And here’s a WashPost analysis of the negative campaigning in the final weeks of this election cycle.
Robert Ingersoll, formerly a Colonel in the Union army, waving the bloody shirt at the 1880 Republican nominating convention, as quoted in Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.
Just happened to come across this last night and thought it was interesting, given the context of the season.
Question I’ve always wondered about.
In the primaries, two (or more) Democrat* opponents are having a negative ad campaign against each other.
In the general election, has a Republican* ever said, “look what his own party says about him” and references the ads from the primary?
*or vice versa
How about this one where Republican Nelson goes after Wisconsin Democratic congressman Ron Kind:
Over the top doesn’t even come close.
Here in Minnesota, republican Mark Kennedy put out an ad attacking DLF’er Amy Klobuchar, saying: ‘she claims to be against big oil companies, but her own retirement fund owns oil company stocks’.
I first saw that ad when I was in a nursing home, visiting an elderly friend. The residents immediately started talking about it, saying ‘but that would be her 401K fund. You don’t have any control over your 401K fund, somebody else manages it for you, that’s what a retirement fund is. This is just lies.’
I think that ad backfired on him; retirees are pretty knowledgeable about such funds, and they saw thru this pretty quick. That ad seemed to disappear off the airwaves pretty quick, too.
I’m glad to say that Amy Klobuchar leads Mark Kennedy in the polls right now.
I’ve been seeing a lot of ads with a theme of “He/she is too liberal for [name of place]”. “Cecil Adams. He’s liberal for Chicago. Support traditional Chicago values. Vote Slug Signorino for Congressman.” Are there any ads out there that state “He/she is too conservative for [name of place]”?
No, they seem to use the word radical instead.
Or they use a phrase like “voted with George Bush 98% of the time”.
(But this is actually a more honest ad. Instead of just call the opponent a loaded term, this one uses a specific, verifiable fact about their voting record.)
How about VA GOP quote mining? In re. the Tailhook '91 scandal, a recent ad is saying that Jim Webb claimed it was “a witch hunt”, and I believe it also implied he was saying that as Secretary of the Navy or some such.
Actual quote:“A botched internal investigation and the ongoing revelations of inexcusable harassment of women at a Las Vegas convention of naval aviators a year ago have also left in their wake a witch hunt that threatens to swamp the entire naval service.” [New York Times 10/6/92]
Webb resigned as Secretary of the Navy in 1988, but I can’t find out what he was doing in 1991.
A lot of the ads in the area these days are ads attacking other ads. Ads that condemn mudslinging by slinging mud (candidate X is an asshat for slinging mud (and lying mud at that) when he’s the one that wants to kill kittens while watching porno).
Siege mentioned Santorum but I don’t see anyone mentioning (and I could be wrong) his latest ad. Once you resort to shots of mushroom clouds…it doesn’t get any worse than that (ask LBJ).
He’s basically saying his opponate is totally ok with North Korea’s nuclear bombs. Vote for him and Pennsylvania goes up in a radioactive holocuaust.
After a little more blathering he comes to “He believes in amnesty for immigrants but terrorists are coming into our country”. Um… the terrorists came into the country legally. And no doubt if they try again they have the organization to make sure they look legal. It’s an entirerly different issue than immigration, legal or not.
What a slimeball…I mean what a mixture of fecal matter and anal lube.
Here in downstate Illinois, it seems like every Republican for any office is running against Rod Blagojevich. Now, I have no love for Blagojevich, but to me it seems a little disingenuous to lump your opponent in the same category as Rod when all they have in common is the same party affiliation.
And of course, the Democrats are all running against George Ryan. Never mind that George Ryan hasn’t been governor for four years. If they’re the same party as George, then they’re in bed with George.
betenoir, I saw the ad and considered writing to Santorum. I would have said something along the lines of, “Mr. Santorum, if you want to know real fear, try being laid off for five months with no jobs in your field in sight and unemployment due to run out after six months.”
This morning, after yet another round of fear-mongering ads served up along with breakfast and the morning news, I came up with negative ad I’d love to see. The background music would be someone enthusiastically and skillfully singing, “I’ve been cheated!” [insert verbage describing opponent’s ethically dodgy behaviour], “Been mistreated!” [insert verbage describing opponent’s shenanigans] “When will I-I be loved?” [insert pitch for candidate]. OK, so it would still be negative, but at least you could sing along to it.
Oh well, only 6 more days of this left, and Santorum’s down by 15%.
There’s an ad running right now that makes me laugh every single time, but mostly because I can’t make heads or tails out of it. It’s only about 5 seconds long and the only thing announcer says is, “Vote no on proposition 90. It’s a taxpayer trap.” The screen is all black with white writing telling me to vote no on 90 the the list of folks who paid for the ad. They don’t talk about what 90 does, or who supports it, or anything. It’s a trap. I guess that’s enough information, right?
However, it’s the week before elections and they’ve really bumped it up a notch: They have the exact same voiceover, BUT they now have a really cheesy computer-generated picture of a rat trap on the screen. Oh, you were telling me it’s a trap! Like the one on the TV! I get it now! Then again, does this mean that they’re calling taxpayers rats?
I am happy to report that Duval Patrick not only won, but kicked Healey’s ass. Almost 20% margin, at last count. So sorry, Kerry. I guess $10 million couldn’t compensate for sleaze. Hope it hurts.
:: doing the happy happy HAPPY dance ::