opinion
Septembefli
Slouch By Jim Earle
“No wonder that physical education course was so hard
last spring! I just learned that it was not physical educa
tion but physics!”
Reasoning behind
negative campaigns
by Arnold Sawislak
United Press International
WASHINGTON — There is a story, un
supported by anything but its persistence as
political folklore, that Lyndon Johnson, then
a senator, once instructed an aide to issue a
press release accusing Johnson’s opponent of
a perverted sex practice.
According to the story, the horrified aide
said: “But Senator, we haven’t got any evi
dence that he does those kinds of things.”
And, according to the story, LBJ grinned
as wide as Texas and replied: “I know it. I just
want to hear him deny it.”
That story stays alive in part because it
illustrates an extreme of “attack” or “nega
tive” campaigning. The tactic is familiar and
simple — attack your opponent and his re
cord early and often. Keep him on the defen
sive throughout the campaign.
Those who use negative campaigning, and
at some time nearly every politician has, al
ways say it is necessary to inform the voters
how bad a person or public official their oppo
nent is. Those who are at the receiving end
call it mudslinging, character assassination
and distortion.
Negative campaigning certainly is not new
to American politics. It probably began dur
ing the second term of George Washington,
when the once-revered father of his country
was suddenly was being called by his critics a
“tyrant and dictator” and accused of having
“debauched” the nation.
Historian Stefan Lorant suggests it might
have been that kind of rhetoric, rather than
loftier motives of desiring to limit presidential
tenure, that persuaded Washington to return
to Mount Vernon after eight years.
In any case, negative campaigning almost
always has been with us. In 1980, with the
so-called “independent” political action com
mittees in full flower, it was credited with
replacing a number of liberal Democratic
senators, including George McGovern, Birch
Bayh, Frank Church and John Culver, by
New Right conservatives.
Now comes V. Lance Tarrance, a political
consultant and pollster of good reputation,
with the word that negative campaigning is
“most likely on the upswing in the United
States” and offering some suggestions to can
didates who intend to employ it.
First, says Tarrance in a study for the con
servative Free Congress Research and Educa
tion Foundation, negative campaigning need
not be based on personal attacks.
“It can be rational and information-
oriented,” Tarrance said. “Voters today tend
to be repulsed by anti-intellectual negatives,
but attracted toward information-gathering
types of television advertisements or those
which tend t^o point out sharp differences be
tween the candidates.”
Other tips: Negative appeals work best ear
ly in the campaign period; negative cam
paigning works best against incumbents; last-
minute attacks should be used only as a last
resort to save a losing candidate; and it may be
best for challengers to avoid negative cam
paigning themselves, letting “third party” or
independent partisans do the heavy work.
Tarrance thus provides a clear blueprint
for any candidate who wants to go out and
beat the stuffing out of an opponent with
negative campaigning. What may be interest
ing to watch is whether some of the people
who lost in 1980 to candidates using the Tarr
ance formula will in turn adopt the same tac
tics in 1982.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
Editor Diana Sultenfuss
Managing Editor Phyllis Henderson
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Hutchings
News Editors Rachel Bostwick, Cathy
Capps, Daniel Puckett, Jan Werner,
Todd Woodard
Staff Writers Jennifer Carr, Susan
Dittman, Beverly Hamilton,
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Dana Smelser, Joe Tindel, John
Wagner, Rebeca Zimmermann
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77843.
My dear friend, thank you
I finally stopped to pay attention to
somebody last night — after they almost
had to physically jerk my head around to
make me listen. But that little event prob
ably will make me feel extremely good
for a long time.
I was talking to a friend and listening
with my ears but not my head. Only after
she was beginning to get mad at me did I
finally hear what she was saying. She
basically was saying she was my friend
and she cared.
Now it may seem self-centered to want
everybody on campus to know somebody
cares about me — you may not give a
damn, but I do. Because I remember a
few times when I haven’t listened — re
sulting in someone being pushed away
from me. All because I didn’t pay atten
tion.
This made me stop and think of all the
people I have had the good fortune to
know. It made me realize friends are the
single, most valuable asset a person can
have.
Friends can come in any shape or
fashion. Now I don’t mean your casual
everyday drinking buddy or passing ac
quaintance. I mean people who honestly
care about you and what happens to you.
These are the kind of people who
straighten you out when they think
you’re wrong about something. God for
bid anyone should ever say: “Shut up and
listen for a change.” But these friends do
that.
And they turn around and say to call
them when you need someone to talk to.
And it doesn’t come out as a statement
made in passing, but as am
lion that makes you realizetheijL
But maybe something friend I
is be there when you need then,
be to bend their ear about soe
small as a romantic problem!
thing as serious as the deatho
one. Frequently, all theydoiij
that all-important commodinf
talked alxiut — listening.
Who knows, maybe it oughu
requirement — “Must have
That’s obviously stretchingthinj,
what, but most people probabli
if they have bonifide friends.! |
necessarily make me a betterpe
because I have a friend, but itd
me feel good about me.
enough.
So if you have anyone teik;|
listen, then you know in w ,
think the people I'm ref emir-CP .
who they are, but just in
said it lately —thanks.
So take a little bit of hartjt !
advice. Learn who your friendiir
hold on tight. They could beJlA
important discovery you everc^f
HE'S VERY DEPRESSED
SET HIS MIND OFF HIS
TROUBLES m ** ,, ~^*
TALK ABOUT ||
SPORTS OR ^
SOMETHIN^ J
>• SAYu.DID
YOU HEAR
THE NFL
IS&OINS
ON
STRIKE?
Amoi
Univ<
Mono
Letters: Student questions tradition
HC
man
hour;
Editor:
I was deeply disturbed by the letter
appearing in the Sept. 7 issue that criti
cized students who didn’t follow tradi
tions in last weekend’s game. The letter
closed “if you don’t like the way things
are then leave.”
I came to Texas A&M to pursue a gra
duate degree. I came largely because one
professor recruited me. I came because I
was convinced Texas A&M was a quality
university where I could get the kind of
education I desired.
I did not come here just to follow some
asinine childish traditions. To expect
people to stand up in the hot sun without
a hat to protect themselves is an invitation
to heatstroke or something worse. In the
third quarter, I saw paramedics helping a
student who had collapsed.
There is nothing wrong with tradition
in itself. But when it flies in the face of
reason (and good health), it ought to be
changed. An insistance upon these kind
of traditions will turn people away from
coming to Texas A&M, not bring them
here. As a student at this University, I
want it to continue to be a quality univer
sity. To do this, some things are going to
have to change. In contrast to the “love it
or leave it” philosophy, I would suggest
“Texas A&M: Help it change or watch it
die.”
I have been a football fan for a long
time. I have spent a lot of time and money
going to games because I enjoy watching
football. However it is apparent it is im
possible to peaceably enjoy watching a
game on a student ticket because that
would interfere with keeping up with all
the foolish traditions.
William Jordan
Graduate student
Bootline rules
Editor:
In response to the article on bootline
rules at the football games, we feel that
this ring check is unfair. Our point is,
some seniors cannot afford their senior
ring right away and yet they are very
spirited in the Aggie traditions.
We understand the problem of seek
ing out only the seniors to participate in
this long-awaited privilege because we
look forward to the privileges wheih our
senior year will hold for each of us.
In essence, what this ring check is
am us
doing is holding back more of theTVdead
Ags” rather than letting a few Bac cle, p
get by. Surely, there must be a^*' U
system of making sure bootline hi ol ]
while
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