Most UUPers may not know Raymond Strother’s name, but they do know the outstanding TV commercials his Washington, D.C.–based advertising agency has produced for UUP. UUP delegates know him now, thanks to the inspiring and captivating address he delivered to the Spring DA.
“I am a liberal,” he proclaimed in beginning his speech, in which he reflected not only on his upbringing in Texas but also his work in past presidential campaigns.
“While other parents sang Irish lullabies to their babies, my father sang about Joe Hill,” he recalled. “Liberalism is in my genetic code.” He lamented how right-wing forces have succeeded in turning “liberal” into a dirty word.
“We have allowed the right wing to turn the word liberal into something like the taste of rotted meat,” he said.
Strother also told delegates about his experience in national politics, as an advisor for former Sen. Gary Hart’s presidential campaign in 1984.
Notwithstanding his experience, he said it is too difficult to predict the outcome of political races.
“The wise men in D.C. said Hart didn’t have a chance,” Strother said. But after Strother pumped all of Hart’s campaign’s funds into Des Moines prior to the Iowa caucus, Hart catapulted to a second-place finish in Iowa and a victory in New Hampshire weeks later.
While it seemed Hart was on his way to the nomination, Strother said, “Something went bump in the night.” An internal dispute over a campaign ad in Illinois led to Hart being asked at a debate, “If you can’t run your campaign, how can you run this country?”
Knowing that such “bumps” occur in presidential races and that more could happen this time around, Strother said, “I hope you’ve gathered from what I said that only a fool would make predictions on the upcoming race — so here I go!”
Strother predicts Sen. Hillary Clinton will not wear well under constant pressure, leaving Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards to fight it out. He believes Edwards will emerge as the nominee.
On the Republican side, Strother predicts former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will win, unless former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson joins the race.
— Donald Feldstein