Campaign wit: A serious business

Campaign wit: A serious business
By Clare Murphy
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3927419.stm

No matter that President Bush sometimes has difficulty pronouncing words like strategy. Garbled syllables can in fact provide excellent fodder for self-deprecating jokes which are now an all-important part of the strategery - sorry, strategy - of any presidential campaign.

Being funny has not always been a pre-requisite for being president - and indeed some of the funniest candidates in the history of US presidential campaigns have fallen before reaching the White House door.

But in an age where the electorate no longer put politicians on the pedestals they once occupied, a joke is a crucial weapon when it comes to convincing voters that the candidate could live next door.

Aspiring president John Kerry is likely to be giving humour some very serious thought as he prepares to be beamed into homes across America on Thursday, delivering what is billed as the most important speech of his campaign at the Democratic convention.

"People still have to get to know Kerry," says Kenneth Baer, who wrote speeches for the last Democratic candidate Al Gore. "So jokes are really very important to him - humour is what will help people relate to him, and that's what he needs them to do now."

Funnyman

The rather aristocratic Mr Kerry - who is having to counter the allegation that he is aloof and lacking in charisma - may have particular need of a humour consultant to convince voters that he is just a regular guy.

You know, John Edwards and I have a lot in common. His name is John, my name is John. He's a lawyer, I'm a lawyer. He was chosen 'the sexiest politician' by People Magazine. I read People Magazine.

But George W Bush, whose problem is seen as more one of goofiness than aloofness, also employs a joke writer - a character who has in recent decades become an integral figure in most political campaigns, and a crucial sidekick if their jokes help win office.

Ronald Reagan's joke writer dates the advent of strategic presidential humour back to, perhaps unsurprisingly, Ronald Reagan.

"Sure, JFK was funny - and very good at the off-the cuff remarks. But it was Reagan who pulled it together, planned it, and used it to push home a political message," says Doug Gamble.

"He set a standard that presidential candidates since have struggled to emulate - they've all had joke writers since."

The fact that the comedy show has become a political rite of passage may also have fuelled the phenomenon; recent research suggests these programmes have begun to rival main news outlet as a source of information for young people.

But there is little doubt former President Reagan was the trailblazer when it came to the type of jokes employed - perfectly timed self-effacement that took the wind out of his critic's sails on their main hobby horses: his age, his work ethic and the deficit.

And while he managed to ridicule his younger opponent Walter Mondale when the issue of age came up in a 1984 debate with the line: "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience", he tended to avoid mean jokes.

Bob Dole's clever dry wit - rather than being an advantage in the 1996 campaign against Bill Clinton - was ultimately a little too cutting.

"You shouldn't do mean," says Mr Gamble. "Unless you can make it look soft and playful, it doesn't work."

Indeed an alleged off-the-cuff, cutting remark by Mr Kerry shortly after Mr Bush fell off his bicycle earlier this year was quickly deemed off-the-record. "Did the training wheels fall off?" he reportedly quipped.

"Self-deprecation is by far the best option," agrees Mr Baer.

Stealing thunder

It is certainly the one that George W Bush has opted for. Following in Ronald Reagan's footsteps, he has sought to steal his opponent's thunder by poking fun at his own anti-intellectualism, noting once of a prestigious fellow student at his alma mater: "He wrote a book at Yale, I read one," and of his perceived laziness: "I've seen how things can work out pretty well for a C student."

His occasional failure to grasp grammar, his articulation and sometimes curious choice of words have also been the butt of his own jokes. On meeting a Denver hockey player from the Czech Republic, he joked: "He uses unique English to confuse the opponents. Kind of sounds like the strategy I use at the press conferences."

But stealing your opponent's tirades and making a joke out of them can backfire, as Mr Bush learned earlier this year while making fun of the fact that no weapons of mass destruction had turned up in Iraq. "They've got to be here somewhere," he declared as he showed pictures of himself looking under his desk at the Oval Office.

The audience of correspondents found the joke riotously funny that evening. But then came the hangover.

"It was like making a joke about Aids," says Mr Gamble. "You can't make fun of something as serious as WMD.

"But the worst thing is that someone will have spent a lot of time thinking up that joke."

Not enough

Indeed, according to insiders, joke writers put pen to paper months in advance - thinking carefully about the kind of humour which would best suit the event.

Given that a good joke takes so long to formulate, once it works, it is often recycled.

What has become known as John Kerry's "People" joke - which has the advantage of painting his running-mate John Edwards in a favourable light while making the presidential candidate himself appear humourous - has been used on a number of occasions.

"You know, John Edwards and I have a lot in common. His name is John, my name is John. He's a lawyer, I'm a lawyer. He was chosen 'the sexiest politician' by People Magazine. I read People Magazine," it goes.

"I like this joke. And he's been delivering it well," says Mr Baer. Mr Gamble agrees. "He's been doing this much better than I thought. I've been surprised."

But however good the joke writer, the candidate has to understand the power and purpose of wit.

Mark Katz, who scripted some of Bill Clinton's best lines, started as a political writer in the service of Michael Dukakis, seen as the one of the most unintentionally funny candidates in history.

It was, he wrote of his work for Mr Dukakis, like being the photographer for the photo-sparse Wall Street Journal.