Birth Control Pills – A Lot of Times You’re Your Own Worst Enemy
Three weeks before the election, driving to work, an ad came on the radio and I heard a woman’s voice say, Did you know Jesse Helms opposes abortion – even if a woman is raped – even in cases of incest? I thought, Oh, my God – because Hunt had just given about every woman in
An hour later Tom Ellis rolled through the door of my office and the first words out of his mouth were, Get Earl in here and get Arthur and Bob on the phone – he’d heard Hunt’s ad too and meant to have an answer on the air by sundown but the hard truth was answering Hunt’s ad meant taking one of our ads (about Hunt’s flip-flops) off the air – so I said, I don’t think anyone’s going to believe Jesse’s against the birth control pill.
After an hour of arguing Mr. Ellis grudgingly agreed – four days later we got a poll back and the first words out of Arthur’s mouth were, There’s something odd happening with women under 40. Women under 40 didn’t have to know for a fact Jesse opposed the birth control pill – all they had to do was hear a rumor he might and they weren’t taking any chances. With young women Jesse dropped like a stone.
Earl wrote a script and Mr. Ellis took it over to Jesse’s house and showed it to Dot Helms and a day later Mrs. Helms was on TV waving a tape of Hunt’s radio ad saying it was an out and out falsehood that Jesse opposed the birth control pill – which I reckon Dot Helms never dreamed she’d be saying on TV. But who better to testify to where a fellow stands on the pill than his wife.
A year later, after the election,
After the seminar a lady sent me a copy of the Harvard report: It said in October Hunt hired Dick Morris – Bill Clinton’s advisor – to take a poll to figure out how to beat Jesse and Dick came to Raleigh, sat down in the Governor’s Mansion with Hunt and Mrs. Hunt and about 20 Hunt campaign leaders and said, Look, you’ve been telling folks Jesse’s a right-wing nut but everyone already knows that – it doesn’t move votes, then someone said, Alright – so what does move votes? and Dick said: Abortion – tell voters where Jesse stands on abortion. They don’t know that.
As soon as the words were out of Dick’s mouth the Hunt folks went to having a battle royal, half saying that was a great idea and half saying it would blow up in their faces just like the dead bodies ad had, and, in the end, they did just about the worst thing they could have: They compromised and stuck their toe in the water with a radio ad then saw Dot Helms’ TV ad and pulled their toe back out of the water and whipped their ad off the air and Hunt went back to calling Jesse a right-wing nut – which everyone already knew.
Which goes to show in politics, a lot of times, you’re your own worst enemy.
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Birth Control Pills – A Lot of Times You’re Your Own Worst Enemy
Three weeks before the election, driving to work, an ad came on the radio and I heard a woman’s voice say, Did you know Jesse Helms opposes abortion – even if a woman is raped – even in cases of incest? I thought, Oh, my God – because Hunt had just given about every woman in
An hour later Tom Ellis rolled through the door of my office and the first words out of his mouth were, Get Earl in here and get Arthur and Bob on the phone – he’d heard Hunt’s ad too and meant to have an answer on the air by sundown but the hard truth was answering Hunt’s ad meant taking one of our ads (about Hunt’s flip-flops) off the air – so I said, I don’t think anyone’s going to believe Jesse’s against the birth control pill.
After an hour of arguing Mr. Ellis grudgingly agreed – four days later we got a poll back and the first words out of Arthur’s mouth were, There’s something odd happening with women under 40. Women under 40 didn’t have to know for a fact Jesse opposed the birth control pill – all they had to do was hear a rumor he might and they weren’t taking any chances. With young women Jesse dropped like a stone.
Earl wrote a script and Mr. Ellis took it over to Jesse’s house and showed it to Dot Helms and a day later Mrs. Helms was on TV waving a tape of Hunt’s radio ad saying it was an out and out falsehood that Jesse opposed the birth control pill – which I reckon Dot Helms never dreamed she’d be saying on TV. But who better to testify to where a fellow stands on the pill than his wife.
A year later, after the election,
After the seminar a lady sent me a copy of the Harvard report: It said in October Hunt hired Dick Morris – Bill Clinton’s advisor – to take a poll to figure out how to beat Jesse and Dick came to Raleigh, sat down in the Governor’s Mansion with Hunt and Mrs. Hunt and about 20 Hunt campaign leaders and said, Look, you’ve been telling folks Jesse’s a right-wing nut but everyone already knows that – it doesn’t move votes, then someone said, Alright – so what does move votes? and Dick said: Abortion – tell voters where Jesse stands on abortion. They don’t know that.
As soon as the words were out of Dick’s mouth the Hunt folks went to having a battle royal, half saying that was a great idea and half saying it would blow up in their faces just like the dead bodies ad had, and, in the end, they did just about the worst thing they could have: They compromised and stuck their toe in the water with a radio ad then saw Dot Helms’ TV ad and pulled their toe back out of the water and whipped their ad off the air and Hunt went back to calling Jesse a right-wing nut – which everyone already knew.
Which goes to show in politics, a lot of times, you’re your own worst enemy.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.