Jay P. Greene's Blog

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

Is it me, or has the primary and special-election season that is now winding down down represented a major leap forward in excellence for the quality of campaign communications? I don’t just mean production values, although after the introduction of the “Demonsheep” those did go up dramatically. I mean, in addition, at least in some places there was a puncturing of the ordinary cheap and forumlaic insincerity. This was shocking and refreshing, and I’d like to honor it. So I’m giving out the following three awards.

The John Adams Award

For excellence in the strategic use of ironic self-effacement to embarrass your egomaniacal jackass of an opponent

If you took U.S. History 101, you probably know that in 1800 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson allowed their surrogates in the press to circulate truly horrible fictions about one another. At one point, Jefferson’s papers circulated the rumor that Adams had sent one of his functionaries over to England to collect four women, two of whom were to serve as Adams’s mistresses and two for the functionary (as his compensation for making the trip).

Rather than blow a gasket and work himself into high dudgeon, Adams commented, “If it is true, then he has cheated me out of my two and kept them all for himself!”

In that spirit, I bestow the John Adams award upon Mickey Kaus, blogger turned candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in California, for his deftly ironic use of candid self-effacement to repeatedly humiliate his opponent, Barbara Boxer. His public statements have been consistently barbed and effective, but this and this were what moved me to create an award to give him.

“The box was on the defensive for the entire debate.”

The Gen. Anthony McAuliffe Award

For candor above and beyond the call of duty

Before the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. McAuliffe recieved the following communique:

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander

McAuliffe sent back the following reply:

To the German Commander

NUTS!

The American Commander

In that spirit, I bestow the Gen. Anthony McAuliffe award upon Les Phillip, candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House in Alabama District 5.

Test yourself:

How many of the references did you catch? (Jim Geraghty says that’s William Ayers’ wanted poster they flash near the end.)

The Ronald Reagan Award

For fearlessness in the mocking of buffoonery

Reagan won a close election in 1980 in large part because he wasn’t afraid to display his contempt for Carter’s contemptible behavior. This was captured in our historical memory in that famous debate, when Carter repeated for the umpteenth time his shameless lies about Reagan’s record on Medicare, and Reagan smiled and said, “there you go again.” (Never mind that we’d be living in a much better world now if Reagan really had wanted to slash Medicare; the fact is, he didn’t, and people knew it.)

In that spirit, I bestow the Ronald Reagan award upon Carly Fiorina. The Demonsheep was clever and funny, and it broke a lot of conventions in a way that got everybody paying attention, but it was also deeply amateurish and forced. The follow-up ad, though, was far superior.

Congratulations to the winners. My fervent hope is that I’ll have more awards to give out come November!