Senator Tom Udall visited Holloman Air Force Base last week in what I predict set the stage for his own “Red State Moment,” getting a two-year jump on his anticipated re-election campaign. For the uninitiated, a “Red State Moment” occurs when the bluest of blue Democrats leaps to other side of the aisle for the media in an attempt to reinvent away certain positions. Usually, this occurs when a soft-on-crime or weak-on-defense liberal candidate makes an idiot of himself.
Let’s review some past moments of note for context.
In 1988, the Democratic nominee for President was Michael Dukakis. His opponent was World War II veteran pilot George Bush senior. Dukakis lacked any actual positive record relating to defense issues on which to run. The solution? An embarrassing photo op in a tank at a General Dynamics plant in Michigan.
Naturally, the photo served only to make the candidate look foolish and backfired significantly. Indeed, “Dukakis in the tank” is now political shorthand for a public relations effort that backfires.
Notably, Dukakis held a commanding (ha!) 17 point lead in the summer leading up to this incident and went on to lose in a landslide, carrying only 10 states and the District of Columbia.
Not quite twenty years later, another Democratic presidential candidate found his “Dukakis in a tank” moment. John
Kerry was a Vietnam War veteran, but his post-service war protesting and total lack of real support for the U.S. military left him without any ability to relate to the patriotic American South. Naturally he decides to create a photo op to prove he has something in common with southerners.
In October 2004, Kerry went on a staged goose hunt in Ohio in order to get some media attention with good photos in hunting gear–gear he, naturally, had to purchase just before the trip. Kerry did not bring back a goose, although he claimed to have shot one and left it behind out of laziness.
More details on Kerry’s hunting excursion and other similar stories here.
Which brings us back to Mr. Udall. Tom Udall’s record on defense issues is not, shall we say, in line with general Red State values. But he is already working to shore up that area and not by re-thinking his positions (described here on what appears to be a liberal issues website). No, the better route, according to Mr. Udall, is to find his own photo ops to prove his support for our military. (See photos from Kirtland, Cannon, and Holloman Air Force Bases).
We’re pretty sure there’s a photo out there somewhere with Mr. Udall putting his pilot’s helmet on backward, and look forward to that surfacing in the next campaign.