Lee Atwater's Influence on 2008 Presidential GOP Candidates

Lee Atwater (born Harvey Leroy Atwater) was a United States Republican political consultant. He was a well-known strategist whose skills at attack politics brought him and his supported candidates to great success. Atwater was a trusted advisor of a few United States' Presidents like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. While he was still alive (Atwater died of Brain Tumor on March 29, 1992), he had been called several names like, "the happy hatchet man" and "the Darth Vader of GOP". Basically, he was perceived to be a person who went 'negative for the sheer joy of it.'

Atwater was the genius behind the turnaround on George H.W. Bush campaign towards the US Presidential Seat. He organized an aggressive media program which included a television advertisement regarding the case of Willie Horton. The guy was a convicted murderer who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and who was a subject of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program that was supported by then Democratic nominee and Massachusetts Governor, Michael Dukakis. William Horton committed armed robbery and rape while in the program. Atwater clearly saw this as a great opportunity to push Bush appeal and overcome Dukakis' 17% lead on public opinion polls.

Years after Atwater's death, the United States is again to have another Presidential Election. The Republican Party has several members eyeing the post - Rudy Giuliani (Lawyer & ex-New York City Mayor), Mike Huckabee (Businessman & ex-Arkansas Governor), Duncan Hunter (Lawyer & California Representative), Alan Keyes (Author & Diplomat), John McCain (Arizona Senator), Ron Paul (Medical Doctor & Texas Representative), Mitt Romney (Businessman & ex-Massachusetts Governor), Tom Tancredo (Teacher & Colorado Representative), and Fred Thompson (Actor & ex-US Senator).

Atwater was a hardball specialist in the art of negative campaigning. His tactics demonstrated abilities for hammering away at sensitive social issues. He breathed politics - every inch of it. He epitomized a ruthless strategist who cuts throats willingly through deep research. These are tactics that can make one candidate and break another. These same tactics seems to be embodied by Republican candidates until now.

Take for example in a report by Washington Post, it mentioned how Clinton's support for the $1 million in taxpayer dollars to help fund a Woodstock memorial is the subject of McCain's new campaign ad. There's also Mitt Romney's 'stumbling over his tongue' as he makes a reference to Osama Bin Laden as Barack Obama not just once but two times in one week. Now, this could be just an honest mistake but then again, mentioning something like this more than once may be a bit too much to be just a mere stumble.

Most GOP candidates have in fact taken under their wing some Atwater 'reincarnates' to run their political operatives. So it doesn't come as a surprise that there are other 'smear' campaign ads being run by these candidates against one another. However, they may not as direct as Atwater's approved ads during his time, they are more generic in their statements against other candidates but if one is well aware of what's going on in the political arena, it can be very obvious who is pertaining to whom.

The election is plain mathematics. Positive overrides negative. This is the logic behind Lee Atwater's tactics which clearly pulls a candidate to a better light in the eyes of the public and thus, gaining the better end of the poll.