such a negative, kind of disheartening and I think misleading set of ad campaigns.

I mean if you're going to do a contest why would you go out there with the most cynical approach and say let's get the worst negative ads we can come up with and beat up on the president?

KAGAN: Perhaps because it's trying to criticize the party that's in power. If it was a rah rah campaign then I don't think you would be drawing from the same crowd.

(CROSSTALK)

ALFANO: Well it's so typical of the Democrats right now. I mean this young has been co-opted by the party at large. Look at all the candidates. There's not any ideas coming from that side of the fence. There's not any hope or any new kind of ways to attack the problems.

And from the Republicans, we've gotten leadership, the economy turning around. We got some great things going on. And these guys have nothing but to tear the country down.

(CROSSTALK) KAGAN: ... are concerned about the deficit, there are people who are concerned that policies that were good ideas that are not being funded properly so that children are being left behind. These are...

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Democrats might have a different opinion about that. All I'm saying is that these are legitimate issues out there and it's a creative way to bring things in.

If the Republicans were to do something, let's say your agency got something together, what kind of ads do you think you would get?

ALFANO: Well, I think, again, the premise is not let's come up with the best ad to sell our policies, the premise is let's figure out how we tear up the president. I mean that's like two different approaches.

At the end of the day the way you win races, the way you do ads, the best ads are the ones that have ideas in them. And these don't have ideas, these are negative ads. They're cleverly done, but they're clear flights of fancy. They're movies, little, well-done movies.

And when you bring in to the equation that this organization thought it was OK to post on their Web site the Hitler ad it becomes shameful. And it becomes more than sad, it becomes problematic. I mean you don't celebrate that kind of over the top negative advertising. You just don't do it. You come up with ideas and produce them and present them.

KAGAN: Well to bring in Eli's point, because we're not really doing this in debate style, so just to pull one of the points he made, when Democrats were in power, lots of illusions were made that were very negative against Democrats.

Max Cleland, the former senator here from Georgia. He made a good example. Trying to paint this man as someone who wasn't patriotic, a man who left limbs on the battlefield of Vietnam. So politics is a dirty business. I'm sure I'm not the first one to tell you this.

ALFANO: It is a dirty business. But it's not something that you celebrate in politics. Politics is ultimately about ideas, hope, moving forward and coming up with things.

And while there are comparative and contracting ads out there and tough ads out there, the bottom line is they have to be truthful and have some degree of -- modicum of public correctness or political correctness.

And that ad you're talking about did not compare him to Saddam Hussein, did not compare Max Cleland to any hateful world leader. They simply said he did not vote for the president to go to war. I mean -- there's a big difference. KAGAN: Well I live here in Georgia and I know exactly how Max Cleland was painted. Whether you support him or not, I know what was done to his image.

But I want to ask you this just as someone in the profession of advertising.

ALFANO: Sure.

KAGAN: And that is it's interesting to see what's happening with the Internet here. This is a whole campaign that was done on the Internet. That's where you go see the ads. You see what Howard Dean is doing to take advantage of the Internet.

As someone who's in the profession what's the next step that Republicans can use to make use of the Internet?

ALFANO: Well I would hope that we take the next step in the Internet and try to use it for a positive enticer for people to become involved. Something that brings people in the on the positive side where they can find the issues and ideas that the Republican Party has to present.

Right now the predominance of what's going on in the Internet is sort of promulgating and propagating this hate speak from Dean and now from this organization. I think it's time they explore the other side of the equation, the hopeful side.

KAGAN: We'll be looking for it. Kim, thanks for your time. Thanks for joining us from Washington.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 13, 2004 - 10:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Other political news. Political punches and verbal daggers. Do you think this year's presidential race is a dogfight, well, try the world of political advertising. Democrats, Republicans and their supporters are duking it out in a variety of media. There's one group out there. It's called moveon.org, and it's announcing the winner of its anti-administration ad. It's called "Bush in 30 Seconds."
In a moment, we will get one Republican consultant's reaction to the ad. But first, we bring in Eli Pariser, the campaign's director of moveon.org, live from New York.

Good morning.

ELI PARISER, CAMPAIGN DIR., MOVEON.ORG: Good morning.

KAGAN: Tell us about the contest. How does it work?

PARISER: Basically, we went to people outside of the beltway, all across America, and asked them to make political ads, which counter the Bush administration's spin. And over 1,000 were submitted, and then people in the public could vote on which ads they preferred. And we're going to run the winning ad very widely in the next week.

KAGAN: All right, well, let's get right to it and look at the winner.

Very emotional, showing child labor, implying that it will be the children and the young people of America that will pay off the huge deficit. Who put that together?

PARISER: Well, it was a gentleman named Charlie Fisher. And Charlie actually was a registered Republican until 1992, but he made this ad, I think, because he was concerned about where Bush's policies are taking us. And because this huge, huge deficit, which is going to be something that not only our children, but possibly our grandchildren are paying off.

KAGAN: And what did Charlie Fisher get for winning?

PARISER: Well, he gets all the honor of being a winner. And his ad gets on TV. That's all we were offering people. But people stepped forward with the most creative, and poignant and funny ads. It was really just amazing, you know, the creativity that people put into this. KAGAN: Well, one person's funny is another person's offensive. And as I said, we will be hearing from a Republican counterpoint in just a moment. But some of these ads, a lot of people think, went too far, including the one that makes allusions to Adolf Hitler.

Let's look at part of that.

Eli, any second thoughts on putting this one out there? I know this wasn't the winning ad, but this seems to be the one that seems to be getting the most attention.

PARISER: If you like.

KAGAN: Sorry.

PARISER: This ad was actually one of 1,000. And you know, we regret having it on the Web site, but I'm actually surprised the media is giving it so much attention. This is sort of what happens in Democratic decision making. You get genius and you get some nuts. And basically, what's happened here is the RNC has fixated on this add, trying to distract people from the really powerful critiques that were made in the finalist. You know, this is basically a smear campaign.

KAGAN: I'm kind of surprised that you're surprised. Let's say it was one of your guys. What if the Republicans had put together an ad comparing Adolf Hitler to Bill Clinton a few years ago? I think democrats would have been just as offended.

PARISER: Well, no, I mean, I think we don't stand behind that statement. We find it offensive as well. But what -- it's quite hypocritical for the RNC to attack this ad, an at the same time allow allies, like Grover Nordquist, who compared taxing the wealthiest Americans to the Holocaust to get off scott-free. Or when they compared Max Cleeland, a triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, to Osama bin Laden. It's basically transparently partisan, and I'm surprised people give it that kind of credit. And actually what's happening now is that Jewish groups like the NJDC are looking at the GOP much more closely, and saying, you know what, you know, he who is without sin should cast the first stone.

KAGAN: I think we have one more ad to look at. And you say this goes to the humor point, so let's see if we can roll that last ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George! you left our child behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: This playing off the one child left behind. Who put this one together?

PARISER: This is a gentleman named Christopher Fink, and it's a really funny ad. You can actually watch the whole thing on our Web site, Bushin30seconds.org. And this was just one of the entries. You know, there are lot of them that are just so humorous, I think they're really going to be able to cut through the president's spin.

KAGAN: So people can see it. Tell me the Web site one more time, moveon.org, right?

PARISER: Well, it's Bushin30seconds, and that's with a "3-0." And yes, you can watch all of the finalists, and there's some really great ads on there.

KAGAN: And of course Bigger point of all of this is getting more people involved in the political process outside the beltway. Eli, thank you for that. Appreciate it.

PARISER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Let's get to point and counterpoint reactions from the ad campaign. Let's bring in Kim Alfano, a Republican consultant, the head of Alfano Leonardo Communications. All these tough names today, Kim.

KIM ALFANO, GOP CONSULTANT: Hey, lots of good Italians in there.

KAGAN: There you go. She joins us live from Washington. Good morning.

ALFANO: Good morning.

KAGAN: All right, from someone in the biz, can you at least give hats off? Clever campaign, a way to get people involved in the political process.

ALFANO: You can give hats off to maybe the quality of the ads, but the -- it's sad when you look at them that an organization, you know, headed by a bright young guy like Eli is spending all its time on such a negative, kind of disheartening and I think misleading set of ad campaigns.

I mean if you're going to do a contest why would you go out there with the most cynical approach and say let's get the worst negative ads we can come up with and beat up on the president?

KAGAN: Perhaps because it's trying to criticize the party that's in power. If it was a rah rah campaign then I don't think you would be drawing from the same crowd.

(CROSSTALK)

ALFANO: Well it's so typical of the Democrats right now. I mean this young has been co-opted by the party at large. Look at all the candidates. There's not any ideas coming from that side of the fence. There's not any hope or any new kind of ways to attack the problems.

And from the Republicans, we've gotten leadership, the economy turning around. We got some great things going on. And these guys have nothing but to tear the country down.

(CROSSTALK) KAGAN: ... are concerned about the deficit, there are people who are concerned that policies that were good ideas that are not being funded properly so that children are being left behind. These are...

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Democrats might have a different opinion about that. All I'm saying is that these are legitimate issues out there and it's a creative way to bring things in.

If the Republicans were to do something, let's say your agency got something together, what kind of ads do you think you would get?

ALFANO: Well, I think, again, the premise is not let's come up with the best ad to sell our policies, the premise is let's figure out how we tear up the president. I mean that's like two different approaches.

At the end of the day the way you win races, the way you do ads, the best ads are the ones that have ideas in them. And these don't have ideas, these are negative ads. They're cleverly done, but they're clear flights of fancy. They're movies, little, well-done movies.

And when you bring in to the equation that this organization thought it was OK to post on their Web site the Hitler ad it becomes shameful. And it becomes more than sad, it becomes problematic. I mean you don't celebrate that kind of over the top negative advertising. You just don't do it. You come up with ideas and produce them and present them.

KAGAN: Well to bring in Eli's point, because we're not really doing this in debate style, so just to pull one of the points he made, when Democrats were in power, lots of illusions were made that were very negative against Democrats.

Max Cleland, the former senator here from Georgia. He made a good example. Trying to paint this man as someone who wasn't patriotic, a man who left limbs on the battlefield of Vietnam. So politics is a dirty business. I'm sure I'm not the first one to tell you this.

ALFANO: It is a dirty business. But it's not something that you celebrate in politics. Politics is ultimately about ideas, hope, moving forward and coming up with things.

And while there are comparative and contracting ads out there and tough ads out there, the bottom line is they have to be truthful and have some degree of -- modicum of public correctness or political correctness.

And that ad you're talking about did not compare him to Saddam Hussein, did not compare Max Cleland to any hateful world leader. They simply said he did not vote for the president to go to war. I mean -- there's a big difference. KAGAN: Well I live here in Georgia and I know exactly how Max Cleland was painted. Whether you support him or not, I know what was done to his image.

But I want to ask you this just as someone in the profession of advertising.

ALFANO: Sure.

KAGAN: And that is it's interesting to see what's happening with the Internet here. This is a whole campaign that was done on the Internet. That's where you go see the ads. You see what Howard Dean is doing to take advantage of the Internet.

As someone who's in the profession what's the next step that Republicans can use to make use of the Internet?

ALFANO: Well I would hope that we take the next step in the Internet and try to use it for a positive enticer for people to become involved. Something that brings people in the on the positive side where they can find the issues and ideas that the Republican Party has to present.

Right now the predominance of what's going on in the Internet is sort of promulgating and propagating this hate speak from Dean and now from this organization. I think it's time they explore the other side of the equation, the hopeful side.

KAGAN: We'll be looking for it. Kim, thanks for your time. Thanks for joining us from Washington.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com