Hey DU boomers+--were presidential campaigns always so image-based?

[jpgray]

Candidate packaging has existed since the dawn of politics, but the coverage these days is so obsessively image-oriented (say from '92 on) that issues seem to fall by the wayside unless something viewed as "extreme" is put out there. And even then the stance doesn't matter so much as the perception of the stance. I am curious about past campaign coverage that I wasn't around for--was it as obsessive about image as campaigns today? Obviously everyone knows the JFK/Nixon TV debate anecdote, but I've always heard it was slightly more substantive from various sources. Is that just a "good ol' days" myth? Reviewing journalism from the past a lot of it seems the same, but with less of a focus on basic image details that any Joe Sixpack is as qualified to figure out as the commentator.

[cosmik debris]

1. TV changed the medium

But the message did not change.

[Bluzmann57]

2. A lot of it started with Reagan

We were still thinking about Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis was going full bore and let's face it, Jimmy Carter just wasn't a tremendously media savvy President, whereas Reagan was an actor who was perfectly at home in front of a TV camera. His handlers knew all of this and acted accordingly. The JFK/Nixon debates were part of it too, as TV was starting to come into it's own.

[pnwmom]

4. I remember a book called "The Selling of the President"

about Richard Nixon. I think he might have been the first of the new era.

[OHdem10]

3. Television has increasingly created the environment

in which more and more, "Image" is what matters.
After the election of JFK, candidates became more
and more TV Savy.

If you notice it seems Republicans "grow" people
with a certain Image. They have become quite savvy
in using Televeion for elections and governing. I do
not subscribe to their philosophy and policies but
they understand Television and its use very well.

We can use a little work-I am still a proud Democrat.
Learn from your opposition is my motto.

[tech3149]

5. It's no myth

Sure there were negative campaign tactics and personal assaults in the past, but the Republican party has built it's strength on those tactics since the 70's. The "image era" made it's positive move in the JFK/Nixon race and the effect has only increased over the years.

[blues90]

6. I recall the Kennedy /Nixon debates well

It was alot different back then . I don't recall smear campaigns just the debates live and clear . The new casters back then were much more expeienced than these talking heads we have now .

I don't see any comparison between then and now .

What we have got now is a sick joke and piles of lies to sort through .

[OHdem10]

7. Yes, Kennedy and Nixon were both substantive candidates

but after that election, people realized how TV Cameras
just seemed to love JFK. After that people began to
figure out how to use TV to their adavantage.

[madrchsod]

8. ever since kennedy-nixon

it`s gotten a lot worse since then....

[book_worm]

9. the first Madison Avenue/television campaign was 1952

and the packaging of Ike. In 1948 Dewey also used extensive polls and packaging and decided to say nothing while Truman campaigned among the people and turned the campaign on its ear.

[ben_meyers]

10. FDR protected his Image

By not allowing photographs of him in his wheelchair, many people were unaware that he was a polio victim. The press at the time went along with it.