Last night BBC4 screened a fascinating documentary called DIRTY TRICKS: THE MAN WHO GOT THE BUSHES ELECTED. That man was Harvey Leroy 'Lee' Atwater, who managed George H.W. Bush's campaign to get elected President in 1988.
Atwater became close friends with a fresh-faced George W Bush, and mentored Karl Rove, who consulted on Bush Jnr's campaign over a decade later.
This was a beautifully produced documentary, splicing archive news footage, campaign ads, an array of informative talking heads (including the unsuccessful Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, now shuffling around his kitchen) and amazing footage of Atwater rocking out with various blues bands. Atwater would frequently play church basements and blues clubs at the height of his political power, often with none other than B.B. King.
But this Southern bluesman was a ruthless campaigner who introduced modern techniques of negative campaigning and spreading falsehoods to the media to bring down his opponents. He used fear and prejudice as weapons, especially in the case of Willie Horton, a black prisoner who committed a rape while on a weekend leave from prison, a programme which Dukakis supported. In Horton's case, Atwater encouraged and funded independent sources to run campaign ads about him, preying on the fears of the racist South. He was called the Darth Vader of the Republican Party and rose to become the chairman of the Republican National Congress.
His life would end tragically when he suffered a brain tumour in his early forties, when he reputedly attoned for his sins.
But with his cold, blue eyes, his Southern drawl and huge charisma he casts a shadow over today's Presidential campaign. And with advisors to McCain and Palin who have worked with Atwater and Rove, anything is possible...
