Don't Use Your Kid as a Campaign Prop

March 02, 2012

Don't Use Your Kid as a Campaign Prop

Barry Hinckley (R) used his five year old son in an adorable ad for his campaign to unseat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) but then quickly discovered the downside in an extremely awkward Fox News interview.

When Hinckley's boy was asked whether he's "worried about our debt" and "paying back the money," he offers a simple answer: "Um. No."

His father then nervously interrupts to insist, "He's worried about it. We do talk about it actually in the car. He understands it actually."

He then starts whispering the "correct" answers to his kid.

Here's the ad:

Here's the Fox News interview:

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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March 02, 2012