The following is not an Onion ad. Nor is it something some frat boy poly-sci majors cooked up while on a bender, as my wife insisted it must be when I first showed it to her. This is an actual ad from the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky:
A few years ago Josh Marshall coined the phrase "bitch-slap politics" to describe the Bush campaign's Swift Boats ads against John Kerry. Those ads made Kerry look weak in two ways: one, by casting doubt over his war record and two (and more importantly), by hitting Kerry below the belt and betting on the fact that he wouldn't hit back. I can remember reading embittered diarists at Daily Kos who ached for a Democratic Karl Rove to step forward and give the Republicans as good as we were getting.
Well here it is! The above ad is equal to anything Rove could come up with in terms of contempt for the facts, the opponent's humanity and voter intelligence and incredulity.Ya like it?
Sure, the chutzpah of a Democrat getting to the right of his wingnut opponent on religion is breathtaking. Sure, the schadenfreude of seeing Republicans hoisted on their own petard of populist bigotry is sweet indeed.
But I'm not happy with it. Not happy at all. I have no idea what Ron Paul's religion really is, but it ought to be tested in the crucible of the confessional or at the Lord's table, not in the three-ring circus of a political campaign.
In the meantime, Kentuckians need to take to heart the fact that there is a body of secular wisdom, available to all, regardless of religious belief, the mastery of which is sufficient for the art of statecraft. Your city councilman doesn't need to be saved in order to get the potholes filled. Your Senator doesn't need to be sanctified in order to approve cabinet secretaries. Your President doesn't need to be orthodox in order to negotiate an arms control treaty.
It doesn't reflect well on the Bluegrass state that this ad has gotten Jack Conway back in the race. You mean that you were thinking about voting for a guy who wants to dismantle Social Security, Medicare and the Civil Rights Acts, who wants to turn the clock back to 1896, until you found out he was involved in a fraternity prank that offends your piety? I don't get you, Kentucky. Maybe a Rovian contempt for the voter is sometimes justified.
If Conway wins, and the President finds himself ten points down two Octobers from now, maybe the Obama campaign will hire the architect of this ad to save the day. How about a 30 second spot on the secret Republican plan to let Cylons serve openly in the military? AND to adopt children! Or maybe Obama and his buddy Rick Warren will give the invocation at high school football games in swing states to preempt Aqua Buddhists from getting a shot at the mic.
If this is the only way we can win, then I don't want to win.
Well, if Conway was betting that Paul wouldn't hit back, he was probably surprised to see the following ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISKDW4dSAa8
Kerry took weeks to repudiate the Swifties' claims; it took Paul about fifteen minutes. (But thanks for expressing your disgust: I'm a Dem, but I'm not sure I like Conway's ad, or his chutzpah.)
Posted by: Joshua | 20 October 2010 at 10:43 PM