I have to admit, this anti-Rand Paul ad kind of makes me want to vote for the guy. Got to be the funniest ad I’ve ever seen, though I don’t think that’s intentional. But what do I know about Kentucky politics?
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Jim, Foolish Literalist
Every electorate gets the campaign it deserves? I guess they figure if scared, old, white, bible-thumpers are the voters, they’re gonna try to scare them in the right direction.
Elia
One of the most disconcerting questions: Is our members of secret Aqua Buddha society learning?
freelancer
I’m confused. Vote for Paul or his opponent?
TR
This is just your upstate New York elitism showing, Doug.
I lived in Lexington for a few years, and trust me, this ad will play well in the state. It’s central message is that Paul has contempt for Christianity and, by extension, for Christians.
And the “God was ‘Aqua Buddha'” thing may not mean much to you, but to evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who take the First Commandment as the literal word of God, that’s going to strike home hard.
Yutsano
Mostly because Paul can’t counterattack anything in the ad. But the real meat is in the anti-faith based initiatives part. Paul will have to do some major splainin about why he doesn’t support his local wingnut’s church.
licensed to kill time
Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Feeling like a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
Hey Aqua Buddha! du du dum dummmmmm
wmd
Voters that aren’t fundamentalist Christians are likely informed enough about Rand Paul to just see the ad as funny.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@freelancer:
Paul! I’m no Chris Hitchens, but I don’t think donations to churches should be tax deductible.
Nick
I’m glad Jack Conway has finally decided he is, in fact, running for Senator from Stupid.
Bob Loblaw
Still pulling for the meteor.
Nick
@wmd:
Voters who aren’t fundamentalist Christians are already voting for Conway
arguingwithsignposts
Even beyond Carly Fiorina’s demon sheep?
Ogami Itto
Is it because Rand Paul is large, and he contains multitudes?
freelancer
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
Funny that, I am a Chris Hitchens, and I’d go there and remove all tax exemptions for religious institutions.
The Grand Panjandrum
@arguingwithsignposts: Aqua Buddha V. Demon Sheep! Sounds like something Linda McMahon would be headlining with her hubby.
KCinDC
@arguingwithsignposts, it doesn’t involve anything supernatural, but let’s not forget the classic “San Francisco values” ad from 2008.
EconWatcher
Paul was apparently a free-spirited misfit at Baptist Baylor. Having once been a free-spirited misfit at a right-wing college, I have to say, it makes me like and sympathize with him a bit, even if I don’t care for his politics.
Guster
Why is it funny? Seems like a pretty straightforward hit piece. Strong and clear.
Anya
This add makes me really uncomfortable. Why is Conway stooping so low? This is not the game that Dems should be playing.
I am still annoyed with Hillary’s appeal to Islamaphopes during the primary with her slimy, “I take him at his word” answer. This ad is much worse. Stocking religious bigotry should have no place in the Democratic Party.
Bob Loblaw
@Guster:
Because of all the staged abductions and Aqua Buddha, obviously. That’s not something you see everyday. Which is really too bad.
If only there was some way for both candidates to lose. Thank you Kentucky for giving South Carolina something to feel good about this election cycle. They needed it.
Chyron HR
I remember that time Stevie dropped the bong and spilled Aqua Buddha all over my bedroom carpet. My mom had a total meltdown, man.
KG
@Bob Loblaw: well, there are third parties, but you know “wasted vote” and all that bullshit.
Guster
@Bob Loblaw: Well, he’s hitting Paul where he’s weak. Sure the Aqua Buddha stuff is goofy, but I just _wish_ that Tom Allen, say, actually tried hitting Susan Collins.
And what do you have against Conway?
Cacti
Why does Rand Paul wear such a horrible toupee?
You’d think he could afford a more natural looking one.
Bob Loblaw
@KG:
Oh don’t worry about me, I will crawl through broken glass to vote for political parties that support religious tests for office. Because America, fuck yeah, baby!
calipygian
I don’t know. On the substantive policy issues raised by the ad (plus the “no religious tests thing – let Paul worship his Aqua Buddha if it gets him through the night) I’m kind of with Paul on this one
Bella Q
@Anya: I don’t see it as religious bigotry, though admittedly I’m not Christian, which I believe Paul claims he is. I actually think it’s pretty fair game, given that it’s, well, true.
I’ll repeat that last week, I was talking to an old friend who’s originally from Pineville KY about the KY Senate race. Her view is that once the regular folks in KY actually take a look at Baby Doc, they are going to think, “that’s kind of a strange boy,” but in no way will they vote for him with the numbers the polls have suggested. Not even the Rs, because his getting on the ballot is an artifact of this year’s intramural split in the KY R party, rather than a reflection of how crazy KY Rs have become. It was an interesting view. And I suspect this kind of ad will make it quite accurate.
We all know about Aqua Buddha, because we’re kind of political junkies, but lots and lots of regular voters aren’t aware of that Baylor story. And those to whom it might matter, deserve to be made aware of it. And though I left KY about 18 years prior to reaching voting age, I rather resent the comment “Senator from Stupid.”
calipygian
@Guster:
If you remember the Rove style of politics that worked for the Republicans, it isn’t hitting people where they are weak, its hitting them where they think they are strong.
Conway should be hammering the $2000 Medicare deductible thing and the other crazy policy issues that Rand thinks is the Ayn Rand bomb, but normal people think is crazy.
El Cid
FWIW, I’ve been mentioning how Mexico’s narco-gangs are increasingly resembling Colombia’s narco-paramilitaries, with the exception being that Colombia’s were launched by the government and have more recently been both broken up by and allied with the government.
Here’s Clinton at the State Dept.
Of course, we’re just going to do the same bullshit that we did in Colombia, pouring military and state aid in with the result that narco-paramilitary gangs take over the drug industry and drugs production increases. Yay. Except the main US goal in Colombia was to reduce the power of leftist guerrillas and act like it was carrying out US politicians’ fetish for tough anti-drug interventions.
Meanwhile, we still give them no incentive to stop as we keep providing a lucrative illegal narcotics market, so we make their nations pay the price for our idiotic drugs policies which do not limit our massive, massive consumer market for their wares.
Bella Q
@calipygian: Actually, I think he’s also hitting Baby Doc quite hard on that as well as on national sales tax. Initially, Baby Doc had an ad that said – (read on a screen with voice over repeating it) “Rand Paul never supported a $2000 medicare deductible” (emphasis added). Then when Conway’s ad with multiple video clips of Paul saying just that, the ad changed to “Rand Paul doesn’t support a $2000 medicare deductible.” Oops.
General Stuck
@Anya:
Politics in Ky, my original home state, begins at the bottom of the septic tank and then digs deeper. Sometimes to catch a sewer trout, you have to swim along side. They send one of yours to the circus, you send one of theirs to the clown car. And THAT”S how you get Paul. THAT’S the Kentucky way.
Greg
I lived in Kentucky for many years (Lexington and Louisville) and the sad thing is that that this ad will work with a lot of people. Like my ex-in laws who were always forwarding us emails on the “War on Christmas”, “Target Hates the Salvation Army” and “The Real Victims of Discrimination Are White Christians”. Fortunately, they are mostly confined to small-town rural areas. But Kentucky is a 50-50 rural/urban split, so you never know who will win. Although a state that would elect Jim Bunning again can’t really be trusted to do the right thing. And it bothers me that a democrat would pull the “he hates Christianity” card.
fasteddie9318
@Anya:
Which game should they be playing, the one where they keep losing?
That answer was intended to slime her own party’s presumptive nominee. This ad attacks a Republican in the general election.
Stoking religious bigotry, winning, these are all things that have no place in the Democratic Party.
Bob Loblaw
@fasteddie9318:
If the parties were reversed and a Republican played the “He blasphemed our Lord, get him!” card when a Democrat proposed ending tax deductions to churches, you would be screaming bloody murder. On philosophical, constitutional, and moral grounds. You’d never for a second describe it as just good winning politics.
That’s the point.
Yutsano
@Bob Loblaw: Here’s a thought: how’s about we let Jack Conway decide the best way to win an election in Kentucky and worry about the aftermath later?
Dennis SGMM
@Bob Loblaw:
Actually, Bob, you’re so full of shit that you ought to consider a fertilizer business. You would prefer that Democrats remain above such tactics and thus leave innuendo, attacks on a candidate’s patriotism, race-baiting, and “Christian values” to the Republicans.
Fuck you, Bob.
Linda Featheringill
What?
The ad exposed Paul as a religious hypocrite.
It’s not like they were criticizing him for being a practicing Buddhist or something. They are criticizing him for making fun of Christianity.
Hey. “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Acts 26:14.
Nick
@Anya:
Can we settle this once and for all? Should Democrats fight like Republicans or not?
Bella Q
@Yutsano: Yah, there’s a sentiment I can get behind. And I trust my friend from Pineville’s instincts that Baby Doc ain’t gonna win.
Cacti
@Bob Loblaw:
+1
The “he doesn’t love Jesus enough” line of attack is pure, Christo-fascist sewer politics.
Nick
@calipygian:
He’s been doing that for months, dude, it hasn’t worked.
General Stuck
@Dennis SGMM:
Lollipop has loaned us his halo and selflessly empaths our sinful liberal consciences. And all of it for free. Our very own Mother Superior guiding us to righteous politicking, and defeat. Just like the good old days.
Yutsano
@Bella Q: Polling outfits still haven’t counted in the cellphone only demographic in any meaningful way. I don’t have a landline (hell my condo doesn’t even have a phone jack) and I never get called for pretty much anything. Plus a call is much easier to screen and ignore on a cell than a landline even with caller ID. So until they find a better way of counting noses I’m not calling gloom and doom just yet.
Nick
@Bob Loblaw:
This from the person who complained once that the Democrats don’t fight back hard enough.
Liberals often conceded Republican tactics that they hate are winning tactics.
Chyron HR
@Cacti:
When will the Christo-Fascists get out of (back into?) the sewer and stop persecuting Rand Paul for his deeply held Aqua Budiansky faith?!
Hey, we aren’t the ones with the mean old “religious test” for office, Republicans are. And if the Republican senate candidate failed that test, then it sucks to be him.
calipygian
@Nick:
Well if that is the case then I think Conway has no choice. Part of me really, really hates the religious attack angle, but part of me really LUVS him some Rethug petard hoistin’.
Spaghetti Lee
I too would prefer that elections were noble and virtuous and honest, focusing only on the respective policies of the candidates and how they would put those policies into place.
Ain’t happenin’. Give me this year’s model of Mark Pryor any day over an Ayn Rand-worshipping nut.
Nick
@calipygian:
I don’t either, I wish we could win elections with just our issues, but we can’t. Rand Paul defended BP, Conway attacked him ferociously and the people of Kentucky went “meh,” Rand Paul suggested a deductable for Medicare, Conway attacked him and the people of Kentucky responded with a great big “meh,” Rand Paul defending mining companies over unions, Conway attacked him, another “meh”
So, you know what, if these Christofascist assholes in Kentucky want to vote for a candidate who will further rape them in the ass and bring more misery to them because their corporate sponsored-millionaire money slut pastor tells them Jesus wants them to, it times to fight fire with fire.
That’s assuming Conway can get away with it. A Republican wouldn’t get called out for something like this, but a Democrat sure will, and liberals will respond with a “yeah, he shouldn’t have done that” cowardly attitude like they did to Grayson.
EDIT: BTW, I like that Rand Paul wants to end faith based initiatives and end tax breaks for religious charities.
Spaghetti Lee
I do like the tinkling pan flute in the background, by the way.
Linda Featheringill
You gotta admit that this ad might contribute to feelings of “That boy is a little strange.”
Spaghetti Lee
Also, I get that it’s kind of a joke, but I’ve seen the ironic “Rand Paul did loony stuff in college? WOO! That’s my kind of candidate,” in other places. It’s superficial and stupid, just a mirror of “I’d like to have a beer with that guy.”
General Stuck
@Linda Featheringill:
In Kentucky, it’s okay to be a little strange, or a lot. But you don’t give second shrift to baby jeevus and idol worship no motherfucking Aqua Buddha, lest the fires of electoral hell nips your buttocks.
For Ky, the ad is a stroke of genius, if you want to conquer the Elephant King of Beasts in that state.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Nick: Where was Bob on the DADT appeal? Siding with the you must appeal as that is following the spirit of the separation of powers, or with the just let the court decision stand? That seemed to boil down to the same principle – playing with integrity or playing to win.
Nick
@Barb (formerly Gex):
I’m starting to wonder if the fact these are mutually exclusive are the reason why good progressives won’t run for office. You really need to be a whore with no principles to be a politician nowadays.
Tyro
@Bob Loblaw: Actually, if a Democrat ran on a platform of ending the tax-exempt status that churches hold alongside other non-profit institutions, I’d condemn the candidate for being so phenomenally stupid that he’d deserve the Republican attacks along those lines that he received.
That ad is actually pretty good. The “Aqua Buddha” thing strikes me as “college hijinks,” but some fundies might be genuinely offended. I defer to Conway’s sense of the KY electorate here.
FlipYrWhig
@Anya:
That was not an “appeal to Islamophobes,” it was a slightly poorly-worded statement about how she fucking _believed him_. There’s no other way to say that: if I told you I was an atheist, and someone asked you what you thought, what would you say? Probably some version of, “He said he was an atheist, and I have no reason to doubt him,” right? Now how different is that from “I take him at his word”? It isn’t.
This kind of bullshit has got to stop. It’s just like the “lifestyle choice” thing, where you take some kind of slightly askew comment and decide that that’s really and truly what The Politician Really Thinks, like a Freudian slip. The worst example from the primaries was when everyone pretended to think that Hillary Clinton was warning Obama that he might get assassinated when she talked about how previous primary battles had slowly run their course. Let’s just not do this, OK? Its only purpose is to create and maintain artificial grudges we can nurse for a long, long time.
mellowjohn
@Anya:
to paraphrase donald rumsfeld, “you go into an election with the voters you have – not the voters you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
p.s. i still think rand paul looks like he’s really auditioning to be the next dr. who.
WereBear (itouch)
If it’s true, what’s the fuss? That’s a principle to uphold.
calipygian
Doesn’t Rand look like Bob Odenkirk playing a slimy preacher in a Mr. Show skit?
Am I the only one who thinks that?
TR
@Nick:
The usual game of rolling over and playing dead always works so well.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Anya:
Me too.
Cacti
@TR:
Hmmm…the Conway ad reminds a lot of a similar one from this loser.
But I guess our new philosophy on stoking religious bigotry should be…
IOKIYAD
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: Hillary Clinton’s campaign ran the gamut from embarrassing to watch to flat out offensive, but I always took this response be a polite way of saying to the reporter, “Why the fuck are you asking me such a stupid fucking question?”
Cacti
@FlipYrWhig:
Riiiiight.
Just like her poorly-worded statement about “hard working Americans, white Americans”.
Justin
That’s not an attack ad.
This is an attack ad.
Yutsano
@Justin: What the…
I see we’re gonna have to teach our neighbors to the north a thing or two about politicking. Hey if we do this right maybe Harper will finally get his ass booted out.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Cacti:
For such a savvy, experienced politician, she sure made a lot of poorly-worded statements. Also too, her husband as well.
General Stuck
@Cacti:
Well. to each his own, but the comical nature of this ad to me both calls out and mocks religious bigotry. It isolates it for what it is, and creates doubt in the bigots, that has the benefit of possibly winning an election.
And if Paul and the other GOoppers win, then we get to see religious bigotry with government power behind it/ I choose an ad that will be quickly forgotten, and quicker forgotten with a dem in that senate seat.
General Stuck
@Justin: Watched that the other day. weird funny
Steve
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: Did any of you people actually watch the video of Hillary’s interview?
What is wrong with you? Yes, yes, I know Hillary is evil, but it’s amazing how people can’t help attaching the most fucked-up meanings to her words, like how she hopes Obama will be assassinated like RFK.
Cat Lady
@FlipYrWhig:
I always agree with your take on things, but not this. Hillary chooses everything she says very carefully – it’s her default. She was grasping at every opportunity during the primary daily media scrum to get some advantage because IIRC she was losing – she’s a great politician, and there was no way for one second she believed that Obama was a Muslim. She could have said “I absolutely don’t believe for one second Obama is a Muslim, abhor the question and denounce the innuendo, and so what if he was?”. She didn’t. She chose to triangulate – “I take him at his word”, throwing Muslims under the bus and leaving the door open to continued speculation to appeal to white hard working Americans. It was slimy. Do we need to keep rehashing this? No. But let’s not revise history.
FlipYrWhig
@Cacti: I count that one too. I don’t need to make up reasons to find fault with a candidate.
Steve
@Cat Lady: Here we go again, with the “every word the Clintons say is carefully chosen” meme. Yes, like her brilliant driver’s license answer.
In the real world she said “no, he’s not a Muslim” like six different ways. In the interview that actually happened, not the one in your head.
FlipYrWhig
@Cat Lady: She was asked multiple times and answered it fine every time but the last one. If she was trying to pull something she wouldn’t have done it that way. Similarly, I remember people seriously suggesting that Obama said that Clinton launched attacks “periodically” as a PMS quip. It’s like the attack comes first — Obama is a sexist and homophobe, Clinton is a racist and xenophobe — and then you can keep collecting little bits of non-evidence to reinforce it. I really, really don’t like it, and I stuck up for both Obama and Clinton whenever these kinds of things cropped up.
FlipYrWhig
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
Oh, yeah, I had totally forgotten how “Obama won in SC, and so did Jesse Jackson, because they ran good campaigns” was also the most offensive thing EVAR. And how “kid” meant “boy” said in a Bull Connor voice. Until the leftier-than-thou posturing of FDL et al, the unending primary wars of misinterpretation were the absolute most aggravating thing I ever experienced online among people I had previously respected and even admired.
ETA: Oh, christ, I just remembered how someone had written that a Clinton ad with a mom checking in on her daughter was supposed to make you think about black men sneaking into your house to assault your innocent children. That was the suckiest period of sucky political discourse that ever sucked.
Surreal American
(Aqua Buddha baby)
Never learned to swim.
(Underwater Buddha baby)
Can’t catch the rhythm of the stroke.
(Aqua Buddha baby)
Why should I hold my breath.
(Underwater Buddha baby)
Feelin’ that I might choke.
Steeplejack
Man, that is a lame ad. It doesn’t make me want to vote for Rand Paul, but it almost puts him in the “he must be running some hilarious spoof” zone, which some people might like, or discount as a factor against him.
I do like the phrase “Aqua Buddha.” Great name for a band or an (organic) after-shave lotion.
arguingwithsignposts
How did a thread about rand fucking paul descend into hillbot/obot pissing match?
Chris G.
@mellowjohn: Them’s fightin’ words. Rand looks, if anything, like the sort of lunatic the Doctor shuts down several times a season.
James E. Powell
I don’t see this ad as religious bigotry. I see it as calling out Rand Paul as fraud.
Every one of these pious, Republican, Candidates for Jesus should be taken down for their hypocrisy. I’d be using direct quotes from Jesus, himself, and comparing it with the hateful, cold-hearted policies that Republicans advocate.
Cacti
@FlipYrWhig:
Kid, hard working white Americans, jesse jackson won south carolina too, I take him at his word, he shucks and jives with media, if he was a white man he wouldn’t be in this position…
Oh wait, on the last one Ferraro had to step down for being a little too overt.
Kyle
Picking between these guys is like picking between Iran and Iraq in their war back in the 80s.
I guess when you’re representing stupid parochial redneck religious bigots, you get down on their level or you lose.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kyle:
Seriously? One dopey ad puts Conway on a par with the guy who wants to abolish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and thinks the Civi Rights Acts were unconstitutional?
Nick
@Kyle:
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why Democrats will NEVER win, and why they should NEVER fight dirty.
Wile E. Quixote
@Nick:
Yeah, I like that he wants to end faith based initiatives (does this include strategic missile defense?) and tax breaks for religious charities too.
Democrats need to be more like Lyndon Johnson, if you read Robert Caro’s books on Johnson you find out what a slimy and corrupt SOB he was. But you know what, he was effective and he got a lot of shit done, much more than JFK ever did.
There’s a story about Johnson in the 1964 election that my favorite Poli Sci professor (Don McCrone) used to tell. Johnson was in a meeting one day with his election staffers and said that he wanted to accuse Barry Goldwater of being a pigfucker. One of his aides (definitely not Bill Moyers) said “That’s not true, you can’t accuse Senator Goldwater of fucking pigs. We can’t prove that.” to which Johnson replied “We don’t need to prove he’s a pigfucker. Ah just want to make him deny it.”
Wile E. Quixote
@Cacti:
Rand Paul isn’t wearing the toupee. The toupee is wearing Rand Paul. Remember the Treehouse of Horror episode of the Simpsons where Homer gets the hair transplant from the condemed criminal and it possesses him and turns him into a homicidal maniac? Well this is just like that, Rand Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are all possessed by alien hair parasites, as is Rod Blagojevich. If you were to stab any of these guys in the heart the hair parasite would just scuttle off of their bodies in search of a new host. This is why you’ll never see any of these guys go to a regular barber, because when you try to cut their hair it reacts like the alien blood did in The Thing.
Unfortunately one of the first things that the alien hair parasites do is consume the brains of their victims as they interface with the host nervous system. So even if it were possible to remove the parasite the host would end up bald and extremely stupid.
Wile E. Quixote
So I watched the ad and now I’m wondering if there’s a guy who makes a living by doing voiceovers for political ads because the VO in that ad sounds like the VO in every other political ad I’ve ever heard. Is there a political advertising equivalent of Don LaFontaine.
John Bird
Well, that’s an effective ad to target Republicans, because it makes Rand Paul sound like a goof-ball hippie with Jeffersonian ideas about separation of church and state.
Although that bit where he tied the woman up is legitimately creepy to just about everyone.
TR
@Cacti:
How on earth is this stoking religious bigotry?
Rand Paul is trying to win over religious right voters, and all this ad does is say he’s full of shit.
This isn’t saying one religion is better than another, this isn’t inciting hatred against one religion, this isn’t advancing social issues based on religion.
It’s simply pointing out to evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the state that when Rand Paul sucks up to them, he’s full of shit.
This isn’t attacking religion. It’s attacking bullshit.
But please, by all means, roll over into the fetal position because this ad seems too mean. President Palin thanks you.
curious
@TR: i imagine rand paul will have the usual difficulty biting his tongue if asked, because of this ad, to elaborate on his religious views. i have a hard time believing he can look sincere and say only what the electorate wants to hear (and not open up some other can of worms in the process). oh, also have a hard time believing he’ll subject himself to an interview before election day.
gnomedad
There’s something about an Aqua Buddha man.
Bella Q
@TR:
Thank you. I thought I was missing some subtle bigotry that only actual Christians could suss out or something. My initial (and current) sense is that it’s calling bullshit on Baby Doc’s “I’m one of you” appeal to the religious right.
Douglas
The ad is good politics.
It’s also a sign of what’s wrong with america.
And that’s as politely as I could possibly put it.
TR
@Bella Q:
Exactly. Rand Paul has been out there trying to stir up the resentment of the religious right on a number of fronts — agitating on the “Ground Zero Mosque,” telling Kentucky voters that they should cling to their ammunition and their religion, and saying that we wouldn’t need any government at all if everyone was just a Christian.
This ad is not stirring up religious bigotry. It’s showing that Rand Paul — who has been stirring up religious bigotry — is full of shit.
Bob Loblaw
@Barb (formerly Gex):
I have no problem with following through on the appeals process. I don’t think its fair to demand otherwise of this administration. I also don’t know what this question has to do with anything, but seeing the turn this thread made with these little primary recollections, I’m not surprised.
Bailey
@gnomedad:
Okay THAT made me spew hot tea across my laptop. Thank you, I guess.
Mike G
Rand Paul’s policy on the proposed Aqua Buddha worship center in Lower Manhattan remains mysteriously ambiguous.
Cacti
@TR:
Mmmkay…I must have been asleep for the “we love Jesus the mostest” ads during our wins in ’06 and ’08.
But, whatevs. The ends justify the means.
IOKIYAD
Nick
@Cacti
there were actually plenty of those.
fasteddie9318
I think it’s worth pointing out here that Aqua Buddha doesn’t want to specifically end tax deductions for religious charities, he wants to end tax deductions for all charities. The “Fair” Tax, in addition to bending the working class over a table without the courtesy of a reach around (in the interest of fairness, of course), also ends all tax deductions. Aqua Buddha is a big fan.
John Bird
@Cacti:
Kay Hagan?
Anya
Exactly. This ad might not be stoking religious bigotry, in the traditional sense, but it originates from the same premise that otherize all different religious believes. If you start with this, then what stops us from saying next time “so and so is not Christian?”
Conway is a great candidate, and there is no comparison between him and that crazy Paul character. If people in Kentucky cannot see that, then this questionable ad will not help him. But I admit that I do not know Kentucky at all. They might as well be aliens to me. But I know what’s right, and attacking someone because they don’t sufficiently worship baby Jesus is not right.
I watched that interview with my grandmother ( a die hard supporter of Hillary Clinton who was as disappointed in her answer as I was). Steve Kroft kept asking her without getting a direct answer. This is exactly what she said:
Because of that calculated answer I blame her for sowing the initial seed of doubt in the minds of millions of uninformed Americans. She could have nipped this in the bud, instead she chose to be evasive because being forceful might aid her opponent. Her vague non denial perpetuated the myth.
I don’t mean to re-fight the primary wars but my iPhone died shortly after I sent my last comment and I just came home and wanted to reply to some of the comments.
PanurgeATL
@Anya:
Wouldn’t a “calculated” answer be a little more elegantly phrased than that?
TR
@Cacti:
Apparently, you were. Once you come out of your coma, check here and here and here.
One more time — explain the religious bigotry in these ads. Unless you somehow do believe that Aqua Buddha is an actual religion and no one should be mocking its faithful adherents, there is none.
And if you’re going to get the vapors because a Democrat has the balls to say, “hey, religious voters, that Republican over there is fucking lying to you,” go ahead and lie down on the goddamn fainting couch right now, princess, because you’re not helping.
Jesus Fucking Christ, I can’t wait for all the left-wing head-scratching when the Obama impeachment proceedings start. “How’d we get here? Oh, right, we were too fucking holy to play fucking politics.”
Sack the fuck up, liberals. The bullies are taking your lunch money and you’re too delicate to push back.
slightly_peeved
Considering American political discourse on both sides has always been an endless stream of such otherizing in a nationalist context – “so and so is not a Patriot” – I can’t see otherizing as a sin. It’s a requirement. May as well complain that a candidate accepts a donation from a company.
TR
While you’re worrying about the hypothetical slippery slope, I’m going to worry about what happens if we don’t do this and the Republican majority in both houses eviscerates the social safety net, slashes unemployment, destroys health care reform, rolls back all environmental regulation, starts impeachment proceedings and encourages nuclear strikes against Iran.
Sorry, but all that stuff matters a hell of a lot more to me than some pathetic, holier-than-thou hand-wringing about what might happen in the future of political ads.
Politics requires getting your hands dirty. And if you’re not even willing to say “hey, my opponent’s attempt to rile up religious bigots on his side is bullshit, he doesn’t believe any of that stuff” then Jesus fucking Christ, let’s just commit ritual suicide now.
One day Democrats will realize that. Hopefully before President Palin gets elected.
bryanD
Oh yeah. Let’s vote for the tattling statehouse burger boy, Jack Conway! Being pictured with old parasites in state cop uniforms in the ad puts it *swishhh!* over the top! Power to the people!
Note to Whistle Britches (Conway): the church-state tax-exemption deal from 2 generations ago is seen as a grave mistake by the Holy Rollers, who feel the voice of the Elect (themselves) was removed from the public square to make way for the Black Panthers and the gays at Bravo.
As for the average church-going demographic; Catholics like novel things to “contemplate” and Aqua Buddha reminds them of incense and holy water; mainline protestants learned toleration from The Andy Griffith Show (who remembers Opie’s seance?).
Finally, putting sexual kidnapping below Aqua Buddha on the Tut-Tut scale will lose Conway some women voters that he can’t afford.
Porlock Junior
It’s comforting to see that everyone knows the absolute truth to questions of tactics and strategy and principles and exactly how they must work together. With only slight disagreements of detail, of the sort that entitle each wise person to tell the others to fuck off and die.
Reminds me of a reading from Holy Scriptures that my wise old Dad laid on me when I was a confident youth.
1 And Job answered and said,
2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Job 12:1-2
(This is not related to the other great he text he showed me, which is to be found in proper old editions of King James in which words not present in the original, having been interpolated for clarity, are italicized:
And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.
I Kings 13:27
)
Scott P.
I would say you were an atheist. But then I’m a behaviorist and not a structuralist at heart. If you say you’re an atheist, you’re an atheist. If you say you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian.
John Bird
@bryanD:
You need to cut your amphetamine dose.
bryanD
@John Bird
Sorry for the long sentence structures (such as they are).
As for amphetamines. I wish! (Good times, good times)
PS. Conway is fat and slightly cross-eyed. And he looks like an overgrown Toughskins bluejeans model from the boys section of a Sears catalog, circa 1974, complete with Bradys haircut and doofy face.
:-)