[icon color=»Accent-Color» size=»regular» image=»steadysets-icon-chat»] Contexto
Spot de la Campaña de George Bush durante las elecciones presidenciales de 1988. 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. El slogan de campaña era «Experienced Leadership for America’s Future», es decir, “Experimentado Liderazgo para la América del Futuro”. La estrategia de Bush convino bien los mensajes negativos que desprestigiaban a Dukakis y los mensajes positivos que se sincronizaban con el optimismo del final de la era Reagan. En los primeros se ubica el caso del afroamericano Willie Horton que asesinó y violó a una mujer blanca en una salida que le permitió la legislación de Massachusett, de donde era gobernado Dukakis. El caso le hizo daño al prestigio del demócrata. En el mismo sentido esta el anuncio, legendario en publicidad negativa, en donde aparece Dukakis manejando un tanque en actitud burlesca para graficar en la percepción del votante lo ridículo que seria tenerlo como comandante en jefe. En cuanto a los mensajes positivos están piezas como la titulada “Futuro” en donde se recoge el legado de Reagan y se asume la continuidad del impulso de la emblemática administración. El spot que vemos tiene el siguiente guión en su versión original en ingles: DUKAKIS: Mr. Chairman… NARRADOR: From unknown governor to candidate for president. How much do we really know about Mike Dukakis? According to his commercials, Governor Dukakis… NARRADOR DESDE DUKAKIS AD: Cut taxes, and turned the state around. NARRADOR: But newspapers there report a different story: of crime, environmental problems, liberal spending out of control. Michael Dukakis. Out of touch with our values and problems. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: THE ECONOMY. NARRADOR: Fact: though Congress has increased federal spending at an alarming rate, Michael Dukakis has increased state spending in Massachusetts twice as fast. «…Dukakis has presided over the steepest rate of growth of any state budget,» the Boston Herald said. John Collins, former Democratic mayor of Boston. COLLINS: He has not been a good Governor. He’s been a good spender. NARRADOR: Since July, Dukakis has taken out over six hundred million dollars in loans to meet daily payroll and expenses. Michael Dukakis has doubled his state’s general obligation debt. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: DICK MURRAY, WESTEN, MASS. DICK MURRAY: We’re borrowing money now to meet weekly and monthly expenses. And that’s how he’s balanced – so-called balanced – his budget. NARRADOR: Dukakis has even raided his state’s pension fund for 27 million dollars. But even that wasn’t enough. Last year, out-of-control spending finally caught up with Mike Dukakis. The Boston Herald reported Massachusetts was a state in crisis, facing a $400 million deficit. Dukakis’s reaction? He raised taxes for the seventh time. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: Dukakis tax proposal to raise $74 million. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: PAT CARTER, SOUTH BOSTON. CARTER: Dukakis raised everybody’s taxes, not just mine. They call it Taxachusetts now. If Dukakis gets in, we’d better have a contest to name the United States something. NARRADOR: Dukakis’s policies have driven manufacturing jobs from Massachusetts. In the last four years, over 90,000 manufacturing jobs have left his state. MURRAY: Mike Dukakis is going to leave the biggest financial mess this state has ever seen. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: THE HARBOR. NARRADOR: Another Massachusetts mess is Boston harbor. A once-proud waterway and recreation site where Boston dumped sewage. While other states spent federal money to clean up their waterways, Dukakis ignored pleas to clean up Boston Harbor. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: FRANK McCAULEY, MAYOR, QUINCY, MASS. McCAULEY: We found the only way we could get Governor Dukakis and the state to clean up Boston Harbor was to drag him into court and make him do it. NARRADOR: Today, Boston continues to dump sewage into its harbor. And even Massachusetts’s own water authority calls it the dirtiest harbor in America. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: «DIRTIEST HARBOR IN AMERICA.» TEXTO EN PANTALLA: CRIME. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: MAUREEN DONOVAN, METHEUN, MASS. DONOVAN: I think I live in kind of a safe neighborhood, and yet, two blocks from my house a first-degree murderer was stopped at five thirty in the morning, and nobody knew he was out. That’s scary. NARRADOR: Only one sitting governor in America supported furloughs for killers sentenced to life without parole: Michael Dukakis. And even after a furlough escapee terrorized a Maryland couple, Michael Dukakis defended his furlough program, though victims’ families and concerned citizens had gathered over 50,000 petition signatures demanding an end to these furloughs. DONOVAN: We went in and tried to meet with the Governor. He ignored us. We had to picket, we had to do everything. NARRADOR Y TEXTO EN PANTALLA: «I don’t see any particular value in meeting with people,» Dukakis told the Boston Herald. «I’m satisfied we have the kind of furlough policy we should have.» NARRADOR: But finally, under unprecedented public pressure, Dukakis reluctantly ended the program. Out of touch with our values. Outside the mainstream. Michael Dukakis. His commercials say… NARRADOR DESDE DUKAKIS AD: Mike Dukakis. What he did for Massachusetts, he can do for America. TEXTO EN PANTALLA: America can’t afford that risk.