Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: As the electoral horserace reaches the home stretch, President Bush and Senator Kerry will go toe to toe one more time on Wednesday night, each hoping to deliver a knockout blow. Yes, sports metaphors are once again a ubiquitous part of the presidential campaign, but this year, sports themselves are in the middle of the political playing field, and more than any campaign in recent memory, the athletic images of the candidates on the stump, on the water, on the mound or on any other sporting backdrop, may have a real impact on the final score. On the Media's John Solomon provides our play-by-play.
JOHN SOLOMON: Early this year, Sports Illustrated asked John Kerry if there was a sport he'd like to challenge President Bush to one-on-one. "He's a better runner. I'm a better hockey player," Kerry deliberated. Maybe we'd have to compete on neither ice nor asphalt. How about windsurfing?" Bush and Kerry have been seen throwing baseballs, tossing footballs, starting Nascar races and firing rifles so often that sometimes it seems as if they are running for Sportsman of the Year. Rarely has a presidential matchup involved two such active athletes, outdoorsmen and sports fans. And at a time of war, both are eager to emphasize their energetic personas and macho interests. Kerry's first biographical TV ads, early this summer, put his sporting qualifications front and center, even before his work credentials. [TAPE OF KERRY AD PLAYS]
ANNOUNCER: He's a husband and father. A hunter, hockey player... [TAPE ENDS]
JOHN SOLOMON: But it was in August, during the Republican Convention, when sports emerged as an important theme. [TAPE OF CONVENTION BIOGRAPHY VIDEO PLAYS]
ANNOUNCER: He was wearing a heavy Secret Service bullet-proof vest, and he could hardly move his arms. [TAPE ENDS]
JOHN SOLOMON: The biographical video that introduced President Bush, titled The Pitch, used his throwing out the first ball of the World Series at Yankee Stadium just after 9/11 as the metaphor for his entire term. [TAPE OF CONVENTION BIOGRAPHY VIDEO PLAYS]
ANNOUNCER: No matter what. You go to the game. You go to the mound. You find the plate, and you throw. And you become who you are. [CHEERING: USA, USA, USA] [TAPE ENDS]
JOHN SOLOMON: While Bush was pitching at the Convention in Madison Square Garden, a 60 year old Lycra-clad windsurfer on the waters off Nantucket was displaying the kind of athleticism that Outside Magazine predicted admiringly might make him, quote, "America's first extreme presidential candidate." But Bush media strategist Stuart Stevens bet that extremism in the pursuit of some sports would be a political liability.
STUART STEVENS: I think, frankly, the elitism of the sports that Kerry and the campaign has chosen to highlight him doing, you know, be it snowboarding or windsurfing or kite surfing, I think has helped reinforce his image as someone who's out of touch.
JOHN SOLOMON: A bonus, according to Stevens, was that the footage from Kerry on his windsurfer could be used in an ad illustrating the Bush campaign's mantra that the Democratic nominee is too flexible when taking positions on policy. [TAPE OF WINDSURFER AD PLAYS] [WALTZ MUSIC UNDER]
ANNOUNCER: He claims he's against increasing Medicare premiums, but voted five times to do so. John Kerry -- whichever way the wind blows. [TAPE ENDS]
JOHN SOLOMON: One prominent sports fan hinted that Kerry should stay out of the water, now that he has gained his political footing. [TAPE PLAYS]
DAVID LETTERMAN: How many of you saw the debates? [APPLAUSE] ...And Kerry is now so confident that he's windsurfing again. [LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE] [TAPE ENDS]
JOHN SOLOMON: Sports Illustrated editor Terry McDonell told the New York Times that Kerry is, quote, "a much, much, much, much better athlete" than Bush. The Senator played varsity college soccer, while the President was a high school cheerleader. But maybe the latter experience is more politically helpful. A knowledgeable fan can help a politician seem like a man of the bleachers, according to Democratic pollster Paul Maslin.
PAUL MASLIN: You know, after all, these are millionaires who've spent most of their life in a fairly protected cocoon...they've got to demonstrate to folks that they have some clue as to what we're all about, and a shorthand way to do it is sports.
JOHN SOLOMON: Yet, when it comes to sports shorthand, Kerry has made the kind of verbal fumbles usually the province of his opponent. In an August speech, he combined the names of two of the stars from his hometown Boston Red Sox. JOHN KERRY: I'll tell you, Manny Ortiz and, you know, Manny Ortiz -- David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez--
JOHN SOLOMON: But Massachusetts is a safe blue state. Maslin, who's based in Madison, Wisconsin, says a potentially more dangerous miscue occurred when Kerry confused the legendary home of the Green Bay Packers, Lambeau Field, with Lambert Field, the name of the St. Louis Airport.
PAUL MASLIN: What it does, though, is it sets up an obstacle. It's one of those things that allows someone to joke or laugh or say yeah, did you hear the one about, you know, Kerry and, and then, and because of that, they're not talking about something else, which may be his position on health care or the difference between him and George Bush on Iraq.
JOHN SOLOMON: Because sports is such an accessible subject, stumbles are obvious, moreso than, say, misstating how much money the U.S. has spent in Iraq. Kerry's slipups have even spawned a 527 group -- Football Fans for Truth -- which has catalogued them on its website, providing slam dunks for the jocks populi on normally politics-free sports talk radio. Typical was this interchange between "Jim from Watchung" and host Michael Kay on New York's 1050 ESPN Radio. [START TAPE]
JIM FROM WATCHUNG: ...sits there and acts like he knows, you know, he knows anybody on the Red Sox -- it, it -- I don't want someone like that pretending to be a sports fan as, as our leader of our country.
MICHAEL KAY: Well, the one thing that I feel bad about, okay, John Kerry is probably a brilliant guy, but to portray himself this way, he is undermining his credibility on a stupid issue. [TAPE ENDS]
JOHN SOLOMON: Paul Maslin suggests his party may need to work on their political sports offense.
PAUL MASLIN: Bush is the guy, though, who fell off his bike a couple of times this year. Why didn't that become the symbol of an administration that one can argue is, is lacking a lot in the, in the competence arena? Maybe it's because we Democrats didn't exploit it enough.
JOHN SOLOMON: To Maslin, who was Howard Dean's pollster, Kerry's current errors are striking, given how skillfully the senator used sports, particularly hunting in Iowa and playing hockey in New Hampshire during the primaries. As nominee, Kerry has continued to woo the so-called "gun and rod" vote, which is key in a number of battleground states. Unlike previous Democratic candidates, Kerry is a lifelong hunter. But Bush, thanks largely to his position on gun rights, still holds the advantage, according to Sid Evans, editor of Field & Stream magazine, which features interviews with both men in its current issue.
SID EVANS: When they just see a candidate in the field with a shotgun, I don't think they're convinced by that. I think that they are skeptical of Kerry. I think they're listening to him. I think they probably are giving him a little more credit than they may have given to Al Gore, because at least Kerry is - has made such an effort to get this message out.
JOHN SOLOMON: But this demographic has other policy priorities -- conservation and the environment -- that should play to Kerry's strength. Sid Evans.
SID EVANS: If you have a closet full of guns, and there's nothing but parking lots out there, then that's no good. And if you have plenty of land, and there have been laws passed that take away your guns, then that's no good either.
JOHN SOLOMON: When it comes to sports in this campaign, Paul Maslin says the game is far from over. In fact, it's possible that Kerry will have the chance to bask in the reflected glow of one of his local teams.
PAUL MASLIN: If the Boston Red Sox win the World Series [LAUGHS] for the first time, I would think it might have some positive benefit to the senator from Massachusetts.
JOHN SOLOMON: So, if the Senator from Massachusetts plans to speak at the ticker tape parade, maybe he should start studying the names of the Red Sox roster. For On the Media, this is John Solomon. [THEME MUSIC]
BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show. On the Media was directed by Katya Rogers and produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, and Jamie York, and edited-- by Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director and Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had help from Anne Kosseff. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Arun Rath is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and get free transcripts and MP3 downloads at onthemedia.org and email us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media, from NPR. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. [MUSIC TAG]