Campaign Ads

The last competitive state-wide election in Texas that I can recall was in 1994, when George W. Bush upset Ann Richards to win the governorship for the first time. Since then, Republicans have swept just about every statewide race. Regardless of how you feel about the political results of this dominance, you have to admit that one positive consequence is that there usually aren't many campaign ads on television. The 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections might have been exceptionally close, but you wouldn't have known it from watching TV ads in Texas. Both parties knew that George W. Bush would win Texas in a landslide, and so neither campaign spent any time or effort campaigning here. Given the vapidity of almost every political ad that I have ever seen on TV and how even ones supporting positions and candidates that I like enrage me with their shoddy logic and their manipulative presentation, I think that this is a good thing.

But Texas actually matters this time around. The conventional wisdom is that Hillary Clinton needs to win the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4 in order to keep her presidential campaign viable. And so, for the first time in twelve years, we have been inundated with Clinton and Obama commercials. Yippee. I don't know how you people who live in battleground states stand it.

Big Old Expensive Phone Company

Time Warner, the company then responsible for management of the Time Warner-Comcast joint venture that was and is the dominant player in the Texas cable market, tried and failed to manipulate Texas law to stop AT&T (then SBC) from rolling out a television package back in 2005. Now AT&T's U-verse is a reality, and Comcast (which now manages the Time Warner-Comcast joint venture) has to convince the consumer not to give it a try.



Don't get me wrong: I think the commercial is funny, but am I the only one wondering why Comcast is calling the viewer's attention to AT&T's inexperience with television when Comcast's corporate health depends to a large extent on its ability to persuade consumers to purchase services from Comcast in spaces that Comcast has little experience in, like telephone and alarm service?