CAMPAIGN ’88 : Read His Lips: Dancing Raisins Made Light Of
Democrats “heard it through the grapevine,” and on Monday they tried to let everyone in the San Joaquin Valley hear a crack that Vice President George Bush made about their dancing raisins.
Democratic House Whip Tony Coelho and the California Democratic Party aired radio advertisements in the Fresno region slamming Bush for a remark he made after he canceled what would have been his fourth campaign trip to the area.
Bush said he “didn’t want to see those damned dancing raisins again,” according to his press secretary, Sheila Tate, who told the Fresno Bee that Bush was only kidding.
But in Fresno, the cereal bowl of raisin production, insulting the animated clay raisins of the popular TV commercials could be considered sour grapes, reasoned Coelho, who represents the region’s raisin grape ranchers. People dressed in purple raisin suits have danced at numerous events, including past rallies for Bush in Fresno.
“Now they’re after our raisins,” Coelho says in the radio spot. “Let’s elect leaders who stand up for us.”
Bush’s local campaign chairman, Charles Poochigian, called the radio ad “a last-gasp effort to exploit a minor quip.”
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