The Canidate
In the 1972 movie The Candidate Crocker Jarmin is the current Senator for the United States and he seems to be unbeatable. Marvin Lukas has an idea to get Bill (William) McKay to run against Jarmin in the next race though Mckay was not thought out to be able to beat him. At first McKay is not convinced with the idea of running for senator. It is not ideal for him to follow in his fathers foot steps. McKay finally decides he is going to run after his wife and Lucas convince him he has what it takes. He also only agrees to run with the conditions that he can do and say what he wants to through out his campaign.
He know he is not supposed to win. In the beginning of McKay’s campaign he does not know exactly how to approach the public and go about getting people to listen to him. He fails to fully obtain the interest of voters and can’t capture the words to make people believe he has good points to make. His campaign manager Marvin Lucas tries to give him advice as to how to handle questions from the media and from the public, but McKay still wants to speak for himself. When both Jarmin and McKay are speaking to the public, Jarmin constantly has the advantage over McKay.
The People believe in what Jarmin says because he has more power and is able to make more promises. Also, McKay comes off as a young and naive candidate well on the other side Jarmin is an older, wiser, and more experienced candidate. McKay’s Campaign strategy of saying what he wanted, not listing to his team, ignoring his platform, and not having a stance on many political issues did not work in his favor. After appearing unaware to the public McKay decided to change his campaign strategies and become more personable. He chose to speak to more groups that felt that they were unheard.
His campaign staff made his commercials to represent change and hope. His slogan became “For a better way vote Bill McKay. ” His strategy to identify with the public seemed to be more affective rather then his previous strategy of being blunt and indecisive. Well McKay was trying to appear as a working class man Jarmin would try to appear as a true American. His campaign strategies focused on really showing that Americans had to work together and be united. Jarmin continually made his speeches and commercials focus on keeping the American dream.
After McKay changed his campaign strategy his following started to grow immensely. He was receiving more media coverage along with Jarmin then ever before. McKay started being aired on news casts, political hearings, and his speeches started being filmed. Since McKay was receiving more coverage he was also coming up in the polls, and won in the primary elections. After McKay’s victory Jarmin realized McKay was real competition. Jarmin started to release commercials speaking out that letting McKay win senator was like letting a kid win senator.
After the commercial was released McKay spun the statement a different way and stated that the country needed a new out look and needed changes, and in order for it to become better they needed new and fresh ideas. When Jarmin realized that McKay was giving him a run for his money he finally agreed to have a debate with him. Through this debate they were asked various questions, but neither one of them gave straight answers. They both talked about the questions but never expressed their stance on it.
You did not get to learn much about the candidates because both were trying to please the public rather then speak strongly on and issue. After the debate McKay’s closing statement raised some chaos. He stated that the real issues were being ignored and that the questions that were being asked were not the questions that the public was concerned about. He believed that the people cared more about policy issues and those were not being handled or addressed properly. After the debate McKay’s following became so large that is team was astonished.
McKay finally had a strong following and really had the people’s attention. He was giving speech after speech and was gaining more and more support for the democratic party. He was also giaing support from other politicians and more important people that could really help him out. Towards the end of the race they were only separated by three points. This is when people started to truly believe he had a chance. When November finally hit and they were waiting for the ending results to come in his father said to him “ You’re a Politician, Son. ” This statement eant that McKay did become what he had not originally planned. He never thought he would get involved in politics and follow his dad, but he was. With out being aware of it he had became everything opposite of his original plan. At the very end of the movie McKay and his campaign Manager had one last private conversation. It was in that moment that Lucas revealed that McKay had one. McKay’s final question was “ What do we do now? ” This victory came as a great surprise to McKay and he did not know what to make of it, but he knew he now had to make life changing decisions not only for him self, but for America.
