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The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004 <http:// livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us>. Created and maintained by the American Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, N.Y. Reviewed Sept. 1,2004.
"I deeply, deeply resent-and am offended by-the attacks President Carter has made on my husband," Nancy Reagan bristled in one 1980 campaign commercial. Nearly two decades ago, while writing my doctoral dissertation on presidential campaigning, I heard about that advertisement but could not track it down. Queries from coast to coast confirmed that the advertisement had been aired, but I failed to secure a copy. Similarly, years later, when I began teaching a course on presidential campaigning, I assembled a highlight reel of those campaign commercials I could find, not necessarily the most educationally useful ones.
The Living Room Candidate is thus doubly welcome,...