If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you soon will. In Bush’s new campaign ad the last word mentioned other than his name is “faith”. In essence, they’re saying “I’m the man for you if you believe in unproven stuff”, right?
… like Iraqi WMDs.
“What sees us through tough times? Freedom, faith, families, and sacrifice.”
Oh. I’ll let myself out; I know when I’m not wanted.
Okay, three words before his name.
You can stay. I want to know if anyone thinks faith is an appropriate subject for a campaign ad.
Hell, I don’t think Bush is an appropiate subject for campaign ads.
If he’s paying for the ads with his own ducats that people were stupid enough to give him, he can read the Bible if he wants to. And from that you can decide that that he’s your kind of guy or he’s a fundamentalist nutjob.
But either way, it’s not inappropriate. At worst it’s ill-advised, and that depends entirely upon your target audience. If he’s aiming for fundies, then that ad is perfect.
Only if the election results are anounced with smoke signals…
A political ad is like any other ad. It’s trying to sell a product and will use techniques to get people interested in that product.
Many many people in the US think that faith in God is an important characteristic to have in a president, so he’s using his ads to adress this.
By the way, I’m not one of those people who think that nor would I ever vote for Bush, but I understand why the ads exist and I don’t mind them.
This means I’m supposed to drain the blood out of my family and burn their corpses to keep terrorists away, right?
Well, I’ll just get the axe, then.
“Freedom, faith, families, and sacrifice”
So getting the wife and kids together to slaughter a goat for the Dark Lord is a sign of support for the Republican party?
I think it’s kinda catchy:
“These all go together
In the good ol’ USA:
Freedom,
Fai-th,
Families,
And sacrifice.”
Criminey.
It’s one word. Faith. And he doesn’t even say what you should have faith in.
Maybe you should have faith in the basic decency of the American people.
Maybe you should have faith that, no matter who wins the election, our nation will endure.
Maybe you should have faith that hypersensitive agnostics won’t read too much into one word in a paid political ad.
Whoops, that last one went way too far.
Must be fun going through life permanently offended. I think I’ll pass, though.
What do you think he means? What do you think he thinks his audience will think he means? (If you see what I mean.) I think it’s fairly obvious.
That said, why shouldn’t he say it?
I don’t care much about his using ‘faith,’ but I heard one of his new ads described on NPR yesterday, and one of the images used in it is the steaming pile of WTC rubble. That is out of line, IMHO.
For the vocabulary impaired:
Etymology: Middle English feith, from Old French feid, foi, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust – more at BIDE
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
— Merriam Webster
Oh, I know what he means. And I’m all for it.
I’m enjoying seeing the easily offended with their panties in a bunch on this one.
It’s one word, and a harmless little word at that. A word that, on balance, has done far more good than ill in the world.
Also:
- often Faith Christianity. The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God’s will.
- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
I hope not all the liberals think it is a bad word. After all, if Kerry wins, he will have to swear to faithfully uphold…
I doubt very much that he’s the first politician to use faith in his campaign. Hell, every Democratic contender to hit Detroit prior to our caucuses found himself addressing a congregation somewhere. . .
“I believe we can be people of faith while respecting the principles that are enshrined in our Constitution.” — John Kerry
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/election2004/issues_faithinpublic.htm