I understand why the Romney campaign would want to push back on outsourcing charges, but what's up with this?
In a new television ad released today, Mitt Romney accuses President Obama of lying and asks how voters can trust him to lead if he "doesn't tell the truth."
... The ad also uses then-candidate Hillary Clinton's famous "Shame on you" line she delivered during the 2008 raise in reference to Obama’s attacks on her.
"Candidate Obama lied about Hillary Clinton," the ad's narrator says....
The ad isn't just the typical attempt to accuse an opponent of distortion -- it tries to turn Barack Obama into a sinister, nasty guy. That works with precisely two groups: rabid right-wingers and the few remaining diehard PUMAs, both of whom are already predisposed to believe that Obama is sinister and nasty. (Romney keeps using that Hillary clip -- it showed up in a similar ad released late last month.)
The problem is that polls show that most Americans like Obama -- more people like him than approve of how he's doing his job. Voters in the middle who are wary of how he's doing his job think he's at least a decent well-meaning, guy; Team Romney seems to think it can overcome that impression, developed over three and a half years of a presidency and two years of campaigning before that, in a mere four months -- the point being, apparently, to get swing voters to see Obama as the sinister thumb-breaking, thuggish Chicago pol/Hillary-hating sexist pig of wingnut/PUMA legend. It's as if no one on Romney's campaign can even imagine what it feels like to be merely disappointed by Obama rather than repulsed. (I imagine that's extremely difficult within today's cult-like right wing -- and, after all, much of Romney's team probably doesn't remember a pre-cult right wing, or left that old right behind a long time ago.)
This ad comes at a rather awkward moment, when we're learning from The Boston Globe that Romney was Bain's chief honcho three years longer than he's claimed, and from David Corn that Romney invested in a Chinese firm that made money from outsourcing. Oh, and the Democrats have just released this cheeky ad, which, I think, works much better than the Romney ad above:
Romney's ad avoids specifics about Romney's career. This Democratic ad focuses on specifics about Romney's finances. Romney's ad is somber. The Democratic ad is fun. And I like the way the tag line of the Democratic ad, at the very end, shows up on a tax form familiar to all us proles -- a nice way to remind voters that Romney gets to do things with taxes that we could never do.
2 comments:
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”
~Barry Goldwater
That's BARRY GOLDWATER saying that!
That Diminionist Evangelical Christian Manichean world view, of black v. white, Heaven v. Hell, right v. wrong, good v. evil, God v. Satan, is now pervasive in Conservatism.
In its politics.
In its campaigning.
In its governance.
And that's why ALL they know how to do is attack their "opponents."
No subtlety allowed - subtlety requires whitening black into some shade of gray, and darken white to do the same.
Plus, subtlety requires some nuance, and some degree of irony.
And they don't do the above - they bludgeon.
And, as we all know, Conservatives suffer from a severe "Irony Deficiency."
There are still plenty of PUMAs out there.
And the same ad will equally appeal to unaligned women in general - as was Hillary's intent, of course.
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