A Stunning Revelation
Liberal Bloggers Shocked to Discover that Michael Steele is Running a Political Campaign
By Leon H Wolf Posted in 2006 — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I realize that it's about as difficult as hunting cows, but I felt compelled to whack around the current item at the top of the TPMCafe page, which features a blazing headline: "MD-SEN: No Mention Of GOP In Steele's First TV Ad." This, of course is supposed to get across the message that Steele is ashamed of being Republican, that one can't win as a Republican in this election, etc. etc. More here and I'm sure other places to come. Of course, the fact that Steele is running against a partisan tilt of at least 15 points has nothing to do with his failure to trumpet his party affiliation at all. Nossir.
Drawing the same set of inferences from the multiple television ads Harold Ford Jr. has run in Tennessee (which are viewable here), none of which mention the fact that he is a Democrat, that his opponents are Republicans, that he has an opponent, or that he takes any position which Republicans would oppose, we may safely assume that at the very least Harold Ford Jr. is ashamed of being a Democrat, and possibly that this means that candidates running as Democrats face trouble in the fall.
Or, we might conclude that both candidates are relatively astute politicians who are more interested in defeating their partisan opponents than trumpeting their own partisanship. I know that this analysis would never occur to most of the left blogosphere, but I thought I'd float it out there anyway - just as a wild suggestion.
More below...
Ford's ads, by the way, are a study in intellectual and ideological vapidity. Tennessee is filled with conservatives first and libertarians second, so anywhere east of Jackson the ideas popular with modern Democrats (socialized medicine, abortion-on-demand, hating Bush) are the political death knell for a candidate. Accordingly, Ford has had to resort to some rather interesting campaign messages in order to say literally anything at all. His commercials, in order, said this:
Commercial one: Gas prices are high, and we should switch to soybeans instead of oil. No mention is made of how Harold Ford Jr. would fix all cars to run on soybeans, or what Harold Ford Jr. could do about the fact that the creation of ethanol uses more energy than the combustion of ethanol creates. The presumption apparently is that Harold Ford Jr. will wave a magic wand and... poof! Cheap gas! Oh, and there's also an ominous picture of Bush with the Saudis.
Commercial two: We're still mad about the high gas prices. This time, we're promising that severance packages like Lee Raymond's will never happen on our watch. Does this mean that Harold Ford Jr. promises to eliminate severance packages? Profit? That he can mandate that the oil companies continue to run even if they can't attract executives or make money? Apparently, he's got another magic wand in there somewhere. Still no policy suggestions that would identify him as a Democrat in any way - unless class baiting counts as a "policy suggestion."
Commercial three: Now we're going on about the DPW ports deal. Which was killed by Republicans. This makes two out of three commercials in which Ford Jr. has used Arabs to incite fear and hatred. It's almost like he's trying to run as a Republican, except since he's really a closet Democrat, it comes out sounding like a Democrat parody of Republicans. Oh yeah, still no mention of the fact that he's a Democrat, or that he's running against a Republican.
Ford Jr.'s apparent belief is that if he just puts himself on television enough, regardless of whether he says anything, that this will be sufficient to put him over the top. Tennessee voters are smarter than this; but it gives him a better chance than running as a Democrat.
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A Stunning Revelation 7 Comments (0 topical, 7 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I reached the same conclusion. I think the big reason is political ads are geared towards the swing / undecided voter who isn't concerned about party affiliation as much as positions on the particular issues they find important. The target audience for political ads is the swing voter who may be turned off by party affiliation being put in their face, not the party loyalist who already understands the issues and knows who the candidates are for each party.
Last time I saw a guy pushing his party affiliation prominently was in the Democratic primary for Governor of California. Steve Westly, when he started up his challenge to Phil Angelides, kept pushing himself as Democrat for Governor when he was introducing himself to the Democrats of the state.
Beyond that though, I don't ever recall a candidate emphasizing party.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
Given that TPMCafe is a likely hangout for a lot of Demopublican insiders, this doesn't really surprise me. After all, Brilliant Corners was working hard to achieve something like this result several months ago: make Steele ashamed and fearful of being a Republican. Whether you believe that worked or not, the TMPCafe'ers are probably very interested to know how well Brilliant Corners strategies on the ground to "discredit" Steele and "knock him down" are doing.
Ford, meanwhile, is staying true to the message: Assoicate his opponent with the President.
I am a hawkish warmonger with a crusty demeanour and a heart of steel. But I have a softer side.
Here is the first commercial Ben Cardin ran on TV, which is posted at his website. Maybe those same people in the media and in the Democratic Party who are so concerned about whether Steele mentions the word "Republican" can show me exactly where in the commercial Cardin mentions that he is a "Democrat". Did I miss it? There is even a helpful transcript posted below the video for those who might not be able to view videos on the Internet. Nope, it's not in there either....
Now of course this is silly, I don't think it really matters. But it does show how ridiculous this entire argument over whether or not Steele mentions the word "Republican" in his commercials really is....
If you're trying to rally the Dem nutbase, who needs logic? You simply say what makes the base feel happy and righteous and...well, whatever it is they feel over there.
If the MSM does decide to point out any inconsistencies in your argument, they won't push too hard. After all, they don't want to wound their friends.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
About Kennedy's first ad. There must be a memo going around.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
to mention the party of the candidates, just their names.
There is usually that little "paid for by X" thing at the end, that might include the party, but I don't remember Kerry saying "hey I am a democrat, don't vote for that awful republican Bush" or visa versa during the '04 election cycle.
I think this is a good case of nit picking, and maybe not having anything to really attack Steele on.