Morning in America

I've recently discovered this fantastic website. It's an archive of every US presidential election tv commercial from 1952 - 2004. I'm a nut for this kind of thing. The one above which attempts to discredit Spiro Agnew's nomination is at times funny, shocking and, in a way, frustrating. Agnew ran as VP on the Nixon ticket in 68 & 72. He ended up resigning in 73, a year before Nixon's ignominious departure and the two of them never spoke again. You could run the same ad today about one of the current VP candidates.

I've watched a bunch of them and it's hard to pick a favourite but I've got a soft spot for this one. It's probably one of the most famous ads too although I'd never seen it until recently. I'd heard the expression 'Morning in America' used witheringly in episodes of the West Wing and never really got it. Watching this and knowing what was really happening at the time, it all starts to make sense.. Still - what a great clip - as a romantic ideal it's hard to beat. You can see why it worked. When I was 12 this is what I thought America was like. Paperboys, station wagons, white picket fences and smiling faces everywhere.. It's not really like that, is it?