Jean Tool died a couple of weeks ago. He was a true gentleman who practiced politics and advertising with civility and great success. It’s sad that he didn’t live to see this hotly contested political season through to its end.
Or maybe not. Perhaps it’s best he is missing these final few weeks of the 2008 presidential race, because this year’s gotcha politics and twisted advertising are not the sort of thing he did.
Tool thrived in a gentler era of politics, when it was possible to disagree with one’s opponents without feeling compelled to hate them.
He was the Republican state chairman who got John Love elected governor in 1962. They were different from today’s Republicans: fiscal conservatives, not social-issue ideologues. And they got along with members of the other party.
In the crowd at Tool’s funeral was at least one liberal Democrat, Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, along with a bunch of Republicans ranging from very conservative to somewhat liberal, at least for a Republican.
Tool was a centrist, as was John Love. And Love certainly didn’t get elected without saying negative things about his opponent. But advertising in those days was low-tech, and not as omnipresent as the stuff that befouls today’s campaigns.
Both sides practice this new politics of character assassination, although the Republicans — especially lately — appear to be more adept at it. The result is that people believe that if their side doesn’t win, the result will be intolerable. The republic will perish.
In these final weeks, McCain supporters have vowed to “finally” tell the “truth” about Obama. Their list of offenses, though, is old stuff. It surfaced during the Democratic presidential primaries and was reported at length.
What this really means is that these old charges will be repeated constantly, frequently and unabashedly in the hope that some of this mud will stick to the wall.
You’d like to think that John McCain, who spoke of running a respectful campaign, is somehow disconnected from these desperate tactics. But that John McCain seems to have gotten lost, or damaged by the mishandling of campaign operatives.
Of course, Obama zealots are not blameless, either. They’ve dredged up old charges about McCain’s connection to the savings and loan scandal — a minor involvement, as it turned out.
Which brings us, of course, to football.
John Love was the governor when my wife and I bought Broncos season tickets almost 40 years ago. Back then, something often would happen that today’s crowds would find hard to believe: Denver fans would applaud as visiting team players were introduced. The applause wasn’t particularly enthusiastic, mostly polite, and I’m not sure it happened when the Oakland Raiders came to town. But there definitely was more applauding than booing.
Now what happens at a football game is like the worst of politics. A true fan does not attribute any good qualities to the other side. Booing is mandatory.
And some players’ behavior is like today’s political advertising. Even when it’s obvious that a receiver has caught the ball, say, or a runner has made a first down, someone on the opposing team will signal emphatically that it was incomplete, or that the run was short.
As in political advertising, it’s as though being insistent and exaggerated about what you know to be untrue will win the argument. Maybe the referee, or in the case of TV ads the people who vote, will believe you if you’re noisy and showy enough.
Or maybe not. One can always hope that Tool-style statesmanship and sportsmanship will defy the odds and return, in politics and in football. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News. His column appears twice a month.
