The Washington Post reports on some of the political TV ads appearing in Iowa in advance of the this month’s Democratic presidential caucuses.
One ad, for Howard Dean, says: “When some Democrats were supporting the war and defending Bush tax cuts, one candidate for president stood up to George Bush.”
Well I’m a Democrat and I didn’t defend Bush’s tax cuts (I’m not sure which Democrats he’s talking about) but I did support the war. So now I know that Howard Dean thinks I did so because I was too afraid to stand up to George Bush. Thanks, Howard.
According to The Post:
The harshest ad this week is scheduled to debut today in Iowa as part of a $100,000 buy by the conservative Club for Growth. The group, which previously slammed Dean for promising to repeal the Bush tax cuts, uses ridicule in a couple’s conversation.
The man declares, “Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading . . .” His wife picks up the litany: “Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs.”
Stephen Moore, the club’s president, said the “humorous” spot may not hurt Dean with Democratic primary voters. “To us it’s the first general election ad,” he said. “We’re taking it as a foregone conclusion that Dean is going to skate through the primaries unscathed.”
Even a Dean-o-phobe like me thinks that’s pretty brainless and offensive stuff, and not particularly effective. I’m sure Bush’s political operative Karl Rove– who has been salivating since last summer over the prospect of running a campaign against Dean– can and will do much better.
