৭ জুলাই, ২০০৯
"The Democrats have total control."
Via Memeorandum, which links to a criticism by Greg Sargent of a minor aspect of this ad. The major thing I'm seeing here a very effective ad for the Republican Party. Of course, you can't beat something with nothing. The Republicans need more than the fact that the Democrats are scary. But the ad resonated with me. Now, Al Franken as the face of that scariness may be a bit silly. And, actually, I don't think you need to go all emotive to get the desired effect. I think I'd be more scared by a straightforward presentation of facts, recited by a sober voiceover, and no music at all.
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I agree that the ad could have been as scary using an alternative concept to Al Franken impersonating Paul Wellstone in the background. But as the ad actually appears, I find it difficult to characterize the clips of Al Franken appearing to be angry and scary for 35 seconds to be a "minor aspect" of a 60 second ad about the Democrats' control being a scary thing.
Nice music. I wonder what it is. Not in the Dictionary of Musical Themes.
I wrote a paper in Gov 101 "Should Rule 22 Be Abolished?"
As I recall I was against it.
Who are the Republicans we'll be voting for in 2010? Where are they now?
The Democrats own it. They own it. The entire Harvard hates America agenda is theirs. The entire and total all out war on middle class normals is theirs. They own death by a thousand cuts taxation. They own screw the white firefighters. They own dumbing down diversity. They're in control. They're in total control and soon they'll be coming to your town coming to your household ringing your bell and a big white toothed smiling multicultifaced Acorn ENEMY will be taking your census. Get it? Get it? Get it yet, SLAVE?!?!
It doesn't matter who the Rs run.
Americans generally favor divided government.
And given the the #1 Democrat promised that massive spending would keep unemployment from going above 8% and it is now 9.5% and still rising it may be time for Change and A New Hope. (key up Star Wars theme music).
Since we are electing politicians the hope may be in vain. But change will be good in any case.
The music sounds like it should be the overture to Schindler's List.
The democrats need to do an ad showing what the republicans have.
Social conservative white old men from the South. That will be a huge hit.
Or they could do one with Palin, Ensign, Sanford, Craig, Vitter and talk about their amazing family values. I am picturing Vitter in a diaper with a baby rattle for added effect. Maybe they can dig us Jerry Falwell for the coup de grace.
Sorry, I fell off the wagon. Everything is fine for us republicans. We are doing grande, especially in the poorest, least educated, and most fat states-who also happen to get more money from the federal government then the horrible blue states.
Biggest Porker in the Senate-Thad Cochran from Mississippi, natch. And old friend of Truman Capote's.
A bit overwrought, but they need to drive home the fact that the Dems are in complete and utter control. There is no governor on their ambition. The country is theirs, and everything in it.
ricpic--comment of the day!
Very effective ad. Very.
And ad of gay leathermen next to Nancy Pelosis face is always good for a few points.
They get too cute with the Franken part. Presumably, they will get better closer to the election, and they are just trying to use the recent publicity of Franken being seated.
The theme is a good one. I even think the Republicans could go back to the 2006 election and argue the economic problems started when the democrats took over the Congress - but it may be too risky to open up any asosciation with President Bush.
At this point, it does seem likely that democrats will get clobbered in 2010.
Or a picture of Fat Limbaugh's fat face making fun of Michael J Fox.
classy.
A man who made his living as the unfunniest body to ever stain a SNL stage joins the worlds greatest deliberative body, where his party is notable only for its inability to produce one statesman out of sixty hacks.
He'll be a smashing success.
Or a video of Rush Limbaugh going off on drug addicts while he is freebasing oxycontin.
Or a video of Rush Limbaugh going off on drug addicts while he is freebasing oxycontin.
"They're in total control and soon they'll be coming to your town coming to your household ringing your bell and a big white toothed smiling multicultifaced Acorn ENEMY will be taking your census."
I'm in ur house, takin ur cenzus!
As I've said before, the Dem's ascendancy can't possibly last long because it is built on an impossible financial foundation.
They'll have their day in the sun, and we all must pray that we'll then be able to find some adults to come in and salvage the country.
This isn't mere politics. This is serious now. Obama is stirring the economic pot so vigorously that it is becoming a thin gruel, and the instability it is creating in the markets will continue to show in the unemployment number.
At this point, it does seem likely that democrats will get clobbered in 2010.
It would be arguing against history to make a rosy forecast for Democrats in 2010. I think clobbered might be overly optimistic for Republicans -- it depends on who the Republicans get to run -- and also on the state of things.
Will anyone outside Minnesota really care that Al Franken is a Senator in a couple months? I doubt it.
"They'll have their day in the sun, and we all must pray that we'll then be able to find some adults to come in and salvage the country."
It's funny, I often heard conservatives saying that now George W. Bush was in the White House and the GOP had majorities in the Congress, the adults were in charge, as opposed to those terrible Clinton years. That didn't turn out so well, and the current crop of Republicans doesn't exactly inspire confidence as being responsible adults.
The video made Al Franken's gestures seem like Adolph Schickelgruper's performances from the 1930's newsreels. I wonder if that visual association hurts or helps today's Dems who openly seek power of control over our money and our minds.
Being a Republican by nature means just being against some thing. Anything. They haven't had a new idea the 44 years I've been alive. They never have an answer for any real problem people face, just try to scare the fuck out of middle America that [insert boogeyman] is out to get them. In this case, a Harvard grad wonk like Al Franken who actually knows how government policies work. Gasp. Hide your children!
What a complete crock from the same gang that got us into this mess in the first place.
There's plenty of debate, I see Republicans on my TV constantly, they still dominate talk shows, John Boehner made an hour-long speech on the House floor. You cannot stop these guys from debating.
This is patently false.
What's worse is that the Repugs ruled with a iron fist when they were in the majority. You know, while they were making the problems we have no much more worse.
Stunning, Althouse, that you would fall for such juvenile tripe.
And the "minor aspect" Greg Sargent points out is that the Republicans dishonestly use footage of Franken telling a Wellstone sports story. They make him look like Che Guevara!
You guys like it all false. Such fucking habitual liars.
Well, that is why we have elections every two years.
Now if the economy is picking up one year from now Republicans will have a hard time saying "the economy is improving in spite of the Democrats because of the natural economic cycle."
So, fine. The Democrats own it.
We will see.
I'm evil enough, I'm sinister enough, and, gosh darn it, people fear me.
"Now if the economy is picking up one year from now"
Lefties think you can do any damn thing to the 'economy' and it putts right along.
No matter how many taxes and regulations and trade barriers and union rules they put on its back, they think it produces the same dollars regardless.
And they believe, they actually believe, that it's businesses that screw it all up. Gummint is the white knight, always; what could possibly go wrong?
For decades, Democrats and Republicans have been slowly plucking the goose that lays the golden eggs. But now, Obama is trying to eat the goddamned thing, and still he expects it to lay.
Dumb as effing stumps.
Pogo, I remember back during the early Clinton years Republicans, including Rush Limbaugh, were saying that the Clinton tax increase and his economic policies were going to send the country to the poor house. Didn't turn out the way you thought it would did it?
We will see next year how things are. That is why we have elections every two years.
But please Republicans continue to count your chickens.
"Didn't turn out the way you thought it would did it?"
Well, we're in the poor house now.
What, did you think it was some immediate effect, like lighting a match?
Dumb as stumps, I tell ya.
I want the democrats to run the speeches of Rudy bitching about cosmopolitans juxtoposed to his Park Avenue place and Mitt Romney speaking of East Coast Elites juxtoposed to his Belmont, and Lake Winnepauskee homes. That would be fabulous.
There is no hypocrisy there either.
Also, Rudy staying with the Gay Couple and their Shih Tsu's during 9/11 would add a little more flavor.
Let's dick up Jeane Kirkpatrick that big old dyke and have her to another San Francisco Values speech.
She was amazing....25 years ago....
It's a new day. The country is changing get over it.
Sorry, again I fell off the wagon. We are doing well. We have many ideas. We are going to win again. We will hang homos or at least sent them out to pasture on trains. The trains will have hot pornos to entice fags. Look fags, porno....disco balls...poppers,,, come, you will like it.
Now let's gas em.
I like the blatant lies..."THEIR failed economy!" and so on. Ha! Bush/Cheney's failed economy is the truth of the matter.
But, I don't let the Dems off the hook. The Dems helped the Republicans do it, either through active collaboration or through passive failure to oppose. The Dems are just the slightly less nutty, slightly less monomaniacal,slightly more prudent version of the Republicans. Obama's big failure so far is his continuation of Bush/Republican policies in everything from giving bailouts to the bankers who have raped and who continue to rape America, to his continuation of Bush's illegal wars, murder, torture, secret prisons, indefinite detentions, etc. As Clinton was George H.W. Bush lite, Obama is George W. Bush lite.
Until we actually get some Democrats in office with spine, with real commitment to progressive policies and the public interest rather than servile obedience to the oligarchies who own America, who will repudiate the failed the policies of the cons, neo-cons, and con-men of the right, we will continue our plunge into ruin.
I don't hold my breath expecting any change, actually; the fix seems already to be in, and Obama might as well sign "Republican" for his party affiliation.
Alpha -
"And the "minor aspect" Greg Sargent points out is that the Republicans dishonestly use footage of Franken telling a Wellstone sports story. They make him look like Che Guevara!"
Gosh. That's nothing like using falsely edited interviews with Gibson and Couric to make Palin look like she couldn't answer the question. And nothing like falsely caricaturing her by claiming she could see Russia from her house.
Or falsely claiming that Obama was a fiscal conservative. Or falsely claiming that Joe Biden was competent.
Or falsely claiming that a pork-laden crony-reward package was going to stimulate the economy. Or falsely claiming that cap-and-trade is anything other than another huge tax.
Or falsely claiming that the "public option" in ObamaCare isn't designed to crowd out private competition. Or falsely claiming that the government can cut costs by imposing a Medicare level payment system on the healthcare system when private citizens are already paying more for healthcare precisely because Medicare payments don't cover the actual costs of treatment.
Or maybe falsely claiming that the economic recovery has already begun. Or maybe falsely claiming that IG Walpin was fired for anything other than investigating one of Obama's cronies.
Or maybe falsely claiming that Obama didn't know what an anti-Semitic, racist Rev. Wright is. Or maybe falsely claiming that the "waters would begin to recede."
Do I really have to go on?
And you want to complain about a campaign ad that uses actual footage of Al Franken doing what he does for a living?
Oh, stop it. You are making my sides hurt.
Robert Cook -
"Bush/Cheney's failed economy is the truth of the matter."
LOL This from the same group who tried to blame Bush for the recession he inherited from Clinton.
Sorry. You don't get to have it both ways. You laid that one at Bush's feet. You now get to take full credit for the one Obama walked into.
The difference between Bush and Obama is that Bush's tax cuts prevented it from getting worse and put the country on the road back. Obama, on the other hand made it worse with his idea of "stimulus," and now we're looking at an economic situation far worse than the one he inherited.
Look at the polling numbers. You're increasingly alone standing out there on the ledge trying to claim that "it's Bush's fault!"
The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Obama is already under 50% approval in the swing state of Ohio and net negative on the handling of the economy. Obama carried that state with 52% of the vote in November. 6% of his voters are essentially already asking for their votes back (3% overall = 6% of Obama voters), and he's lost everybody who was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The latest Rasmussen polls show him at 52/47. For a guy who won 53/46, that's 2% of his own voters nationwide who asking for their votes back. And Obama himself admits that we're nowhere near the end of the economic pain. The only part he refuses to add is "that his policies are in large part responsible for."
Yeah. Keep blaming Bush. That's worked for you so far, so you keep riding that horse until it drops dead underneath you.
I bet it's the Democrats' fault that the GOP screwed up when they held the House, Senate, and White House. Evil bastards.
The problem is the Republicans don't care very much about the policies the Democrats are advancing. They are for the same things, just not quite as much: spending, taxes, intrusive, reach-into-everything government. Who enacted the last, big entitlement? the Republicans.
No, what bothers the GOP is that someone else has the levers of power and doles out the goodies.
The GOP doesn't believe a single word of any of the things they say they believe in.
peter and Father -
If you're talking about the current crop of Republicans residing inside the Beltway, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with your assessment of the majority of them.
As I keep explaining over and over to people who think the current low approval ratings for Republicans have anything to do with support for Democratic policies. The discontent is coming from Republicans (and former Republicans) who are disgusted with the Democrat-Lite policies coming from these clowns.
That's what the TEA parties are all about and why it's such a ludicrously uninformed and asinine accusation that the GOP and/or FoxNews had anything to do with them. If you'd ever attended one, you'd know that there is as much vitriol directed at elected Republicans as there is at Democrats.
People forget that the reason that social issues rose to such prominence in elections during the last 20 years or so is because the parties had grown so closely together in the policies they espoused - each trying to outrace the other to the public trough - that the parties had to find a different avenue to motivate voters to choose them over the other guy.
If the Republican party listens to its rank-and-file and returns to being the party of small government, low taxes and a strong national defense then social issues will fall away. There will be a clear line of delineation between the two.
This is why I keep telling Leftists that they dismiss TEA parties at their own peril. Already they are producing their own candidates for local offices, and they're winning. They're influencing the current crop of candidates for 2010, and I'll bet you money that whoever the Republican candidate is for 2012 will have an agenda which is a lot heavier on these core issues than the more divisive social ones. The country is still center-right and - according to Gallup - increasingly so. The only question that remains to be answered is when the Republican party will start listening.
The problem is the Republicans don't care very much about the policies the Democrats are advancing. They are for the same things, just not quite as much: spending, taxes, intrusive, reach-into-everything government. Who enacted the last, big entitlement? the Republicans.
I don't deny that the Republicans who came to power last time around became, to some extent, Democrats lite. But that is not what will win elections now. Tom DeLay is gone. So is George W. Bush, etc. What will sell is small government, lower government spending, less corruption, and a strong defense. Obama is making it easy for them on all fronts - screwing up the economy with massive spending and likely massive tax increases; massively increasing the level of corruption, as evidenced most recently by firing the IG investigating one of his campaign contributors; cozening up to the bad people in the world while spitting on our friends, etc.
And what Bruce said too :)
I also agree with Jim's point about the TEA parties. This is a grass roots movement towards smaller government and much lower government spending, directly in response to the prolific ways of the Democrats in power right now.
The problem is that the TEA party people cannot win on their own. It has been most of a century since a third party candidate really did anything more than run as a spoiler. The Republicans who have not been tarnished by trying to be Democrats Lite need to jump on this bandwagon fast and honestly.
"The problem is that the TEA party people cannot win on their own. It has been most of a century since a third party candidate really did anything more than run as a spoiler. The Republicans who have not been tarnished by trying to be Democrats Lite need to jump on this bandwagon fast and honestly."
I don't think that the majority of TEA partiers are looking to form third parties, but they are looking for candidates that share their beliefs.
I attended one on the 4th with my wife, and there was a potential Republican candidate speaking there who "got it." (And he was black - so much for that "racist, redneck teabaggers" meme, huh?) A very charismatic guy who spoke powerfully and earnestly about core principles: the kind of earnestness that's hard to fake.
My wife and I got home and checked out more information on his policy positions on his website and promptly sent an email telling him that we would be willing to do what we could to help his candidacy.
That's the power of TEA parties. The candidates who "get it" will show up, and they're the ones who will carry the momentum into 2010 and beyond. Hopefully more candidates figure out how to harness the energy that's there for the taking.
That's cute. It almost implies Republican politicians care about Big Government spending.
jmatt -
"That's cute. It almost implies Republican politicians care about Big Government spending."
That's cute. It almost implies that you didn't understand a single word that either Bruce or I wrote.
Try reading for comprehension next time.
obama is whipping his side into a frenzy just to kill the economy, and dems still blame bush? for the stimulus, and faulty national health care?
the democrats just aren't paying attention anymore, it really is like that onion article about the obama supporter zombies
I liked the use of Franken. His grinning and fevered gesturing seems to embody the reckless Dem arrogance that the subtitles are calling attention to.
Bush's economy?
It's Frank and Chris Dodd's economy thank you very much...
Yes, the Democrats have total control. I think that the stock market realizes this too.
I also agree with Jim's point about the TEA parties. This is a grass roots movement towards smaller government and much lower government spending, directly in response to the prolific ways of the Democrats in power right now.
A nationwide grass roots movement that probably couldn't russle up enough people to change the socialist/fascist/pro-grey poupon policies of Alberquerque. The nerds who want the "Force" to be acknowleged as an official state religion have a better chance.
I also liked the music. Anyone know what it is?
The Dems are just the slightly less nutty, slightly less monomaniacal,slightly more PRUDENT(!) version of the Republicans..
Wow. Just Wow.
Hey, everyone who voted for Obama raise your hand ...
how's that working out for you now?
"We have nothing to offer but fear itself." -- The National Republican Committee.
The ad would be more effective, perhaps, if it ran on television instead of just YouTube.
The cap and trade legislation has been deemed "the largest tax increase in American history," by no less than Rich Glennie of the McLeod County Chronicle, of Glencoe, MN -- circulation 3300.
I repeatedly hear this idea that conservatives/Republicans "have no ideas".
In one sense that is correct ...
... unlike the elitists in Washington, we don't presume to have the solutions to every problem mankind faces, but instead realize that it is We the People who will ultimately solve the vast majority of them ...
... and will do so quicker and better if the elitists quit trying to solve these problems for them, in the process watching the very resources needed to solve those problems get yanked from their hands as the elitists tax, try and fail.
Maybe it is those who HAVE "ideas" who are the bigger problem?
Invisible -
"The nerds who want the "Force" to be acknowleged as an official state religion have a better chance."
You keep believing that if that's what gets you to sleep at night. But don't come crying in November 2010 and asking where it all went wrong with the perpetual majority that Leftists seem to think they now enjoy.
paul -
"how's that working out for you now?"
According to the latest Rasmussen numbers, not so well.
He's completely lost any "I'll give him the benefit of the doubt" people who didn't actually vote for him in November, and now he's even losing those who did.
Give it a couple more months after unemployment goes over 10% while Democrats are still arguing over which taxes should be raised the most to pay for their latest brainchild.
You ain't seen nothing yet. I've been predicting for months that Obama would be at a net negative by Labor Day, but it looks like he's bound and determined to make my prediction look conservative.
That's cute. It almost implies Republican politicians care about Big Government spending.
Some don't, but many do. You are deluding yourself if you think that DeLay, Hastart, Lott, Stevens, and either President Bush are the soul of the party. They aren't, and haven't been, at least since Reagan. And note one thing - that most of the most egregious of them are gone.
As Jim pointed out, those who "get it" are going to get support. Those who don't, will just have to buy it like a Democrat does, with tax dollars.
Hey, everyone who voted for Obama raise your hand ...
how's that working out for you now?"
both my nieces who campaigned for Obama have lost their jobs, and totally upset about it - I told them that elections have consequences, and this is 100% proof. Welcome to the real world girls, hope you enjoy the "change"
iaintbob -
Your story of girls, jobs and elections reminds me of a joke I read recently:
I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do? '
She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.
'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that.. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and rake my yard, and I'll pay you $50.
Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. '
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ' Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?
I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'
Being a Republican by nature means just being against some thing. Anything. They haven't had a new idea the 44 years I've been alive.
...as opposed to the Dems' persistent "Let's do the New Deal...AGAIN!" brand of new ideas.
What's worse is that the Repugs ruled with a iron fist when they were in the majority.
Funny, the Dems passed new rules that limit what the minority is allowed to do. The GOP have the minority quite a bit of a voice.
...don't worry, they won't make that mistake twice.
Jim -- I'd like to nominate your last one for "comment of the year".
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