The last man from Illinois to win a major party nomination for president was Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat. He ran against Eisenhower twice, lost twice, and was not pleased by the Republican's use of television advertising--TV was a new medium then.
Here's what Adlai said about that:
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal -- that you can gather voters like box tops -- is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
Translation for readers under 30: Breakfast cereal box tops were once used, before UPC codes, as proofs of purchases for contests and incentive giveaways.
Okay, Stevenson not only lost those elections, he lost the philosophical battle: Television advertising is a key part of any serious presidential campaign.
Obama has gone beyond what Adlai spoke out against, as the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune reports:
One evening in February 2005, in a four-hour meeting stoked by pepperoni pizza and grand ambition, Sen. Barack Obama and his senior advisers crafted a strategy to fit the Obama "brand."
Obama: He's not just for breakfast anymore.
A little irony: A member of Obama's "kitchen cabinet" is Newt Minow, FCC chairman under Kennedy and the snob who called television "a vast wasteland." Minow practiced law with Stevenson in the late 1950s. As far as I know, Minow has nothing to do with The Obama Brand, but I hope someone asks him about what he thinks of it.
The Trib has another article about Obama's ham-handed endorsements of local politicos with questionable reputations. It's stuff I blogged about months ago, but here it is if you want to learn more. Free registration is required for this story too.
Related post:
A little Adlai Stevenson blogging...
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