Dean Support-o-Meter
The Club for Growth, a Republicanish group, has spent $75,000 to air an ad in Iowa that features a couple saying, “I think Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding…[etc.] … freak-show back to Vermont.”
One has to wonder why. If Dean is the weakest candidate against Bush, why is a Republican group working so hard to keep him from getting the nomination? In fact, why would Karl Rove be telling the world that Dean is the candidate he would most like to run his boy against? Surely Karl is too devious to be giving the Democrats such good advice!
Anyway, thanks to the Club, we now have an easy way to gauge whether Dean is the candidate for you:
| Me | You | |
| Tax-hiking |  | |
| Government-expanding | | |
| Latte-drinking | | |
| Sushi-eating | ||
| Volvo-driving | | |
| New York Times-reading | | |
| Body-piercing | ||
| Hollywood-loving | ||
| Left-wing | | |
| Freak show | ||
| PERCENT DEAN SUPPORT | 70% | ?? |
By the way, in response to this ad, Dean supporters donated an additional $280,000 to the Governor’s campaign.
Charles Taylor at Salon has a good review (i.e., I generally agree with his assessment) of the ads created by amateurs as part of MoveOn.org’s contest. He particularly likes Charlie Fisher’s “Child Play.” Me, too. As Taylor says:
If I were Howard Dean or Wesley Clark, the impact and economy of these ads would make me think twice before I shelled out big bucks to some media professionals.
Categories: Uncategorized dw
I have a somewhat different take on these ads — alas, I think only a few of them would be effective.
“One has to wonder why. If Dean is the weakest candidate against Bush, why is a Republican group working so hard to keep him from getting the nomination?”
This “ad” isn’t intended to deny Dean the nomination. It’s intended to support his effort to win the nomination.
The ad is designed to offend and therefore motivate Dean supporters to go to the caucuses and support him. It may also offend enough undecideds to move to the Dean camp. It’s almost certainly not going to make anyone reconsider their support of Dean. It’s also a little red-meat cheerleading for the faithful in the other camp.
It’s a clever bit of strategy. The Republicans really do want to run against Dean, and they’ll mop the floor with him, all the internet energy notwithstanding. And I’m not a Bush supporter.
Feel free to throw that back in my face in November if I’m wrong.
Bush in 30 Seconds: Finalists
update Apparently my favorite is liked by others more left-wing than me. update Here is the RNC response to their…
Every Republican I’ve spoken with wants Dean to be nominated. I’m pretty sure the majority of the Republican camp feels the same way.
“If elected, I promise to raise taxes and reduce your 401k by 90%.” Dean’s message sounds like the Mondale campaign. No thanks…
U.S. Accused of Killing Iraqi Couple
By ALI AHMED
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) – U.S. paratroopers fired on a house in this center of anti-American resistance, killing an Iraqi couple, orphaning their five children and enraging neighbors who insisted the pair were innocent.
“This is democracy? These corpses?” neighbor Raad Majeed asked at the hospital, gesturing at the remains of the couple, on gurneys covered with bloody sheets. “It’s a crime against humanity.” The 82nd Airborne Division said its paratroopers acted after receiving “two rounds of indirect fire” around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
“Paratroopers from our Task Force engaged the point of origin with a grenade launcher and small arms, causing two personnel to flee into a nearby building, which was also engaged and destroyed,” division spokeswoman Capt. Tammy Galloway said in a statement.
“The building was searched and no weapons or personnel were found. Upon questioning, civilians in the area reported two dead personnel were taken to a nearby hospital,” the statement said.
I will only vote for the candidate who walks into that freakin building, and yanks that guy out by his collar. I’m freakin sick.
I’m with Dave Rogers. I like Dean well enough. But I fear he’s going to lose big to Mr. Bush. I could see Clark taking Bush in a heartbeat if he got the nomination. He would have a far greater appeal to the moderate middle who, while not crazy about the way Bush is doing his job, don’t hate him (like I do).
I’m also with Dave on this: feel free to throw it back in my face if Dean wins the white house. I’ll be too busy celebrating to care.
how did you get those italics in there, dude?
I rarely discuss politics on-line, but I have to say I find this ad particularly depressing. Designed to provoke a backlash or not, the idea that reading the New York Times – our country’s foremost newspaper (or anything else for that matter) – is somehow liberal-reactionary is incredibly depressing.
The ideal of an informed citizenry engaging in the public use of reason to make decisions regarding their republic’s future has always been honored more in the breach than in the observance. And I recognize that this ideal of patriotism and freedom has been slipping away from us for some time.
But that a publically run ad that takes such anti-intellectualism for granted can be broadcast hurts me deeply.
Taking on our blog-given responsibility to fact-check each other’s asses…
You write:
“By the way, in response to this ad, Dean supporters donated an additional $280,000 to the Governor’s campaign.”
But the article says:
“The ad could actually boost Dean. A previous Club for Growth ad, which painted Dean as a tax-hiking sure loser, brought $280,000 into his campaign in a few days from outraged supporters.”
But I suspect that this one may boost Dean’s coffers even better than the previous one did.
I note that a couple of the acts might be difficult to combine. New-York-Times-reading while Volvo-driving could be difficult, and latte-drinking while sushi-eating might be unpalatable :-)
“We think it disagrees with the theoretical predictions in that we see filaments and voids larger than predicted,” Dr. Woodgate said.
Dr. Robert P. Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said the findings were interesting, but that it was too early to eliminate any theories. What is probably needed was a better understanding how of a clump of dark matter leads to the formation of stars.
“What we’re seeing here,” Dr. Kirshner said, “is the beginning of the investigation how structure grows.”
Joseph, thanks for the correction.
Beat Way, Scott used HTML markup.
David = It’s not the Club for Growth — It’s the Men’s Club For Hair Growth, run by Larry Kudlow (reformed cocaine abuser thank you) and others who are in great need of hair from what I can see. Halley
http://www.halleyscomment.blogspot.com/2004_01_04_halleyscomment_archive.html#107357671834206606
I’ve wasted entirely too much time today looking for a web reference to a “letter to the editor” featured on one of the cable news networks last night — I could have sworn it was CNN — asking George Bush to take his freak show back to Texas.
If the ‘moderate middle’ want the democratic nomination for their guy…let them register as democrats and vote in the primary.
Because we lefties are coming to the party and voting for our own guy this year!
Club for growth
After another wordless breakfast spent staring down at their respective sides of an orange Formica tabletop in Maisie’s American Breakfast, Grover and Heloise Fernit rose to their feet the second their teenaged waitress had taken away the check and the…
I do, however, score 60%
I do, however, score 60% on the Dean Support-o-Meter.
The twenty lies of George W. Bush Monday night’s 15-minute speech by President Bush, setting a 48-hour deadline for war against Iraq, went beyond the usual distortions, half-truths, and appeals to fear and backwardness to include a remarkable number of barefaced, easily refuted lies.
Exercise and Fitness Program
To be healthy Exercise and Fitness Program