Thomspon's lame ad
By Libby
Man, am I having a bad day. I've been coming down with some bug and had to get to work at the crack of dawn. I got home at noon and thought I would just rest for an hour and ended up passing out on the couch for four and then when I finally got on the computer, my sound wasn't working. Technodope that I am, it took me 45 minutes to figure out that I should try rebooting --which fixed it. It was apparently some glitch caused by the latest stupid update that Windows made me install. All of this so I could hear what Fred Thompson had to say in a 40 second spot.
It was hardly worth it. I don't know why the wingnuts are so excited about this ad in response to a challenge by Michael Moore to debate health care. I have a feeling this one will backfire with the regular folks. It's the most pathetic ad I've seen in 40 years. He came across as arrogant and totally self-involved. Kind of like our current president - the one a majority of the country is sick of. It's clear Thompson is afraid to put forth any substantive statements on health care so he jumps straight to the smear tactics that the voters rejected in 06.
To begin with, I've seen no evidence that Moore met with Castro, much less that he's friendly with him, so the crack about Moore's buddy is not only false, it makes Fred look like he's becoming forgetful in his advancing age. Maybe he thought he was responding to Chavez? And the reference to Castro torturing some other filmmaker that no one else has ever heard of simply as vehicle to imply Moore belongs in a mental institution was too forced. And it immediately brought the torture at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib to mind, with a passing thought to the unfortunate Jose Padillo. Not to mention the impropriety of a presidential contender speaking so rudely to a fellow citizen, no matter what he thinks of him.
And then there's the cigar. The whole brouhaha revolves around Thomspon's criticism of Moore's trip and Moore noting that Freddy apparently smokes Cuban cigars. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I enjoyed a few of those myself when I was in Mexico, but it's not even legal anymore for tobacco companies to place ads in video media. In fact, if memory serves, television programs are not allowed to show people smoking, or maybe they refrain voluntarily, but they do so in the interests of public health.
Fred visually punctuating his impromptu smear with the stodgy may play well with the macho, armchair warriors but what kind of message does that send to "the children" when a man who would be president airs video of himself clearly enjoying his big, fat cigar? Jebus, he looked like the Don of some organized crime cartel threatening a rival.
All that being said, I actually liked the spot as a creative effort. If it was promoting an action movie it would have been great. And it might even help him get the nomination. The voters this field needs to appeal to will just eat it up. I almost hope it does because it highlights Thompson's true colors in a way that won't win the general election.
Up until now he's been an unknown entity who has good numbers because -- to tell the truth I can't figure out why he has good numbers except that he's telegenic and people recognize from his acting roles. But if intends to portray himself as the new persona of the old "confident" Bush, I think he'll be easy to knock down. This country has had six years of swaggering arrogance and plain old bad manners. I doubt they're feeling in the mood for more of the same.
Man, am I having a bad day. I've been coming down with some bug and had to get to work at the crack of dawn. I got home at noon and thought I would just rest for an hour and ended up passing out on the couch for four and then when I finally got on the computer, my sound wasn't working. Technodope that I am, it took me 45 minutes to figure out that I should try rebooting --which fixed it. It was apparently some glitch caused by the latest stupid update that Windows made me install. All of this so I could hear what Fred Thompson had to say in a 40 second spot.
It was hardly worth it. I don't know why the wingnuts are so excited about this ad in response to a challenge by Michael Moore to debate health care. I have a feeling this one will backfire with the regular folks. It's the most pathetic ad I've seen in 40 years. He came across as arrogant and totally self-involved. Kind of like our current president - the one a majority of the country is sick of. It's clear Thompson is afraid to put forth any substantive statements on health care so he jumps straight to the smear tactics that the voters rejected in 06.
To begin with, I've seen no evidence that Moore met with Castro, much less that he's friendly with him, so the crack about Moore's buddy is not only false, it makes Fred look like he's becoming forgetful in his advancing age. Maybe he thought he was responding to Chavez? And the reference to Castro torturing some other filmmaker that no one else has ever heard of simply as vehicle to imply Moore belongs in a mental institution was too forced. And it immediately brought the torture at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib to mind, with a passing thought to the unfortunate Jose Padillo. Not to mention the impropriety of a presidential contender speaking so rudely to a fellow citizen, no matter what he thinks of him.
And then there's the cigar. The whole brouhaha revolves around Thomspon's criticism of Moore's trip and Moore noting that Freddy apparently smokes Cuban cigars. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I enjoyed a few of those myself when I was in Mexico, but it's not even legal anymore for tobacco companies to place ads in video media. In fact, if memory serves, television programs are not allowed to show people smoking, or maybe they refrain voluntarily, but they do so in the interests of public health.
Fred visually punctuating his impromptu smear with the stodgy may play well with the macho, armchair warriors but what kind of message does that send to "the children" when a man who would be president airs video of himself clearly enjoying his big, fat cigar? Jebus, he looked like the Don of some organized crime cartel threatening a rival.
All that being said, I actually liked the spot as a creative effort. If it was promoting an action movie it would have been great. And it might even help him get the nomination. The voters this field needs to appeal to will just eat it up. I almost hope it does because it highlights Thompson's true colors in a way that won't win the general election.
Up until now he's been an unknown entity who has good numbers because -- to tell the truth I can't figure out why he has good numbers except that he's telegenic and people recognize from his acting roles. But if intends to portray himself as the new persona of the old "confident" Bush, I think he'll be easy to knock down. This country has had six years of swaggering arrogance and plain old bad manners. I doubt they're feeling in the mood for more of the same.
Labels: Election 08, Media, Republicans, spin
posted by Libby Spencer at 6:46 PM
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