Unlike the three previous election years, 2004 was different in the focus of the main political parties was on foreign affairs. 2004 pitted the incumbent president George W. Bush against the Senator John Kelly. I thought the commercials for this election year focused on the strengths and convictions of the respective candidates. This was very commendable because the ads sold the best sides of the candidates to the populace. In a way the candidates did not fight fair during the election. For instance, when he was not selling himself as a capable commander-in-chief, he was portraying his opponent as an inept candidate and in favor of budget cuts in military spending and frivolously high taxes.
The incumbents also described the Democrats as angry and in one of the ads likened them to Adolf Hitler. Besides these incidences, the candidates used good tactics to persuade the voters. More precisely, Senator John Kelly used positive ads that depicted his understanding of domestic issues (Deskins, Hanes & Sherman 536). If I were eligible to vote then, the ads would have persuaded me to vote for the incumbent George W. Bush. This is because the election year was against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks on the United States. I would want a president with a clear stand in this matter, and who promised to retaliate in order to ward off further attacks (Oates, Lynda & Mike 23).
The ads by George W. Bush promised action against terror and also sold him as a capable leader in such trying times. The election was won by George W. Bush. In my opinion, his ads touched on the needs of the people at the time. Although domestic issues were still important, the threat of terrorism weighed on the minds of the populace, hence the win for George W. Bush
Works cited
Deskins, Donald R, Hanes Walton, and Sherman C. Puckett. Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010. Print.
Museum of the Moving Image (2012). Available at> http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/
Oates, Sarah, Lynda L. Kaid, and Mike Berry. Terrorism, Elections, and Democracy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
