[icon color=»Accent-Color» size=»regular» image=»steadysets-icon-chat»] Contexto
Spot de la Campaña de Michael Dukakis durante las elecciones presidenciales de 1988. El slogan de campaña era «The Best America Is Yet to Come» o “La Mejor América esta todavía por venir” Culminaba el mandato de Ronald Reagan, el primer presidente en ser reelecto desde Eisenhower, el optimismo era el estado anímico del elector del momento. Sin embargo, su administración, más allá del patriotismo rejuvenecido, dejaba un déficit fiscal inmenso y escándalos como el de Iran-Contras o el derrumbe de la bolsa en 1987. Bush, el Republicano, se vendía como el sucesor natural que consolidaría la revolucion de Reagan. Dukakis, el Demócrata, ofrecía fortalecimiento del sistema de salud, el cuidado de los niños, el mejoramiento de la educación y planes de vivienda para las personas más necesitadas. La campaña de Bush utilizó la televisión para mostrar la imagen de un Dukakis liberal e ineficaz, que volvería vulnerable al país debilitando los sistemas de defensa y liberando peligrosos criminales por tecnicismos. Dukakis no contesto los ataques pensando que el electorado se daría cuenta de la injusticia de estos, y solo al final de la campaña respondió, lamentablemente era muy tarde. Dukakis no encontró el mensaje apropiado para debilitar a su adversario y posicionar su aspiración como una opción ganadora. La campaña demócrata se mostraba desorganizada. Los estrategas iban y venían al vaivén de las encuestas. Se produjo un spot titulado “Loco” con el fin de criticar a Dan Quayle, la formula de Bush, y mostrar así la incertidumbre que representaba, sin embargo, lo hicieron de forma tan superficial que los spot empezaron a favorecer a Bush. Al final Dukakis perdió la iniciativa en los mensajes y se volvió netamente reactivo, sus spot televisivos lo único que hacían era defenderse de los ataques republicanos. Eso hizo que perdieran importantes oportunidades como las de mostrar los vínculos de Bush con Noriega el dictador panameño. Sus estrategas no entendieron los potenciales de Dukakis, un emigrante, como tanto, que encarnaba el sueño americano. No era de las elites, era un luchador. Ahí había mucho material para trabajar, pero no lo hicieron. El spot que vemos tiene el siguiente guión en su versión original en ingles: TEXTO EN PANTALLA: A Message From Michael Dukakis. DUKAKIS: My fellow Americans, a year and a half ago I entered this campaign as an underdog. Tonight I enter the final days of that long journey still an underdog. And some of you don’t know much more about me than a name and a set of labels. Part of the fault may rest with our own effort. But I think it is also fair to say that the other side has pursued a campaign of distortion and distraction. Of fear and of smear. Are you satisfied with what you are hearing this year? Do you think this is the way to pick the president of the United States and the leader of the free world? Presidential campaigns should inform, not misinform. In their t.v. ads, the Republicans have criticized the pollution of Boston Harbor. We’re already cleaning up Boston Harbor. But what they don’t tell you us that it was their administration that cut off funds to clean it up, and that Mr. Bush supported the veto of the Clean Water Act, not once, but twice. In their t.v. ads, the Republicans accuse me of being soft on criminals. That’s a lie. My family has been touched by violence. At the age of seventy-seven my father was gagged and beaten and robbed. My brother was killed by a hit and run driver. The pain that my family felt was indescribable. And it’s not easy for me to talk about it. But I’ve led the fight against crime and drugs in my own state and I intend to do so as president so that other families will not have to live through that kind of pain. It isn’t easy for the truth to catch up with the lies, and to clear up the fog of deception that has been spread across the campaign. But I’m determined to fight this fight. Because the question before us is the strength and the character of our country. I’m not content to see America stand still, because all around us the world is moving. And the years ahead will decide whether we as a people move ahead or fall behind. I see an America that once again exports its products and not its jobs. Mr. Bush has said our trade relationship with Japan is superb, and it is. For Japan. It’s time for a president who will stand up and fight for American jobs and American workers. I see an America that is the master of its own house, not a country selling off its land and its assets piece by piece to foreign interests. Mr. Bush does not object to the wave of merger and of speculation that has put our companies and our country itself on the auction block. I see an America that is first in education, not one where our students rank fifteenth among industrial nations in science and math. And I see an America that truly does live up to the pledge of liberty and of justice for all. I believe this country has a conscience. I believe its a national disgrace that thirty seven million Americans, most of them in working families, have no health insurance, that when they hear a sick child cry in the night, they have to worry as much about the size of the bill as they do about the seriousness of the disease. All this and more is at stake in 1988. Beneath the rhetoric and the irrelevancy, there are fundamental differences and a single, central question. On the things that matter most to you. Who do you trust to be on your side? We know where Mr. Bush stands. He wants to cut taxes by thirty thousand dollars a year for the wealthiest one percent of this nation. He’s on their side. I want to see us teach our children, and house our homeless, and care for our elderly and ask once again what we can do for our country, and not just ourselves. There’s been a lot of talk in this campaign about how likable the candidates are. But I don’t believe America is ready to settle for indifference and complacency with a shrug and a smile. I may not wear my heart on my sleeve, but I hope that tonight you have some sense of what is in my heart. And in the remaining days of this campaign, I intend to fight my heart out for the things that I believe in. Hear our case, and join our cause. Stand with me and the belief that the best America is not behind us. The best America is yet to come. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: Dukakis/Bentsen. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: On your side.