As the presidential elections of the United States are approaching closer, the Senators are adopting several tactics for their campaigns. It was commented that John McCain is implementing same tactics as the advertisement of William Horton.
The former Governor of Massachusetts named Michael Dukakis made the comment on presidential election of John Mc Cain on Monday. He was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the election of 1988. On that election campaign, George H.W. Bush advertised William Horton in such a way that it had some crucial effects on the Democratic nominee.
The Brookline Democrat had referred to a latest campaign of Mc Cain’s for presidential campaign. He stated that in the election campaigns McCain is utilizing the tactics based on race for winning the presidential election.
In an advertisement, it was narrated that Barack Obama who is a Democratic nominee was getting financial advices from Franklin Raines. Franklin Raines was the former Chief Executive Officer of the bailed mortgage lender named Fannie Mae. It can be quite disadvantageous for the Democratic candidate.
The advertisement that is shown against Barrack Obama features two images of Obama and Raines. After featuring the image of these two Afro Americans, an image of an elderly white woman would appear on the advertisement.
Dukakis considered this advertisement was following the similar path that Georg H. W. Bush had taken during his election campaign of 1988. The advertisement was run by a group of third party who had supported Bush during the election of 1988.
When the advertisement was aired on the media, Bush was chasing Dukakis by a significant margin. The advertisement featured a convicted murderer William Horton which had affected the votes of Dukakis. The advertisement showed that Dukakis as a Governor had supported the temporary release of William Horton from prison.
The narrator of the advertisement narrated that Horton had received 10 passes for weekend though he had been given a life sentence. In this period, Horton had kidnaped a couple. He raped the woman and killed the man. The advertisement highly influenced the election results as it portrayed that Dukakis was soft on crime.
Seeing the advertisement of Mc Cain, Dukakis commented that the same tactics is getting repeated once again. He also commented that the advertisement is false as Raines is not among the close economic advisor of Obama.
William Horton
