A Little Truthiness

This picture of Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Iowa was on the New York Times' website today. It's a wonderful visual deception.

I'm not talking about Romney's statuesque hair, which can withstand weather better than Gore-Tex. I actually want to draw your attention to the handmade signs behind him: "Mitt 2008," "Iowa [heart]'s Mitt," "Ann for 1st Lady," and the like.

It's time to let out a little political secret. This is a democracy after all, and democracies are based on people being informed. Well, I'm informing you that those signs are bullshit.

Trust me when I say that eager, everyday Iowans who think the Mormon from Mass is the second coming of Ronald Reagan did NOT make those signs. I would even be so brave as to say that Joe and Jane Q. Public had virtually nothing to do with any part of those signs before holding them at that rally.

The campaign made them. Likely it was a volunteer who had a way with markers or a low-level young staffer whose handiwork got a quick nod from a higher-up in charge of the event where they would be used.

Politics isn't a baseball game. People don't come to campaign rallies with handmade signs designed to get them noticed on C-SPAN. (Clinton Sees Plenty Ahead for our Nation!) Like as many parts of a campaign as possible, the signs are scripted and created by the campaign and distributed at the rally to eager volunteers.

I'm not implying that there is some grand sign scheme. Just that campaigns try to control as many things as possible, among them what's written on signs at their rallies and events. So while your four-year-old's rendering of Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris might be cute, the Huck people will make you chuck them if you want to come to the party.

In 2000, I volunteered at Al Gore's last rally in Pennsylvania. Held outdoors in beautiful Fairmount Park, there were a little less than 2000 people held neatly behind barriers. These partisans were itching for a chance to cheer, but they were told (partly for security reasons) to bring nothing with them.

My job was simple -- to give them signs. And since "Al -- U Put My Heart in a Lockbox!" was verboten, I had a massive stack of preprinted, snazzy "Gore-Lieberman" signs to hand out. With my friend Erin accompanying me handing out pom-poms, I took the signs and headed down the "chute," as they called walkway through the crowd that Gore would later use for his entrance.

The crowd, which really hadn't had anything to do for a while, took my appearance as a sign of things happening and erupted in raucous cheering. I turned flush in the chill autumn air, reveling in the weirdness of having a big crowd shower you with adulation, even if they had not earthly idea who you were.

While that moment of glory shows you how eagerly campaigns control the "visuals" at their events, I was handing out signs that were very obviously created by the campaign, since they all had that familiar moon-to-a-star logo on them.

But literally campaigns break out the Crayola and make some handmade ones, too.

Last year I was in New Jersey helping the state Democratic campaign, most of which was focused on getting Bob Menendez to beat out Tom Kean, Jr. (not to be confused with his father) in the race for Senate.

We had arranged for Barack Obama, the closest thing to a rock star in politics, to come to a rally in support of Menendez and the other slate of Democratic candidates, which happened to include the two congressmen I've worked for (Rush Holt and Frank Pallone, Jr.)

Before the rally, we fueled up on Dunkin' Donuts (greatest breakfast ever) and got to work with some white posterboard and a party full of markers. We were making a lot of directional signs but also rally signs. I was quickly taken off the job because of my poor artistic skills and made to serve penance by standing on the side of the road waving people into the parking lot.

These are but two examples from my experience. I've seen it plenty more times. Take it from me, reader -- those signs aren't what you think they are. It's all part of the show.

Oh, and for the record, during campaign season when you see political letters to the editor (usually adulatory ones), those are also not from Mollie Happy Citizen, as they would have you think. Campaigns write letters to the editor, then find willing supporters ready to send them in to newspapers. As long as they're not sent in under the name of a campaign staffer, they paper doesn't have a good leg to stand on for denying them. But it's more theater, I assure you.

Gordo out.