Optimism?

I understand that it's good for presidential candidates to project an aura of optimism, and I understand that it's good for presidential candidates to cut ads with their spouses saying nice things about them, but this seems weird:

"I've been blessed for the last thirty years to be married to the most optimistic person that I've known," just doesn't seem like the kind of compliment a person would offer her husband. This has been a slightly weird tic of Edwards' going back to the 2004 campaign, telling us how optimistic he is instead of projecting optimism. Which strikes me as odd, since Edwards is actually really good at projecting optimism.

Comments

I dunno, I think if my marriage had endured the death of a child and my diagnosis of terminal cancer, unrelenting optimism from my spouse probably would seem like a blessing and a treasure.

Posted by UN Plaza | July 18, 2007 12:05 PM

Good point by UN Plaza. And to go further, I think the ad is not so much about John Edwards as it is about Elizabeth Edwards and the Edwards family history. It lets the candidate "capitalize" (for lack of a better word) on the family tradegies indirectly. If he did it directly (as he is alleged by Shrum to have done with Kerry), he would look like a god awful human being.

Posted by Led | July 18, 2007 12:11 PM

President Bush is very optimistic about the occupation of Iraq which gives me doubts about how valuable the quality is in a President (no doubt it helps in a campaign though).

Posted by Ron | July 18, 2007 12:30 PM

UN Plaza pretty much nails it.

It's a pretty good ad, actually. People like Elizabeth Edwards and trust her. She talks about a personal attribute that she admires in her husband - an attribute that's completely relevant to the position that he's running for.

Posted by Clark | July 18, 2007 12:31 PM

There's just something wrong with the word 'optimism'. Say what you will about 'audacity', but Obama's 'Hope' works much better. It gestures in the same direction, but more viscerally. Optimism can be false and pollyanna-ish. Hope seems spiritual and universal. (See also Orwell on Germanic vs. Latinate)

Posted by Rob | July 18, 2007 12:49 PM

UN Plaza- Those both strike me as situations where hopefulness would be a blessing, but "unrelenting optimism" cloying.

My memory is a little fuzzy here, but wasn't Edwards' one-note, untextured optimism part of the problem in his VP debate with Cheney?

Posted by Rob | July 18, 2007 1:07 PM

Neither of the Edwards have ever struck me as being particulary optimistic or happy, for that matter. In fact, there always seems to be an underlying current of bitter to them and their message.

Dunno, just my personal observation.

Posted by JoeCHI | July 18, 2007 1:12 PM

Neither of the Edwards have ever struck me as being particulary optimistic or happy, for that matter. In fact, there always seems to be an underlying current of bitter to them and their message.

Nerts. John Edwards marriage to Elizabeth is the strongest evidence that he's legit. Elizabeth Edwards isn't vapid, spooky, inert, vampirish, or any of the other usual Candidate Wife qualities. In fact, she's great. If someone like her is married to Edwards, chances are he is what he says he is.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | July 18, 2007 1:48 PM

John Edwards marriage to Elizabeth is the strongest evidence that he's legit.

I couldn't agree more with this comment.

Posted by Steve | July 18, 2007 2:15 PM

Neither of the Edwards have ever struck me as being particulary optimistic or happy, for that matter. In fact, there always seems to be an underlying current of bitter to them and their message.

Sounds like you're projecting.

Posted by Bill | July 18, 2007 2:15 PM

You're making negative comments about Edwards! This must be because he's betraying your class, or because you got into blogging/journalism because of your idealism which has transmogrified into cynicism and so you're taking your anger out on Edwards. Or something like that. Ask Ezra.

Posted by ostap | July 18, 2007 2:20 PM

There's something a little more troubling about this commercial than the weird focus on optimism: so far Edwards has been the only prominent candidate to consistently focus his campaign on substantive policy issues. On the other hand, this ad is entirely without real content. I hope low poll numbers aren't convincing Edwards he needs to turn his campaign into another vapid personality cult.

Posted by Ned | July 18, 2007 2:33 PM

I'm not an Edwards supporter, but I like the ad. Perhaps it's about expectations, but it seems much more low-key and genuine then everything I read about today ("Is Elizabeth's voice taking over the campaign???") Then with your commentary, I really expected the worst. In fact, I think it's a pretty good ad.

Posted by cms | July 18, 2007 6:17 PM

I'm guessing this will be an effective ad with its target audience.

The ad is clearly aimed at people who already know something about who Elizabeth Edwards is, and empathetically connect with her personal narrative. It tries to develop in the viewer a vicarious but distanced bond with John Edwards through his wife. The target audience clearly seems to be women who are thought to connect to events more through individual personalities, stories and characters, not through issues, doctrines or group agendas. Visually, the viewer is invited to connect directly to Elizabeth in the first shot, then physically through her to John Edwards in the second shot, and then through her eyes to a view of Edwards as stoic, hard-working hero.

"I've been blessed" is spoken abruptly, and phrased to stand apart from the rest of the sentence, and allow a quick initial cut. All the religious folks within earshot of the television will look up right away. Given that we all know the ways in which Elizabeth Edwards has not been blessed, the opening line carries a sharp initial impression of affecting piety and humility.

Edwards can often come off as a bit boyish, smooth and smilingly relaxed and lithe. But there is an effort in this ad to portray him as the strong, silent type. In several of the shots he is close-lipped and stiff-jawed. His posture is a slightly rigid and tense.

He is also portrayed as rather solitary, self-possessed and self-contained. In the initial rally scene, the spectators are dim in the background; and in the line with the workers, he stands apart, rather than being surrounded by the others. Aside from the second shot where he has his arm around his wife, there is no touching or backslapping or glad-handing, except for one sort of manly shoulder grip on the yellow-shirted worker.

There is a visual transition at "But, at the same time, ..." After a few initial smiling shots that underline the "optimistic" theme, the transition introduces several shots that present a more stern, commanding personality exemplifying the "tough, smart, hard-working" theme, including the one with the workers where Edwards appears almost to be reviewing the troops, and the very presidential conference table shot which suggests an early-rising executive who will be first to the situation room, (and who actually reads his briefing papers.)

Elizabeth says "unbelievable" twice in the spot.

Culturally, the spot has a very southern or lower mid-western feel. I believe all of the faces in the spot are white. Elizabeth Edwards's overall impression (in this ad at least) is of a fairly traditional wifeliness, which even comes off here as a bit worshipful. Perhaps the ad is intended to break through with women who are put off by Hillary, or even Michele Obama.

The mood is very serious. Despite the initial theme of optimism, the music is not at all sunny, but a bit somber and "Taps"-like. "Optimism" here stands for a faithful and determined, slightly heavy-hearted conviction in the promise of eventual success, rather than light-hearted sunniness. This is real walking-through-the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death-and- fearing-no-evil stuff.

The narration ends with "stare the worst in the face and not blink." The unspoken worst, here, is cancer, loss and death. And the idea conveyed is that whenever America is faced with a similarly deep, threatening, and potentially demoralizing challenge, Edwards will get to work, fight indefatigably with toughness and smarts, and never stop believing that the problem will be licked.

The ad has a Ken-Burnsy feel: a talking head interviewee cut with slow in-out camera movements over still shots and quiet martial music. There is an interesting color palette of ruddy red and blue. The colors suggest late afternoon, early evening times. And the ruddy faces underline the apparent Sun Belt locations.

Posted by Dan Kervick | July 18, 2007 9:38 PM