Citizens' Daily Lobby

Last week I was asked by CREDO to vote for my favorite of three anti-Lincoln billboards, one of which will ultimately be erected here in Blanche Lincoln country.  The billboards aim to call the Senator out for her stance on the Murkowski amendment that would take the teeth out of the Clean Air Act regarding CO2 emissions.  The billboard contest was created by CREDO Action and Friends of the Earth.    None of the three proposed billboards is exactly what I would call a triumph of political advertising, and, let’s face it, none of them would exactly resonate with Arkansas voters.  I have said it before, and I’ll be happy to say it again:  if you’re going to mess with Arkansas politics, you should probably know Arkansans.

Billboard number 1, “Senator Lincoln:  Don’t Choke Our Razorbacks.  Hands off the Clean Air Act” comes complete with a non-official Hog cartoon.    Even if the hog were a genuine, NCAA-approved, legitimate Razorback, the billboard would still strike me as condescending.  Not only that, but it’s just not an effective message.   What the creators of this particular billboard probably do not know is that a football coach from the Fayetteville area once famously declared during a public hearing that his high school team “bows down” to the smokestack of a local coal plant and thanks God for that plant.  Money talks.

Billboard number 2,  “Arkansans Love Clean Air, Why Doesn’t Senator Lincoln?” is better.  The problem with this one is that the photo of Senator Lincoln is virtually unrecognizable.  Judging by the photo, the text should read something like “B-r-a-i-n-s…B-r-a-i-n-s.”

Candidate number 3 is simply an official-looking photo of the Senator with the phrase “Corporate Polluters, I support you-Blanche Lincoln.”  Too detached.   Arkansas voters are simply not concerned about “corporate polluters.”

I think I may be able to help these people out.  Here are two billboards that are almost certain to resonate in Arkansas: