This brand-enhancing ad was paid for by the Democratic Governors’ Association, who gave $782K to a 527 group trying to get Iowa Governor Terry Branstad beaten by his primary challenger. Someone needs to tell the DGA that the definition of ratfucking is not “fucking yourself with the opponent’s dick”.
Also, too: The answer to the often-asked question of why the Democratic Party isn’t better at promoting its core values is that an influential part of the party establishment is ashamed of those values and the party leaders who promote them.
Derelict
The answer to the often-asked question of why the Democratic party isn’t better at promoting its core values is that an influential part of the party establishment is ashamed of those values and the party leaders who promote them.
We have a winner!
Ever since Reagan, Democrats have been terrified of being identified with the causes they nominally support.
Quiddity
Bill Clinton is Washington. Obama is Jefferson. Republican Branstad is Teddy Roosevelt. Pelosi is Lincoln.
So, vote against Branstad because he’s a liberal like those other Democratic reprobates. Makes sense to me.
MikeJ
The funny thing is, every person who is *really* on Mt. Rushmore was a liberal.
WereBear (itouch)
It’s true, and it’s so stupid.
The hero Presidents have all been embodiments of Democratic values. No one builds a monument to the guy who reduced regulation and busted unions.
Emma
The answer to the often-asked question of why the Democratic party isn’t better at promoting its core values is that an influential part of the party establishment is ashamed of those values and the party leaders who promote them.
DING. DING. DIIIIIING!!!!
low-tech cyclist
@Derelict:
And that tendency became a hell of a lot worse after the 1994 debacle. Which was a debacle because after the Congressional Dems decided not to fight for universal health care after all, the Democratic base stayed home on election day.
Dems would actually win more elections if they stood for something. People generally prefer candidates who have the courage of their convictions. Instead, there are too many Blue Dog/’New’ Democrat-style Dems who think they can wishy-wash their way to wins. A bunch of them will find themselves out of office in January.
ornery curmudgeon
Also, too: The answer to the often-asked question of why the Democratic Party isn’t better at promoting its core values is that an influential part of the party establishment is ashamed …”
No, they are bought. Bribed. Paid For. Purchased.
The Democratic Party leadership are not ‘ashamed’ — neither are they cowardly, or clueless, or cowed, or spineless, or cautious, or confused, or keeping their powder dry, or any of the 50 reasons people make up to avoid the terrifying truth … they are bought.
El Cid
A local Georgia Democrat vying for a state House position sends around postcards mainly accusing his rival of being away too much — working for Hispanic rights, and Hispanic this, and Latino that. It’s just sheer race baiting. Awful.
geg6
@ornery curmudgeon:
THIS.
I can haz publicly funded campaigns pleez?
beltane
That is a cool poster. However, being a Vermonter I’d prefer to see Howard Dean in Branstead’s place.
Is anyone aware of a Republican, any Republican at all, who chose to denigrate the word “conservative”? Why don’t these Democratic hating Democrats become Republicans and be done with it.
beltane
@low-tech cyclist: Bernie Sanders manages to get the votes of many people who used to vote Republican (and still vote Republican in local races) because he comes right out and identifies himself as a “Democratic socialist”. When socialism is properly explained to the low-information voter, many of them end up liking what they hear.
cleek
then those values aren’t actually “core”, are they ? they’re important to a large part of the party, but not to all of it.
we can probably thank Nixon for a lot of this. he did a fine job of fracturing the left and right, and the Dems haven’t yet fused their pieces into a coherent whole. we’ve got old-school liberals, centrist Rockefeller-Republican types, populists, some “New Left” liberals, etc., all united against the GOP, but not yet in agreement on all of what it means to be a Democrat.
of course Dems have never been really united, either (ex. Will Rogers’ famous quote). it’s probably just part of the temperament – whatever that temperament is.
stuckinred
@El Cid: And then there is the fucking baptist preacher Hice with his hammer and sickle billboard on 85.
Derelict
@ornery curmudgeon:
Not especially true. I’ve watched Democrats for the last 30 years running away from their base. Just look back at this administration’s track record. Obama has worked very, very hard with both deed and word to repudiate the Democratic base. At every turn, he has crafted policies explicitly to let the world know that the base of the Democratic party not only has no say in those policies, but in fact is not welcome in the discussion at all.
Thus, healthcare reform comes not from any of the left-leaning or even centrist positions, but from Mitt fucking Romney’s program in MA. And America continues to torture people because not doing so would be caving into the left-wing extremists in the Democratic base.
And on and on and on. Pick a policy–any policy–and you can find a statement from some administration official (usually Gibbs as official spokesman) pointing out explicitly that the policy was crafted to avoid pandering to the Democratic base.
In 50 years of watching politics, I’ve never seen a party so publicly and completely reject its own supporters.
MikeJ
Somebody needs a hug.
Sentient Puddle
Beyond the stupidity of the overuse of the word “liberal” as a supposed criticism, can I ask what the fuck they’re thinking by using Mt. Rushmore for symbolism in an Iowa race?
DougJ
Who is that guy with the moustache in the middle? Saul Alinsky?
EDIT: Oh, it must be that governor, I see.
DougJ
Don’t these guys even know that Obama and Clinton are corporatist, Blue Dog sell-outs, not true progressives?
beltane
This is OT, but the latest poll out of Nevada has Harry Reid up 44-37 over Sharron Angle. If she keeps talking she may end up in Alan Keyes territory.
jwb
@Derelict: And yet even if for the sake of argument I grant your dismal assessment of Obama, the Dems, even blue dog Dems, they are in nearly every way vastly superior to (and certainly never worse than) the gooper alternative. Especially at this moment of crazy wingnut control of the gooper party.
beltane
@DougJ: He looks exactly like Bob Barr. Why is a libertarian on Mt. Rushmore?
mr. whipple
@MikeJ: LOL.
Hugin & Munin
<Hug>
There you go MikeJ. I know, I know, it’s tough,but if you want lockstep, there’s a party for that to the right.
MikeJ
@beltane: It could be interesting to see the baseline for Nevada. We know that nationally 27% is the magic number. Assuming it varies with region, we may learn Nevada’s crazification factor.
Napoleon
@Derelict:
More like 38 years, though it got progressively worse after the 84 and 94 elections.
Observer
Mistermix,
now that we’ve got this simple truth out in the open….can you now go tell John Cole and others.
Apparently they have no idea, none at all, why some folks here are in massive disagreement with Obama.
Apparently these malcontents want ponies or something instead of simply just a president who sets the tone for the party that stands up and defends “liberal” principles. Also something about Greenwald or things called ‘firebaggers’ or such. Apparently they’re all naive and shrill or just are really fast cats (“PUMAs” IIRC).
Anyhoo, these errant people’s indignation apparently has nothing to do disgust with the kind of backroom Washington culture created the by POTUS chief of staff where this kind of ad strategy is not only OK but also encouraged.
Ingrates, I tell you.
Oh and something about HCR and FinReg and ARRRGHHH…..get them out of my sight, they’ll never be satisfied!!!!
jwb
@MikeJ: I suspect Nevada would have a lower than 27% crazifaction because they have that odd “none of the above” option.
Zifnab
See, I don’t know. If you know the opponents have a visceral, knee-jerk reaction to hate on liberalism then it makes sense to play to that weakness.
Unfortunately, the fact that you can quickly identify the DGA as the source of the ad indicates that the DGA has failed in whatever ratfucking they’ve attempted here. If they’d managed to smuggle the money into “The True Tea Party Patriots for Iowa” and gotten away with it, this would be a far more effective campaign.
Instead, we got a “Your candidate looks like us, so you’re dumb – herp de derp!”
Perhaps… PERHAPS… if they wanted to really rat fuck Branstand, they could send out a legitimate ad straight out of the DGA aggressively touting Brandstand’s liberal accomplishments as good things and applauding him for being such a good progressive compared to his opponent. Then – if the strategy actually helped Brandstand to win – continue to shift the entire conversation further to the left in the general and promote the Dem opponent as even more progressive than Brandstand.
Either way, they should be campaigning for ISSUES first and PEOPLE second. Forcing Brandstand into a liberal role would be just as good as electing a liberal governor.
jrg
It really says something about our national discourse when the label “conservative” carries weight (as far as I can tell, “conservative” means jack shit), but the term “liberal” is enough to send the rubes screaming into the night.
That aside, I’ve never seen anyone accept their opponent’s framing so completely. This is a truly pathetic ad. If I were a dem in Iowa, I’d stay home.
General Stuck
I love the smell of progressive angst first thing Friday morn.
The Horror.
DougJ
@General Stuck:
It smells like victory, right?
Kryptik
Ok…when the Democrats, the FREAKIN’ DEMOCRATS are using ‘liberal’ as a pejorative against opponents, that’s when you know that the ‘left’ is completely and utterly powerless within the political discourse. I mean, for god’s sake.
jwb
@Observer: Yeah, except you weren’t listening at all to Obama during the campaign if you really expected him to govern any differently than he has.
beltane
@jrg: If I were a Dem in Iowa, this ad would make me want to vote for Branstead as Clinton, Pelosi, and Obama are among the most successful Democratic politicians of my lifetime. It’s not like Joe Lieberman won the Iowa caucus; what are they thinking?
mr. whipple
@General Stuck:
It’s thick today, isn’t it?
Loved this headline: “Another Day In The Life Of Failed President Carterbama”
Kryptik
@jrg:
But of course, Democrats as a whole are still evil liberal commie islamosympathizers and such.
Just a clue, Democratic Party. Internalizing your opponents talking points and believing them to be true does not, in fact, neutralize said talking points. In fact, it makes them stronger. Just a thing to ponder for the campaigns, you know.
@beltane:
While ‘thinking’ seems to be a concept I’m loath to apply to the DGA here, I’m imagining that their thought process is ‘LIBERAL = BAD! MAKE OPPONENT LIBERAL, HE SURE TO LOSE!’
And then my thought process turns to which search engine is best to learn how to tie a slip knot, and which fixtures in my house would best support the weight of a human being.
merrinc
I’m not usually rendered speechless so early in the day but…wow. From the article Mistermix linked:
Seriously fucked up.
beltane
@merrinc: Obama won the Iowa caucus and he won Iowa in the general election. The Democratic governor’s association must be based out of Oklahoma or something. Or they are just a bunch of worthless idiots.
Hugin & Munin
Gee Stuck, yesterday Martin said that you, he, & Cole are Progressive peas in a lttle progressive pod, while the rest of us are liberals, so now I am confused.
Now, you aren’t responsible for what others say, but if you guys wanna work out who ya’ll hate today and let me know, I’ll be over in the proud liberal section.
General Stuck
@DougJ: Obama has the right wing and the left wing inconsolably disappointed. In some weird way, I’d call that victory. also, too.
Kryptik
@General Stuck:
Too bad that the golden mean theory is what gave us Fox News and it’s brand of ‘Experts: Earth Round, Critics Disagree’ journalism.
General Stuck
I missed that comment. Link please.
I don’t hate you. I will mock you from time to time though.
It’s the Also Ran department for “Proud Liberals” btw
General Stuck
@Kryptik: I like progressive blog warriors in uniform. Makes me feel safe and pretty. Go get em Tiger.
merrinc
@beltane:
I’m trying to remember an old saying…to err is divine, to really screw things up requires a committee. Or something like that. Or like this.
Hugin & Munin
Stuck: But the day before that, you identified yourself as liberal (self-hating, I guess), suggesting that the only ideological coherence is internalizing Republican talking points about Democrats.
Nick
@Kryptik:
I think they’re past trying t neutralize them at this point and are not just accepting them as a fact of political life and adjusting accordingly.
Also, this is meant toward Republican primary voters, not GE voters, and I find it funny we’re doing this, because there were a lot of people during the primaries trying to drive a wedge through the GOP by accusing McCain of being a liberal to Republicans.
General Stuck
@Hugin & Munin:
I don’t have a clue what this means. Try again, not speaking in tongues.
edit – and again, if you are going to characterize my comments or those of others here, you need to link to them so I know wtf you are talking about.
CalD
Democrats need better ad agencies.
GregB
Speaking of believing things that aren’t true. I was unable to convince my conservative friend that not only was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by a Democratic President named Lyndon Johnson, but there were more Democrats who voted for the bill than Republicans.
Nope. He insisted that it was Republicans who passed the bill in a numerical majority.
Creating their own reality one lie at a time.
Hugin & Munin
Stuck: It was written in English. Try Websters.com if you need help.
beltane
@GregB: But they want to do away with the Civil Rights Act. They hate the Civil Rights Act. These conservatives remind me of Holocaust deniers who insist that the Holocaust never happened, but that it should happen in the near future.
General Stuck
@Hugin & Munin: It was written in stupid and without links to back up your nonsense.
wonkie
This ad was put our by the Democratic Governers’ Association andit is highly unlikely that anyone in or near the Oval office ot the DNC or the DCC or any other federal level group is aware of it. Those folks are all too busy with other stuff to be involved in the development of ads by the DGA.
It is a remarkably stupid ad.
Primigenius
Gee, I recognize Emma Goldberg, Patrice Lumumba, and Eugene Debs, but who’s the guy with the glasses?
lol
@Derelict:
The *actual base* of the party is pretty happy with what Obama is doing even if independents, Republicans and “progressive bloggers” are not. Support from “liberal Democrats” is essentially unchanged since he took office.
Svensker
It’s hot here and the ol’ brain is fried, so it took me about 5 minutes to figure out that the ad is AGAINST Branstad by another Democrat and paid for by Democrats.
A serious WTF seems in order. Along with lashings of iced coffee.
Davis X. Machina
@beltane: It’s the first fruits of the Kos-sponsored left-libertarian alliance, dummy.
Tuffy
I can explain this.
Branstand just won a bitter primary against a hardcore Bible beater, Bob Vander Plaats, and the state convention only narrowly voted to let him choose his own running mate over forcing him to take Bible Bob on the ticket.
Bible Bob is publicly mulling running as an independent, which would split the GOP vote and give the incumbent Democrat his best chance to keep the governor’s mansion.
The Bible wing of the GOP here doesn’t trust Branstand and creating enough of a fissure between them that they get Bible Bob to run is Culver’s only hope.
This rube goldberg shit isn’t likely to work. But hell, mise well try.
Hugin & Munin
Stuck, excuse me for being limited to a platform that doesn’t allow me to easily post links (Kindle), but if you need a link to your own post to show you how you identify yourself politically, I am afraid that you are beyond help.
Waynski
@General Stuck: Self hating liberal? Now we’re really on to something. If I were you Stuck, I’d consider it a badge of honor.
Corner Stone
@Hugin & Munin: It was the Left behind post:
Martin in the Left Behind
This was after Stuck self identified as “liberal” on two separate posts on the same day, IIRC.
El Cid
@stuckinred: Where?
Mnemosyne
@merrinc:
I’m not surprised at all. It’s already the conventional wisdom that Democrats hate the president and hate Nancy Pelosi even more than Republicans do — I mean, Even the Liberal Fareed Zakaria is on my teevee every Sunday to tell me how much the president sucks and how angry liberals are with him, so it must be true! Clearly, the only possible answer is to run against the president in November and talk about how much you’ve blocked his policies.
If the Republicans make big gains this fall, this is how it’s going to happen — Democrats running against the president and their own party, which inevitably makes voters say, “Well, shit, I may as well vote for the Republican, then.”
Hugin & Munin
CS Thx.
catclub
@WereBear (itouch):
Just be patient. Reagan got an airport named for him days
after he left office.
General Stuck
@Hugin & Munin: You are a smarmy little fucker. But no mind. I identify myself as a run of the mill liberal, but one who takes each issue as it is and sometimes can be moderate, and on occasion somewhat conservative. I am a registered independent currently, and loathe ideologues from left and right, even though I largely agree with those on the left on issues, most of the time.
The term progressive is non ideological imo, it is directly linked to an attitude of accepting progress in a democracy because the ideal can rarely, if ever, be achieved by the democratic process, or taking into account everyone’s wishes.
And that is especially true in this country with divides down some pretty disparate lines of world view..
As for “internalizing” dems accepting RW talking points, I am against that, as were my comments on the recent thread concerning the DNC memo on Steele’s comments about Afghanistan and it being a bad war, or something along those lines. But not everyone agrees with what is a RW talking point, and I disagreed that Obama stating that when times are tough people should tighten their belts on spending. That is simple common sense imo.
My comments along these lines were many, and I am not a kneejerk proponent of massive government spending when it is not thought through and targeted to help those in need the most. Since you asked my pol leanings.
And I would suggest that if you are unable to provide links to assertions you make from past comments, maybe you shouldn’t make such assertions.
General Stuck
@Corner Stone: So what’s your point big brain?
edit- after reading Martin’s comment. It makes sense to me.
gene108
@Observer:
Yeah, expanding health coverage has been a raging priority of conservatives for the last 60-70 years. Increasing regulations on Wall Street also has been a big issue for conservatives, since the 2008 financial disaster. Passing cap-and-trade legislation on carbon is another priority, the right-wingers in this country have been fuming about trying to pass, ever since Global Warming became an issue 20 years ago.
I mean every day, I hear right-wingers complaining about the damage human carbon emissions are doing to the environment. Right-wingers have been so worried about Global Warming, I’m surprised President Obama hasn’t moved faster to implement tougher rules on carbon emissions, because it’s what his right-wing overlords wanted done yesterday.
Oh yea, I almost forgot how offended right-wingers are that women are paid less than men for doing the same work, which is why President Obama, at the bidding of his right-wing overlords, signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act as the first piece of legislation enacted into law by his Administration.
I watched Larry Kudlow, on CNBC, breakdown in tears, when he read how mean Goodyear was to Lilly and how unfair big corporations can be to their employees.
What piece of legislation will President Obama’s right-wing overlords force him to enact next? Immigration reform, which gives illegals a path to legal status? Cap-and-trade legislation on carbon emissions? Extending unemployment benefits?
Stay tuned to find out…
Hugin & Munin
Wait, your total lack of coherance and constancy makes me a smarmy little fucker?
I would also point out that setting the center against the left is classic Nixonian politics, so enjoy internalizing RW attacks. Tricky Dick would love your efforts. He would pat you on the head and call you a good boy.
Dweeze
Of all the comments, only Zinfab hits the reason for the ad and the failure of it. The ‘Branstad as liberal’ meme wasn’t created by the DGA – it was created by his primary opponents. This was not the only, nor the first, campaign ad to paint Branstad as liberal. One of Vanderplaats’ personally approved messages as the primary got closer was that Branstad should not be governor again because when he was governor before, he worked with Democrats to solve problems.
The ad has nothing to do with how party leaders feel about core issues. (And maybe all the commenters talking about that are right. I don’t really have an opinion about it.) The ad is all about trying to help a far-right candidate beat a moderate candidate in order to enable a liberal candidate to win the general election.
Had Vanderplaats won the primary, Culver would walk to victory this fall. Because Branstad won, Culver will unfortunately be walking out of the capitol come next January. Given that, as an Iowan I have no problem with the DGA resorting to ratfucking to try to help Vanderplaats win the primary and to seal the fall election for Culver. My only objection is that they did it so damn poorly, allowing it to be traced back to them.
Phoenix Woman
@Derelict:
Yup. It doesn’t help that campaigns have become so expensive that even a minor congressional seat costs $1 million to win and nearly as much to defend. When big corporate interests and billionaire Wall Streeters are the only entities that can afford to be serious political patrons, the Democrats find themselves selling out for sheer political survival.
http://www.publicampaign.org
General Stuck
@Hugin & Munin:
The only thing you pointed out in this thread is you being a mendacious moron jabbering nonsense trollery.
Hugin & Munin
Stuck, you are at least consistant in attacking anyone who does not bow down in recognition of your obvious superiority.
Do you have anything more than trying to hurt my fee-fees?
General Stuck
@Hugin & Munin:
Yawn
Jay in Oregon
@WereBear (itouch):
Reagan being the exception that proves the rule…
cfaller96
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this on the thread yet, but whatever it’s Friday I’ll start a flame war- would Rahm Emanuel be included in that group? (Uh, does a bear s–t in the woods?)
I would also point out that there are certain bloggers that stubbornly refuse to acknowledge at least one member of that group works as Chief of Staff in the White House, and refuses to see the value in opposing and criticizing him.
If these (IMO necessary) intraparty Progressive vs. Blue Dog squabbles are cut off before a victory is determined, then the Party will never get better at promoting its core values…because the fight (and the inevitable proxy wars) over those values continues to be mocked as pathological, immature, firebagging, etc.
In sum, thanks for the “Show Me on the Doll Where Rahm Touched You” tag, Balloon Juice!
BruinKid
@Zifnab: Yeah, these are Iowa Republicans, after all, who are VERY religiously conservative. They’ve been told “liberal” is the most evil word out there in church for the last several decades.
Waynski
@cfaller96: You firebagging, loser, fuckhead! Just kidding. I’m sure you’re very nice but you said you wanted to start a flame war so I thought I’d oblige. Can we call each other names for the rest of the afternoon?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
What is really needed is another poster right next to it:
Mt Rushmore with Shrub, Nixon, and Jefferson Davis next to a picture on the GOP candidate with the legend “I’d rather be a liberal than a conservative”.