TANCREDO AD: NOT CRAZY ENOUGH

Eric Kleefeld at Talking Points Memo is all worked up about the new Tom Tancredo ad:

Tom Tancredo's new ad, set to run in Iowa -- if any stations will accept it, that is -- is a true original. The ad depicts the dire consequences of our open borders through a dramatization of a fictitious terrorist attack in the middle of a shopping mall. Furthermore, it even ends with the sound of an explosion!

But the ad (watch it and read the script below) doesn't really depict an attack -- it just shows a scary-looking guy walking around in a green hoodie preparing to commit jihadist mass murder, followed by a flash of light and an explosion sound effect. Yes, there are bloody shots of previous terrorist attacks in other international cities, but in the ad no Americans suffer; no red, white and blue blood is shed.

And that's where the Tancredo ad fails -- he's not giving Republicans what they really want to see.

This ad should be more out to lunch. If Tancredo wants to get Republican pumped up, he needs to show Americans as victims, or, if he's squeamish about that, he should depict physical devastation in the country (think the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes), or show a jihadist takeover of the U.S., something like the scenario in Robert Ferrigno's novel Prayers for the Assassin.

That would be a confirmation of Republicans' most cherished nightmare scenarios. That would give them a truly satisfying sense of betrayal -- not by jihadists, but by their domestic political opponents, who are the real enemy, the real source of evil.

Republicans crave stories of betrayal. Right now, right-wing discussion boards such as Free Republic and (especially) Liberty Post wallow in every story of a violent crime committed (or seemingly committed) by an undocumented immigrant. They want to hate fellow Americans they consider weak and craven. They want to feel the stab in the back.

This ad doesn't give that satisfaction to them.

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(If you want to see a Republican ad that really does let viewer feel the exquisite pleasure of a stab in the back, albeit in a nonviolent way, watch the notorious Jesse Helms "Hands" ad.)

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Text of the ad:

Con. Tancredo: Hi I'm Tom Tancredo and I approved this message because someone needs to say it.

Voiceover: There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs. Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil, Jihadists who froth with hate here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia.

The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.

{Explosion}

On Screen: Tancredo ... before it's too late.