Reid floats Democrats’ 2006 slogan

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 | 7:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- It doesn't have the cachet of Ronald Reagan's "It's Morning in America," and probably will never go down in the history books next to "A chicken in every pot" as one of the more memorable campaign slogans.

But if Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has anything to say about it, the phrase "America Can Do Better" will become a familiar part of the Democratic message in next year's elections.

The Nevada Democrat has been routinely dropping the slogan into speeches and interviews, and his communications staff has used it liberally in press releases, even slapping it into the subject lines of e-mails sent to reporters.

In recent weeks, other Democratic senators have popped the line into their own speeches.

A slight variation, "Together America Can Do Better," was prominent in background signs for an energy rally hosted by Reid on Monday. He slipped the phrase in during a weekly meeting Tuesday with reporters, saying: "American can do better than the agenda the Republicans have set for us." And a Wednesday press release on home heating oil read: "America can do better than leaving working families out in the cold this winter."

Experts say political slogans are not chosen -- or used -- lightly, but instead often are tested first on focus groups.

That was not true in this case, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.

Hafen said the phrase first surfaced in the closed-door caucus meetings that Senate Democrats hold each Tuesday.

Reid began using the phrase regularly after the August congressional recess, and other senators have since picked it up, but Reid and his handlers did not officially launch the slogan, Hafen said.

"It just caught on, and momentum has built for it," she said.

The slogan is not new. It's part of a "linguistic legacy" of the Democratic Party, said David Kusnet, a speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton and author of "Speaking American" about Democratic political rhetoric.

President John F. Kennedy used it in his 1960 campaign, and his brother Robert Kennedy used it again in 1968, Kusnet said.

The phrase works because it conveys a criticism of the Republicans while offering optimism about America, which voters respond to, Kusnet said.

"It's something like a football coach talking to his team at halftime," Kusnet said. "And the team may be down by a few points, but he is telling them we can do better in the second half."

Effective slogans often tap into public frustrations or fears that may be bubbling below the surface, said Marie Danziger, director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

"It's upbeat," she said of Reid's slogan. "And it does feed into the general frustration that the public has been feeling about the competency of the Bush administration. So it's timely."

On the other hand, it plays into the Republican critique that Democrats have no concrete plans of their own, Danziger said.

"It doesn't give any indication of the new direction that the Democrats have in mind," she said.

The problem with Reid's slogan is that beyond the catch phrase, the Democrats have not established themselves as an alternative to the Republicans, said Clark S. Judge, a Reagan speechwriter and managing director of the White House Writers Group.

"A slogan doesn't stand on its own," Judge said, calling Reid's slogan "tepid."

It's not clear that the slogan crystalizes how the public already feels, but the slogan's optimism gives it potential, said University of Southern California adjunct communications professor Jonathon Wilcox.

"There is a tendency in politics to be relentlessly attacking as a substitute for action," said Wilcox, a speechwriter for former Republican California Gov. Pete Wilson. "And I think that has a limited currency."

Good slogans are extremely difficult to craft, and almost never make it into the public consciousness, Boston University College of Communications Associate Dean Tobe Berkovitz said.

An effective slogan is both catchy and offers some specific information, he said.

How will Reid know whether his slogan is effective?

"When it makes Jay Leno -- and he doesn't make fun of it," Berkovitz said.