Candidates focus on being just plain folks
NEW YORK -- Roland Martin has reeled in a big one for his weekly fishing show on the Outdoor Life Network.
Baiting a hook beside him recently on a dock in Crawford, Texas, was President George W. Bush, whose afternoon casting for bass was chronicled for "Fishing With Roland Martin" in an episode that first aired on Friday. (It airs again on Wednesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m.)
If you're wondering what the leader of the free world is doing fishing on an obscure cable TV show, you don't know politics. In a tight campaign, candidates seek any edge they can get, and find it all over the TV dial.
Both Bush and his Democratic opponent, John F. Kerry, want to seem like regular guys so voters can relate to them, said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant who ran Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996.
"The number of folks that fish is off the chart," Reed said. "It reminds you that he's a normal guy who spends his leisure time doing the things that we do."
Undecided voters are more likely to be spending Sunday mornings on their boats than in front of "Meet the Press," he said.
That's why Reed got Dole to go to NASCAR races during the 1996 campaign, although it's one of the last places you might expect to see the former Senate GOP leader.
"People are voting for the person, more so than any other political office," said Chris Lehane, a Democrat who was press secretary to Vice President Al Gore. "It comes down to a comfort level with the person you're going to choose. They're going to have to live with them for the next four years."
Bush also recently gave an interview to ESPN, and the sports network is repeatedly using presidential sound bites for its series about the top moments in sports over the past 25 years.
Not to be outdone, Kerry showed up to throw out the first ball in Fenway Park at a Yankees-Red Sox game that was being televised nationally by ESPN.
Martin had met Bush and had fished once with his father. A mutual friend suggested the president might want to fish with Martin; an invitation resulted. Bush brought Martin to the pond he had stocked with bass at the ranch in Crawford. Bush's Scottish terrier, Barney, tagged along for the boat ride.
The two never talked politics.
"He was just an old fishing buddy, and that's the way we portrayed him," Martin said. "What we wanted to show was that this president was a fisherman."
That's another advantage of these appearances. People at the network graced with a president's presence are usually so star-struck or grateful he's there that there's nothing approaching a tough question.
A New York Daily News sports columnist, Bob Raissman, used one of his favorite terms, "Twinkie munch," to describe the softness of ESPN's interview with Kerry at Fenway. Bush should demand equal time, he said.
Politicians stand a better chance of delivering a message -- that they're likable and worth spending time with -- at such appearances than during a policy interview with a journalist, Lehane said.
"Would you rather go on television and discuss your technique and strategy for hooking a bigmouth bass?" he said. "Or would you rather go and discuss your strategy for getting the soldiers out of Iraq?"
Most of these TV appearances are relatively harmless and can have great benefit, like when Bill Clinton, as a candidate, appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show" blowing a saxophone, Lehane said. But they can also backfire. It took a while for Clinton to live down the "boxers or briefs" question on MTV, he said. "You always have to be prepared when you're putting yourself in a different context," Lehane said. "You also have to bear in mind that you're running for the highest office in the world and people hold you to different standards."
With both candidates coming from privileged backgrounds, they're likely to seek more opportunities to demonstrate their likability and down-to-earth activities, the political strategists said. "The next step in the process is, you'll see candidates doing the various cooking shows at 11 o'clock on a Friday night," Lehane said. 