BRING IT ON!: The More Rovian Crap Gets Slung, The Better Off We Are

[Plaid Adder]

I was talking to my partner tonight long-distance (she's away on a business trip) and telling her about the 9/11 footage in Bush's ads. I love listening to her rant. After exploding about how totally despicable it is for him to be doing this at all, she said, "You know what? BRING IT ON! It'll only make it worse for him."

I really feel more optimistic about all this than I have in a long time. Call me crazy, but I think that we have hit that magical moment at which most of the TV viewing public has finally started barfing Bush's propaganda right back up at him. Rove is still trying to do his 'message' bullshit, but none these things are working because the viewers now recognize the discrepancy between the show and the reality and so they are reading all of these little narratives ironically instead of taking them straight.

If that's really happened, then we're sitting pretty--because it means that the more Rove tries to do his thing the worse he will actually make it. All of their media manipulation assumes a 'naive reader'--someone who assumes that the message and the messenger are sincere. Those of us who have never been 'naive' that way about the Bush administration are not affected by these ads because we realize they're pieces of propaganda crafted by an evil mastermind to prop up the corrupt and incompetent regime of a lying sack of well whatever. There are now more and more people who are starting to realize that, and that means they will never look at the photo-ops, ads, etc. the same way again. And that means _it doesn't matter how many of them they run_, because they will just provoke derisive laughter as opposed to belief.

Rove et al. appear to be acknowledging this by only running the ads in markets that they think are still dominated by those naive readers (Fox, for example). But on a deeper level, they just don't get it. Everything Rove has tried so far appears to ahve backfired, to wit:

* "Mission Accomplished." They went to all that trouble to get that footage and I will bet you money right now you will NEVER see it in a Bush campaign ad. Sucks for you, Rove!

* Operation Stuff The Turkey. Created a negligible bounce which quickly disappeared; generated more concern about the staged nature of the photo-op and the captive timidity of the media than anything else.

* Use of 9/11 in Bush ads. Sure, the ads are getting talked about a lot. I don't think that's gonna help 'em. Because now that people have realized that "politicizing" things is no longer a Democrats-only sport, this use of 9/11 is only going to make it look worse when they splash 9/11 all over the Republican convention.

And so on. My friends, Rove is in an unenviable position. Bush *cannot* run on substance. There is none. Even the capture of Saddam Hussein cannot compensate for the obvious, abject, extremely expensive failures of this administration. So they ahve to run on image; and unfortunately for him, all the nifty images are only serving to call attention to how awful the reality is.

Moohoohahaha,

The Plaid Adder

[Andy_Stephenson]

1. Afreakinmen!!

Well said!

[SoonerShankle]

2. Dear Plaid Adder,

I love ya', man!!!

I lived in OK at the time Shrub was guv of Tejas. I was appalled at what he did to that once great state. I have many a friend who lives there. My best friend from college won't even put her kids in public school there because of the total lack of support the state has to offer its public servants in the aftermath of W and W2 (why can't they just vote that Perry fella right on outta there?).

I now live in the Governator's great land of opportunity. I never voted for a Bush, and I never will. (And I won't vote for Arnold either -- unless he can prove he's more Kennedy than Reagan!)

[Andy_Stephenson]

4. What county you live in?

You may have already voted for Arnold...Diebold or Sequoia machines?

[lucidmadman]

3. I think you're right...

..it's the 'who smelt it dealt it' thing. I think Kerry's gravitas and forthrightness will look pretty damn good come November. It's not a 'feel good' world. We need a president that isn't a punk...

[radfringe]

5. I seem to remember, about a year or so ago

a statement or a video clip of some white house official stating that they would not be 'exploiting' September 11 for political purposes..

I think the statement was made a day or two after it was announced that the repug convention would be in New York on September 11

of course, I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now

but... it would be sweet to see a commercial with that particular statment/video followed by clip of bush*'s Sept. 11 exploitation commercial


on edit: Reversing Position, Bush Uses 9/11 in Political Ad
http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df03042004.html

Less than 19 weeks after the tragic attacks of September 11th, President Bush reassured America that he had "no ambition whatsoever to use as a political issue."1 Today, however, "President Bush's re-election team unveiled his first campaign advertisements in part use the events of Sept. 11, 2001...Two ads refer to the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001...One ad, entitled 'Tested,' shows, among other images, a damaged building from the World Trade Center ruins behind an American flag."2

The ad is already provoking outrage among 9/11 victims' families as well as firefighters who were at the scene that day. "It's a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people. It is unconscionable," said Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died in the twin towers. Similarly, firefighter Tommy Fee of Queens Rescue Squad 270 said, "It's as sick as people who stole things out of the place. The image of firefighters at ground zero should not be used for this stuff, for politics."3

[Plaid Adder]

6. "Original position" my ass...

He certainly did *say* that he didn't plan to politicize 9/11...but the reality is that he started politicizing it on September 12. His entire presidency since that day has been about exploiting that one tragedy, either overtly or covertly. That's what bugs the shit out of me about this issue...everyone's like, "ooh, the Democrats are politicizing this by having the commission look into it!" What part of 'callously exploiting dead Americans to justify everything from war in Iraq to the Patriot Act' do you not understand?

At least now the media appears to finally get it. Too bad it happened so friggin' LATE.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[allalone]

7. images

I wonder if they obtained signed releases to use the firefighters images in their ad.

[jab105]

8. Rove's plan with Bush was to base everything "else"...

on Bush's "honesty and integrity"...without that, Bush will have trouble, because he has nothing else to run on...

terra-war hero = quagmire in Iraq
tax cuts = massive deficits
prescription drug plan = probable reduction in S/S benefits in the future

There really is no platform except honesty and integrity...none!!

[Dirty Hippie]

9. Here is betting those 9/11 ads go quietly away.

.

[Michael Harrington]

10. First ad out of the gate...

And they step in a cowpie. I'm plesantly surprised at their ineptitude. I'll guarantee that Lee Atwater is watching a plasma screen in Hell mumbling "Fuckin' amateurs!" under his breath.