# Why didn't John Kerry run Simpsons clips in his campaign? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 31, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450 "2005-08-31T17:09:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/1 "2005-08-31T17:09:08Z")
With no exaggeration, the episode where Sideshow Bob is elected mayor (Season 6 - Sideshow Bob Roberts) seems eerily prescient in how Bush ran his campaign. They even had Sideshow Bob accusing his opponent of being a flip-flopper! Why weren’t things like this used to show how the Republican party were running a textbook smear campaign the likes of which were being made fun of in 1994? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/2 "2005-08-31T17:16:44Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > With no exaggeration, the episode where Sideshow Bob is elected mayor (Season 6 - Sideshow Bob Roberts) seems eerily prescient in how Bush ran his campaign. > > They even had Sideshow Bob accusing his opponent of being a flip-flopper! Why weren’t things like this used to show how the Republican party were running a textbook smear campaign the likes of which were being made fun of in 1994? Um…is it really a ‘smear campaign’ to call a flip-flopper a ‘flip-flopper?’ ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/3 "2005-08-31T17:18:09Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Um…is it really a ‘smear campaign’ to call a flip-flopper a ‘flip-flopper?’ It is when the Simpsons make fun of your party using it in campaigns 10 years before you do. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/4 "2005-08-31T17:20:08Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > It is when the Simpsons make fun of your party using it in campaigns 10 years before you do. [Burns]Hail, brothers. Coranon Silaria, Ozoo Mahoke.[/Burns] ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/5 "2005-08-31T17:21:12Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > It is when the Simpsons make fun of your party using it in campaigns 10 years before you do. No offense, but this ‘response’ makes no sense at all. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/6 "2005-08-31T17:21:59Z")
Why did **Silentgoldfish’s** quote show up in my post? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/7 "2005-08-31T17:23:43Z")
Perhaps because the Simpsons people wouldn’t have wanted their work to be used in a partisan political ad. But it would have been a stupid ad, anyway. The headlines would be all about Kerry calling Bush some kind of freaky-haired clown sort of guy. And it would also confirm that Kerry was one of those hoity-toity blueblood intellectuals who laugh at the smarmy inside humor of the Simpsons, as opposed to Bush, who likes pickup trucks. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/8 "2005-08-31T17:27:01Z")
Um, you mean “The Simpsons” is too \*intellectual \* for Bush’s electoral base? A more interesting question would be how Groening et al. know what to satirize _before it even happens_. Do they have a reverse Wayback Machine or something? And if not, who’s satirizing whom? ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/9 "2005-08-31T17:30:30Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > No offense, but this ‘response’ makes no sense at all. The Simpsons writers were poking fun at Republican campaigns being run on calling your opponent a “flip-flopper” and running with it. Which is exactly what the Bush re-election campaign did. Kerry may have been a lot of things but they focused on the one thing that a cartoon TV show made fun of them focusing on 10 years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/10 "2005-08-31T17:35:51Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > The Simpsons writers were poking fun at Republican campaigns being run on calling your opponent a “flip-flopper” and running with it. > > Which is exactly what the Bush re-election campaign did. > > Kerry may have been a lot of things but they focused on the one thing that a cartoon TV show made fun of them focusing on 10 years earlier. The GOP focused on Kerry’s flip-flopping because it was/is the defining characteristic of his political career. Perhaps the _Simpsons_ writers were more clever than you’re giving them credit for. Maybe they used a ‘flip-flopping liberal’ because they knew even then that most on the left can switch back and forth on any given issue at the drop of a hat. Maybe they were thinking about Al Gore bragging about growing tobacco while campaigning in North Carolina, then turning around and calling it ‘evil’ in 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/11 "2005-08-31T17:36:04Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > Why did **Silentgoldfish’s** quote show up in my post? 😕 A wizard did it. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/12 "2005-08-31T17:44:23Z")
Let’s remember that John Kerry hapless campaign had enough problems. I don’t think even perennial Democratic loser Bob Shrum would’ve OK’d a political ad depicting Homer Simpson throwing his support behind his candidate. Mind you, _I_ would’ve given serious weight to Homer’s words…but I think the majority of Americans would’ve laughed John Kerry off the stage. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/13 "2005-08-31T17:44:53Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Um…is it really a ‘smear campaign’ to call a flip-flopper a ‘flip-flopper?’ Depends. If it’s a republican, it’s a smear. If it’s a democrat, it’s the god honest truth. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/14 "2005-08-31T17:53:59Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Depends. If it’s a republican, it’s a smear. If it’s a democrat, it’s the god honest truth. Could we drop this before it become all about which side is better and say I made a poor choice of words? I’m more curious about why Kerry’s campaign didn’t have some sort of planned response for “flip-flopper” since, again, it seems to have been a common political attack for years. And likening Bush to Sideshow Bob probably wouldn’t have hurt them :). ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/15 "2005-08-31T17:55:56Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > Could we drop this before it become all about which side is better and say I made a poor choice of words? > > I’m more curious about why Kerry’s campaign didn’t have some sort of planned response for “flip-flopper” since, again, it seems to have been a common political attack for years. And likening Bush to Sideshow Bob probably wouldn’t have hurt them :). It’s hard to defend your candidate from the ‘flip-flop’ label when he actually says, “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” Man, that’s tough to recover from. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/16 "2005-08-31T18:09:58Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > It’s hard to defend your candidate from the ‘flip-flop’ label when he actually says, “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” > > Man, that’s tough to recover from. Yeah, darn Democrats, changing their minds when better information becomes available! Better by far to stick to your guns even if those guns are nonexistent and totally wrong… ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/17 "2005-08-31T18:18:22Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > It’s hard to defend your candidate from the ‘flip-flop’ label when he actually says, “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” > > Man, that’s tough to recover from. Are you simply pretending not to understand Kerry’s statement, or do you believe that he actually changed his position on the $87 billion? Not that it matters, really, but I’m wondering where you are coming from on this. I agree with **Silentgoldfish**. The real question is how any professional campaign strategist could be so unprepared for the long-established nasty, dirty and just plain stupid tricks of the Republicans, particularly Rove and Bush. I’m not sure “Sideshow Bush” wouldn’t have been a bad way to frame things. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/18 "2005-08-31T18:25:02Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > It’s hard to defend your candidate from the ‘flip-flop’ label when he actually says, “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” > > Man, that’s tough to recover from. The guy wasn’t my candidate, but it’s very easy to defend him. Kerry voted for an amendment to the bill that was to appropriate the $87 billion; he, along with other senators, wanted to roll back the tax break for people making $400,000/year so the entire $87 billion wouldn’t be added to the national deficit. However, the GOP, being the party of fiscal responsibility that it is, managed to get the bill passed (promoted, submitted, whatever the technical term is) without the amendment in place, so Kerry voted against it. Saying “I actually did vote for the 87 billion before I voted against it.” was a mistake because it gave people with no scruples a chance to use the statement out of context to fool people who don’t really pay attention, but Kerry did not change his mind on the bill. The bill is what changed, not his mind. Piece of cake. The only reason it’s tough to recover from is because the critics aren’t interested in the matter. They take the talking point and run with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/19 "2005-08-31T18:33:49Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Um, you mean “The Simpsons” is too \*intellectual \* for Bush’s electoral base? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m willing to say it’s too la-dee-da for most of the Democratic voting base, too. It’s not like the Simpsons is a very highly rated TV show anymore, if you haven’t noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Unity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9a140/32.png) [@Unity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unity)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450/20 "2005-08-31T18:46:12Z")
The comparison between Bush and Sideshow Bob would also be a tad unwise as apart from his criminal behaviour Bob is in many respects one of the most cultured and intellectual characters on the Simpsons whereas Bush is _diplomatic mode_ often argued to display less of these characteristics._close diplomatic mode_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-john-kerry-run-simpsons-clips-in-his-campaign/319450.md?page=2)