The Political Strategist Commemorative Plate Series - Carville

James Carville
It was challenging to gather enough dirt for Carville. I hate to say this but Carville did not employ the same tactics and strategies that Rove and Atwater used, no racist overtones, no use of homophobia and no whisper campaigns of mental illness against an opponent's wife. Boring! The only "dirty" campaign trick was use of the lottery as a voter gimmick of solving that age old question of how to keep revenue flowing without (gasp!) raising taxes. Carville's solution was the lottery, it would generate revenue without the need to increase taxes. The problem with the lottery solution is that it is shouldered by the majority of people that buy lottery tickets (the lower to moderate income individuals) so it effectively becomes a voluntary tax on those individuals. It wasn't even used in any national campaigns, mainly state elections in the south.

The Political Strategist Commemorative Plate Series - Rove

 Karl Rove
 Ah, Rove provided a rich resource for this composition. If anything I had to eliminate images. I stuck with the classic motifs: Swift boats, chads, terror alert levels and John McCain's daughter ( not Meghan). I drew many similarities from the strategies that Rove employed in his two campaigns for George W. to the masterful Atwater campaign of 1988.

The Political Strategist Commemorative Plate Series

Lee Atwater
Athough, Atwater had a short lived career (compared to Karl Rove) as campaign manager and strategist, he remains one of the most infamous. Atwater's 1988 campaign had it all....racism, flag burning, mental illness rumors and Kitty Dukakis. He had what I would call a textbook perfect method to harness the fears of the public to win against an otherwise unprepared, weak opponent, Michael Dukakis. Like, Dukakis' campaign many more poorly-run Democratic presidential campaigns would follow (Gore, Kerry). Atwater set a precedent for campaign strategies that would be followed closely by Karl Rove.