TORONTO – Something about Mike Huckabee’s latest attack ad seems a little… familiar.
Of course, any political or marketing junkies will instantly recognize the above video as the famous – and highly controversial – “Daisy” ad, which first ran during the 1964 U.S. presidential campaign.
This time though, the ad takes aim not at U.S./Soviet relations, but at the impending nuclear treaty between the United States and Iran.
“We must never surrender to an evil regime that threatens us all,” the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate wrote in the tweet accompanying the video’s release this past weekend.
“A threat to Israel is a threat to America,” a caption at the end of the video reads. “Stand with Israel. Reject a nuclear Iran.”
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Perhaps the most iconic political advertisement in American history, “Daisy” first ran in the 1964 presidential campaign as an attack by Democrat Lyndon Johnson on Republican Barry Goldwater.
In something of a political irony, the advertisment’s original intent was to advocate for a less stringent foreign policy when it came to nuclear arms, as Goldwater campaigned on aggressive economic and even military escalation of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
In the original clip, a voiceover from Johnson at the conclusion stated “These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.”
But that’s not the only bit of historical irony on display in Huckabee’s use of the famous ad. The clip was after all created for Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat. So near the end of the clip, as a mushroom cloud consumes poor Daisy, the words “Courtesy Democratic National Committee” are visible on screen.
Huckabee’s re-issue of the famous ad immediately drew a strong response from both sides.
https://twitter.com/LordKingBilly/status/619534293094768640
The original ad was immediately pulled amidst accusations Johnson was fear-mongering by asserting Goldwater would actively seek nuclear war, but the damage had already been done: LBJ would go on to sweep Goldwater in the 1964 election.
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As for the much-debated US/Iran nuclear agreement, a temporary deal between world powers and Iran is set to expire at midnight Monday Vienna time (6 p.m. EDT), and diplomats had hoped to complete and announce a final agreement before day’s end.
A deal would culminate nearly a decade of wearying negotiations. The pact would impose verifiable limits on nuclear programs so that Tehran cannot modify them to produce weapons. Iran, in return, would get tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
In the U.S., the Obama administration is under pressure from skeptical members of Congress and close American allies who feel the accord isn’t stringent enough. That includes Huckabee, who has long been a vocal critic of any political or economic detente with the Islamic republic.
-With files from the Associated Press
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