Best Political Ads, 2012 cycle

Politics & Elections
1

Nominate your candidates for best (and I suppose worst) political ads of the 2012 election cycle.
Here are my choices:

  1. This is the Best Ad for a Political Candidate I have ever seen. The 2011 piece is from an independent PAC promoting Ron Paul. Substantive.
    Armed Chinese Troops in Texas! - YouTube
    Some of you have seen it before. The script is lifted directly off a 2009 Ron Paul speech and is transcribed at the link.

I see that they improved upon this 2009 school project: Ron Paul - Imagine - Kinetic Typography - YouTube
2. This is the Best Issue Ad I’ve seen so far in this election cycle. It consists of ~5 women quoting Republicans accurately on the subject of contraception. Hard hitting, effective and substantive. One quote would be a so-what, multiple ones push the message across.
Donate to MoveOn Political Action | MoveOn.org

  1. Most Bigoted Appeal: Yellow Girl by Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan) The video has since been scrubbed from YouTube and the actress has apologized.

  2. This one may be surpassed, but the Best Hatchet Job and Best Erzatz Documentary was released by Gingrich’s Super PAC last January. http://www.kingofbain.com/
    Transcript here: Change of Subject: 'When Mitt Romney Came to Town' -- full video & transcript NARRATOR: Capitalism made America great. Free markets. Innovation, hard work-- the building blocks of the American dream. But in the wrong hands, some of those dreams can turn into nightmares. Wall Street’s corporate raiders made billions of dollars

NEWSCASTER: Private equity leaders getting rich at the expense of American workers

NARRATOR: Their greed was only matched by their willingness to do anything to make millions in profits. Nothing was spared. Nothing mattered but greed. This film is about one such raider and his firm. Mitt Romney became CEO of Bain Capital the day the company was formed. His mission. To reap massive rewards for himself and his investors.

…
NARRATOR: A story of greed, playing the system for a quick buck a group of corporate raiders led by Mitt Romney. More ruthless than Wall Street. For tens of thousands of Americans, the suffering began when Mitt Romney came to town.

NARRATOR: The company was Bain Capital. Its CEO and president, a privileged son of a wealthy businessmen and politician, Mitt Romney. He had a Harvard pedigree and he was on a tear, making spectacular returns. Stripping American businesses of assets, selling everything to the highest bidder and often killing jobs for big financial rewards. One stop on Mitt Romney’s quest: Marianna Florida…

Link to thread on Obama’s 17 minute promotional piece: Obama's 17-minute campaign ad on YouTube - Politics & Elections - Straight Dope Message Board
Substantive. Fair. Accurate. It’s a little dry though. I’m not handing it any awards: I’m only listing it here for completeness.

2

Bump. Not living in the US, I don’t have a lot to contribute because I don’t get to see a lot of the adds, but I must admit that I was impressed by that first video on the Chinese army in Texas. Here’s hoping people post some more :slight_smile:

3

Welcome to Obamaville

4

To be honest, the only political ad from this year that I can recall is the dude smoking into the camera and Herman Cain in the creepy close-up. That one has to be the winner of the ad most full of WTF.

5

Has to be the Stephen Colbert PAC “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow” ad: Attack In B Minor For Strings.

Narrated by Jon Lithgow, and pure brilliance on SO many levels.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

6

The Santorum ad that looks like a standard anti-Obama screed and then pivots to reveal that all those eeevul deeds were in fact the work of Mitt Romney is a pretty good one.

7

A new Obama-Biden 2012 video of Romney “severely conservative” moments is now up: Mitt Romney: Memories to Last a Lifetime - YouTube

8

I’m wary of that ad. One of Romney’s weaknesses is the tepid support of his base (e.g. less motivation to man phone banks, etc.). None of what he said was particularly egregious to a conservative voter and may have the effect of shoring up their confidence that he is a ‘real’ conservative.