This week's contest asked readers "to provide a pithy caption for a photo accompanying an article in our Business section. Both parties contesting America's presidential election are pouring money into tasteful, fair-minded campaign ads such as this one, showing an actor who looks like Paul Ryan tossing grandma off a cliff."
My winning entry (posted under my TE online handle Vectorly) was: "Look, Grandma! You Can See Willie Horton from here!"
For those who don't know (including some befuddled TE readers who posted after the results were announced), Willie Horton was a convicted murderer who, after being released from prison as part of a furlough program in Massachusetts in 1986, committed more violent crimes before being recaptured. When the then-governer of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, ran for President as the Democratic nominee in 1988, a TV ad attacking Dukakis over the incident was run by supporters of George H. W. Bush.
Media historians and industry operators still cite the Willie Horton ad as a milestone in negative campaigning (as well as race-baiting, as Horton was black and his mug shot was featured prominently in the ad). It is also considered one of the deciding factors in the election of Bush, Sr., who was never particularly popular with voters and had a problem with "the image thing."