Is it Election Time, Yet?

You may remember the infamous "Willie Horton" political ad which ran during the 1988 Bush-Dukakis presidential race. In 1974, Horton stabbed and killed a man in Massachusetts and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and was released on some absurd weekend program that allowed inmates to leave. Instead of returning to prison, Horton raped a woman in Maryland in 1987 and was thrown back in jail. Bush used the case to portray Dukakis as being weak on crime. While African American leaders felt the ad linked crime, murder, and rape to being black, I think that the ad actually does a good job of linking those traits to being a Democrat.

Of course, you know the rest of the story. Bush won, which helped blaze a path for his son G.W. to win 2 consecutive elections on way to becoming "The Worst President Ever."TM

The ad sparked racial controversy at the time but in looking at it again, it doesn't look any worse than some of the recent political ads I've seen. Honestly, is the Willie Horton ad any worse than the recent ad ad about Harold Ford, Jr. (D-Tenn), who's made to look like a terrorist-loving, porn addicted, womanizer of white women? It's jaw droppingly bad:



"Dear 8 lb, 6 oz. Baby Jesus ... please don't allow the Democrats to fuck the midterm election up this year. Amen."