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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / The Joe Soptic Ad is Gutter Politics, but the Romney Welfare Ad is Business as Usual?

The Joe Soptic Ad is Gutter Politics, but the Romney Welfare Ad is Business as Usual?

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  August 9, 20124:17 pm| 31 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012, Kiss My Black Ass, Our Failed Media Experiment

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On the pants-crapping currently going on about the Priorities USA ad, I am throwing my hat into BooMan’s ring:

The only thing I’ll say in the ad’s defense is that we take attacks like that all day long from hate radio and Fox News and the rest of the Mighty Right-Wing Wurlitizer, and I don’t see Anderson Cooper getting his knickers in a twist about that too often.

The factual liberties in that ad are actually a bad idea because it makes it a lot easier to make the “both-sides-do it” argument. The inaccuracies are unnecessary. And if you don’t think his story packs enough punch when told straight, find someone else whose story requires less tweaking. The Bain Capital story doesn’t require any embellishment or exaggeration, so we shouldn’t undermine the power of our message with embellishment and exaggeration.

Here is the real story. Regardless of how many people Mitt Romney laid off when he owned Bain Capital, when he was the governor of Massachusetts he thought that no one should die because they didn’t have employer-provided health care. And he did something about it. But he has totally disavowed that philosophy. So, decisions made by Bain Capital cost a man his job and his health care, which ultimately meant that his wife delayed seeing a doctor and didn’t have any insurance when she found out that she was sick with cancer. Romney had a solution for that problem when he was governor, but he has no solution for that problem now.

Precisely.

Also, too:

[Holy crap you’ll have to click this link to read the rest! Whatever will you do? Click? Refuse to click? Click and then complain about it in the comments for the umpteenth time? Either way, I am responsible for degrading this fine establishment and you should email Cole about it. ]

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Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    Killjoy

    August 9, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    I like the new “Choose your own adventure” feature of this blog.

  2. 2.

    jl

    August 9, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    As I said in previous thread. if you are a chickenshit, you cannot confront the bullying tactics that the GOP and Mitt use.

    So, this election will provide a good set of tests for which pundits are chickeshit losers and which are not.

    It amazes me that the issue of whether there is any truth behind a hard hitting GOP or Democratic ad seldom enters these chickenshit analyses in any significant way.

    Chickenshits spend their time posturing and gaming their own analysis, and dithering, in order to avoid confronting the bullying tactics of the GOP and Romney.

  3. 3.

    ABL

    August 9, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    @Killjoy: i laughed.

    admittedly, i am a tad cranky today.

  4. 4.

    Soonergrunt

    August 9, 2012 at 4:28 pm

    I moved my post so as not to interfere with this or DougJ’s, both of which are quite good.

  5. 5.

    AnotherBruce

    August 9, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    I think I’ll complain about clicking on that link because I’m too lazy to click on that link even though complaining about clicking that link will be more effort than actually clicking on that link.

  6. 6.

    jl

    August 9, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    And before I catch PC objections, I apologize to chickenshit, which if properly handled, is a worthy substance with many uses in this world.

    I just can’t think of a better term now.

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 9, 2012 at 4:33 pm

    This hyar is like a slap in th’ face t’th’ blog onar! Fry mah hide!

  8. 8.

    LanceThruster

    August 9, 2012 at 4:34 pm

    You almost had me there, ABL. I waved my cursor over the embedded link you provided, but then remembered in the nick of time that doing so was the absolute worstest thing that could happen, EVAH!

    Just thought you should know you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over on me.

    Nothing personal.

  9. 9.

    Steve

    August 9, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Since Anderson Cooper is the target of this quote, didn’t Anderson Cooper give Newt Gingrich a hard time about the false welfare ad, to the point where Newt finally had to admit that they have no evidence Obama is actually doing any of the things they accuse him of?

  10. 10.

    c u n d gulag

    August 9, 2012 at 4:39 pm

    This AFOWM loves you!
    “Angry Fat Old White Man” – btw.

  11. 11.

    Comrade Mary

    August 9, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    [Holy crap you’ll have to click this link to read the rest! Whatever will you do? Click? Refuse to click? Click and then complain about it in the comments for the umpteenth time? Either way, I am responsible for degrading this fine establishment and you should email Cole about it. ]

    I HAVE DECISION FATIGUE AND YOU’RE NOT HELPING!

  12. 12.

    rikyrah

    August 9, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    that shows you how much this ad is hitting the mark.

    not only against Willard, but the entire GOP Philosophy of the past 30 years.

  13. 13.

    scav

    August 9, 2012 at 4:45 pm

    Well, I remembered to bring the lace doilies to set underneath the daintily cut watercress sandwiches for victory, but I seem to have forgotten the Darjeeling. Can anyone help? She’s here ever so often.

  14. 14.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 9, 2012 at 4:51 pm

    @scav: She’s in traction in the hospital. Apparently, some miscreant slipped a pea under her mattress.

  15. 15.

    Martin

    August 9, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    Please don’t touch me there ABL. No still means no.

  16. 16.

    gbear

    August 9, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    @ABL: I went over to Benen’s blog. He’s never cranky.

  17. 17.

    Valdivia

    August 9, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    @ABL:

    I love reading you and always follow to read the whole thing, would be great (a girl can dream no?) if when we clicked the page would appear in another tab so we can read there and still keep the present tab where it is. I know, I am a pain in the ass. Easier to read on an iPad that way while I am spending the day in the hospital.

  18. 18.

    Randy P

    August 9, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    @ABL: We’re having the same day then, because your “Holy crap” link made me LOL and then killjoy compounded it.

    I’ve been having increasingly grumpy phone calls with a contractor all day, repeating the same requirements 20 times with less and less patience. I’m afraid a less than professional snideness may have gotten into some of the email chain.

  19. 19.

    RossinDetroit

    August 9, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    admittedly, i am a tad cranky today.

    Fixd. And good for you. The dems need a good cranking to get them going.

  20. 20.

    not motorik

    August 9, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    You’re a terrible blogger.

    You’re a moron. -ABL

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    August 9, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Here’s the other thing: it’s not like Reid is saying that Romney is a secret alcoholic, or a gay drug addict, or something like that. He’s saying that he’s been told that Romney didn’t pay taxes.

    Have we really reached the point where pointing out that a really rich person may be using shady methods to hold onto those riches is worse than claiming that someone is a non-citizen who illegally ran for president?

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne

    August 9, 2012 at 6:05 pm

    @Valdivia:

    I know how! Instead of just clicking on the link, click and hold, and the iPad should give you an option to “Open in New Page.” Click on that, close it when you’re done, and the B-J page will still be open and waiting for you. You can have something like 12 pages open at a time, IIRC.

    That is, unless ABL has done something fancy to disable that ability, which would seem to be well beyond her HTML skillz.

  23. 23.

    burnspbesq

    August 9, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    Yes, the Soptic ad is gutter politics. Yes, the welfare ad is business as usual.

    Gutter politics are business as usual for Republicans. Democrats are forbidden to engage in gutter politics.

    Did you change you address without giving notice? Because you clearly didn’t get the memo.

  24. 24.

    Valdivia

    August 9, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    thank you! much appreciated, now I can click and not lose my place on BJ :)

  25. 25.

    Yutsano

    August 9, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    @Valdivia: Now please to be disclosing why you are in hospital??

  26. 26.

    Publius39

    August 9, 2012 at 7:34 pm

    @not motorik:

    Well, how about this; you stop clicking on her stories to bitch in the comment section and open up you own blog instead?

  27. 27.

    ABL

    August 9, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    @Valdivia: That I can do. When I use WP for iPad, I can’t seem to figure out how to link so it appears in a new tab. I will look into that. I’ll just figure out what that extra bit of HTML is.

    See? I’m totes reasonable.

    ( Sometimes.)

  28. 28.

    Imani Gandy (ABL)

    August 9, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    @Martin: but the last time, you said you liked it. you run hot and cold, man.

  29. 29.

    Steeplejack

    August 9, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    @ABL:

    The target attribute specifies where to open the linked document. Use _blank to open the linked document in a new tab or window. (I think it defaults to tab. That may depend on your browser.)

    Example:

    <a href=”http://www.angryblackladychronicles.com/” target=”_blank”>Holy crap! That site!</a>

    should get you this: Holy crap! That site!

    N.B. FYWP may do some weird shit where it doesn’t allow the opening of a new tab. Let’s give it a whirl . . .

  30. 30.

    ABL

    August 9, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    @Steeplejack: Thanks! I knew it had something to do with target blank something or other. I will use that.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    August 9, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Man, I really hate FYWP. It’s really hard to show HTML in it, and the FYWP rules are different in composition and editing. Hopefully this butchered example will give you enough of an idea to go on.

    And it appears that FYWP does knock out the target attribute, at least for us peons. It might work for you, since you have the double-secret front-pager decoder ring.

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