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Here are the worst slogans in the history of US political campaigning
Here are the worst slogans in the history of US political campaigning
Tom Porter,Tom PorterJan 7, 2020, 18:17 IST
Brian Blanco/Getty ImagesRepublican presidential candidate and former Florida governor Jeb Bush speaks to supporters during a rally on his "Jeb Can Fix It" Tour on November 2, 2015 at the Tampa Garden Club in Tampa, Florida.
Winning US political campaigns are often remembered for their catchy slogans, but less well remembered are the campaigns where slogans weren't so much widely admired as widely mocked.
From Jeb Bush and Christine O'Donnell in recent years to Franklin Polk and Grover Cleveland back in the 19th century - terrible political sloganeering has a long history in the US.
If you want to be President of the United States, you'd better have a strong campaign slogan.
Candidates and their teams will take pains to come up with a slogan that encapsulates the key message of their campaign in a pithy phrase. Think President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" or Barack Obama's "Yes We Can."
The key thing is to avoid being boring.
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But sometimes campaigns land on a slogan that is memorable for all the wrong reasons - based on appalling puns, and inadvertent double meanings.
Check out a handful of the worst slogans in US political history below:
Republican candidate Barry Goldwater was well-known for his hardline small government anti-communist rhetoric, and in his acceptance speech for the 1964 GOP presidential nomination defended his "extremism."
But the response of his Democrat opponent, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was devastating.
"In your guts, you know he's nuts," ran the Democratic reply in campaign ads and posters.
Johnson won by a landslide, taking 61% of the popular vote to Goldwater's 38%. Goldwater won in just six states.
"I'm not a witch, I'm you"
In what may be one of the weirdest campaign videos of all time, Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell in 2010 was forced hit back at the revelation that she once practiced witchcraft.
O'Donnell had admitted dabbling in witchcraft while a college student in an interview that emerged and went viral after she became the GOP's surprise nominee for a Senate seat in Delaware.
O'Donnell attempted to damp down the controversy and reassure voters wary of witchcraft in a video — crafting a slogan to ram home the message.
"I'm not a witch, I'm you," O'Donnell told voters.
However it wasn't enough to save her ailing campaign, and she lost to Democrat Chris Coons.
When heir presumptive to the Bush presidential dynasty Jeb Bush announced his candidacy for the White House in 2015, some thought his nomination would be a shoo-in.
But his campaign floundered after a series of wooden debate performances, and in a bid to give it a much needed reboot his campaign team settled on the "Jeb can fix it" slogan.
Voters though weren't convinced, with some mocking the slogan as sounding more like an ad for a plumbing firm than a winning presidential campaign slogan.
"We Polked you in '44, we shall Pierce you in '52"
Franklin Pierce ran on this slogan in 1852 as he sought to portray himself as the natural successor to popular Democratic incumbent James K. Polk.
The clumsy slogan has more the feel of a vague threat than encapsulating an inspiring vision.
But it was enough to propel the relatively unknown Pierce to a surprise victory over Whig challenger General Winfield Scott — a famed veteran of several military campaigns.
Republican Alf Landon was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's opponent in the 1936 presidential election, and he tempted fate with this wince inducing pun.
In the end the election was a landslide, just not the one the GOP candidate had hoped for.
Roosevelt cruised to the biggest presidential victory in more than a century, with Landon only winning eight electoral college votes to Roosevelt's 523.
"Blaine, Blaine, James G Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine"
Mired in scandal after admitting fathering a child in an extramarital affair, Democrat Grover Cleveland was mocked with chants of "ma, ma, where's my pa?" by supporters of his opponents, James G Blaine.
