Susan Rice started an alternate endowment fund that Stanford could claim if they divested within 10 years. (28 min)
David Axelrod: James Baker (Episode 176)
Worked for Gerry Ford, ran 2 Campaigns against Reagan
Treasury Secretary under Reagan (tax reform)
Chief of Staff for Reagan
Dissolution of Soviet Union under Bush
Campaign operative for George W. Bush, etc
Slogan: Don’t start any fights you can’t win.
Florida Recount
It was a political event with legal elements
The Willy Horton Ad:
I told them to stop running it (after several weeks)
I don’t know if it was Identity politics.Scapegoating
After Reagan did poorly, people were looking for a whipping boy and they wanted to fire __________.
After the Soviet Union, don’t know why the relation soured, but maybe it was good local politics to blame the US.
David Axelrod Interviews Jeff Roe (Episode 177)
(29:50 min)
Running negative ads that have enough of a kernel that you can keep a straight face, though others might say you were taking liberties
Ran ads arguing that an opponent sold ads for Penthouse (a scientific journal owned by Omni magazine, which owned Penthouse).
I “own” my ads. Every candidate signs off on the ads.
Defense: It was a very tough year, you can’t let opponent “hang around” after Labor day.
Implied that an opponent was drunk when accident occurred (knew had a few DUIs, but not necessarily then).
Are there any boundaries? Have you ever written a script that goes too far?
The voters set the limit. You can’t run ads that don’t work, that are not believable. Candidate have a brand. You can’t run ads contrary to their brand.
An opponent committed suicide.
Rush Limbaugh is my hero (42 min)
I would be to the right side of the Freedom Caucus.
Litmus Test: abortion, guns
Republican Base
- very conservatives: 20-50%
- somewhat conservative: 25%
- establishment: 25%
- 80% approval rating
- 1/3 of the party would leave with Trump
David Axelrod Interviews Jason Kander (Episode 178)
Narrowly lost election to the Senate after being targeted by the NRA. Put out video response, in which he assembled a gun blindfolded while talking about why he supports background checks