Ths is the worst campaign commercial I’ve ever seen.
It’s hard to pick one big thing that’s wrong with it, because there are so many big things wrong with it. First, it’s clearly a Markos Moulitsas Production, since he instantly becomes the focus of the commercial the second he minces to the window in the background. That’s fine if Markos is actually running for office, but he’s not. He’s the cut-rate Kingmaker that Democrats get when they can’t afford someone who’s backed a wining campaign. That poor unfortunate guy siting on the couch is running – against Joe Lieberman, who Markos has decided is not a “real” Democrat because he believes that we ought to fight the people who are killing us instead of the preferred Kos solution of…umm…whatever.
Okay, so Markos reduces the candidate to second-string status in his own campaing commercial, but it’s worse than that. See I know who Moulitsas is and you might know who he is. But I can guarantee you that there aren’t very many voters in Connecticut voters who have even the vaguest clue who he is. Oh sure, there might be a few thousand voters who are faithful Kos readers and Ned Lamont will get all of their votes. But that’s all he’ll get. It would have helped the commercial immensely had he sad something like “Hey! It’s that blogger and author Markos! What are you doing here?”
No, Lamont was too busy giving us the third horrid thing wrong with his commercial: his platform. Let me sum it up for you: Forget the war against Islamism, everyone gets free stuff, and George Bush is wrong. Did anyone tell Lamont that he’s not actually running against George Bush. He’s running against Joe Lieberman and believe me when I tell you that the only real difference between Leiberman and the bulk of the Democratic Party is his stance on the war. So, basically, Lamont is running on the platform of “Elect me and we can forget all about those mean terrorists”.
Yeah. That’s a winner.
I do like Jeff Goldstein’s summation of the commercial:
In fact, if I had to compare it to anything, I would compare it to that now infamous “unscripted” Al Gore alpha male moment: by ad’s end, you’re holding your breath, hoping against hope you’re not about to see Moulitsas thrust his tongue down a slightly confused Connecticut Senate hopeful Ned Lamont’s throat.
Heh. I’ll make a prediction here. Lamont loses in a veritable landslide and is lucky to pull down 30 percent of the vote.
Moulitsas goes 0-19.
It’s Democratic nominating convention day today in Connecticut
… and the anti-war liberals are hoping for a Ned Lamont victory against Senator Joe Lieberman:
Lieberman, 64, a three-term senator never seriously challenged for his party’s endorsement, has had to work as never before to convince Democrats…
Moulitsas purposely picks candidates that are underfunded and/or are facing an uphill battle. Going 0-19 would be bad, but if he could help pull out a couple wins where there was previously no chance, I’d be impressed.
It’s a nice excuse, but for all his bragging, Moulitsas doesn’t turn out nearly what he says he can. His bragging is far more than his capabilities.
Basically, few mainstream voters are going to get behind a candidate whose main platform plank makes him sound like Yosemite Sam. The slogan “Oooooo….I hate that President” doesn’t sell as far as he likes to think.