Hit ‘im again harder, Hillary!
(Alternatively: “Oh, you’re floundering? Here: catch this anchor.”)
Image: J. W. M. Turner, The Wreck of the Minotaur, c. 1810.
This post is in: Election 2016, Hillary Clinton 2016
Hit ‘im again harder, Hillary!
(Alternatively: “Oh, you’re floundering? Here: catch this anchor.”)
Image: J. W. M. Turner, The Wreck of the Minotaur, c. 1810.
Comments are closed.
Gin & Tonic
Floundering? Anchor? You’re a good writer, so I bet that wasn’t a fluke.
Iowa Old Lady
She’s had some ads I like a lot. I assume someone is testing their effectiveness, but I haven’t seen an analysis.
My favorite is the one with children watching TV, but I think all the ones that use Trump’s own words are great.
schrodinger's cat
deleted
Robin G.
The ads have been very delicately tailored so far. Research seems to have told them that the outsourcing, failed/fraudulent businesses, and mocking the disabled reporter are what play the best. Aside from a push on misogynistic comments in the next few months, I think they’re just going to let Donald sink himself with all the other crap. At least as far as commercials go.
schrodinger's cat
More great Sufi music by A. R. Rahman from Dilli 6, (pin code for the iconic Delhi’s Chandni Chowk neighborhood). The mosque pictured is Jama Masjid one of the biggest mosques in India, built by Shah Jahan who also built the Taj.
Arziyaan == Requests
Sung by Kailash Kher and Javed Ali
ETA: Trying again because my comment went into moderation, again!
Tom Levenson
@Gin & Tonic: I confess the sin of puns. Don’t carp.
WereBear
Yesterday I got a Trump robo-call. At work. Begging for money.
As if.
Iowa Old Lady
@WereBear: At work? Who the hell is running their call center?
Trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
Oi [slaps forehead] and to think you could have been a sturgeon!
Tokyokie
@Tom Levenson: You can’t wriggle off the hook that easily, my friend!
James E Powell
Since Trump is a walking talking anti-Trump ad, i would like to see more pro-Hillary ads.
We need to displace RW Caricature Hillary with Actual Hillary and that is going to take quite a while.
Tokyokie
@Iowa Old Lady: Outsourced to the low bidder overseas, no doubt.
? Martin
That first ad is very effective. The smug ‘you caught me’ look on his face at the end is going to resonate with a lot of voters.
dmsilev
@WereBear: I got one at work as well. I put my phone down next to one our machines that makes a noise described by the manufacturer as a ‘rhythmic chirping sound’ and went off and did something else. They hung up eventually.
Miss Bianca
@Tokyokie: He’s just fishing for compliments. Don’t rise to the bait!
Robin G.
I’d like to amend the above statement to say that if HRC doesn’t flood Florida with ads about Trump surrogate statements calling Zika an “insignificant issue” then I will sue for political malpractice.
Calouste
@Tokyokie: Remember, these are the folks that send fundraising emails to members of parliament in other countries (and I’m not talking about the Duma here).
Tom Levenson
@James E Powell: The wonkier one at that link on what she plans to do to reduce inequality and add jobs is a step in that direction.
scav
@Iowa Old Lady: They confused him with the President of Iceland.
Tokyokie
@Miss Bianca: Well he’s not going to net any results with that line.
shortribs
@Iowa Old Lady:
My guess is every ad gets a lot of testing before officially released. I was kind of caught off-guard they start the ad with “I’m Hillary Clinton and I approve this ad…” because isn’t that usually tacked on at the end? Got me thinking if hearing her name gets people to stop what they’re doing and look when they normally wouldn’t, and it’s a really short ad so they’re likely to watch the whole thing.
dmsilev
@Miss Bianca: He’ll manage to skate by somehow.
aimai
I think they should run more ads with important, and unimportant, people testifying to the “Hillary I have known” for X number of years. Hard core right wingers will never believe it, but there are probably some people on the fence who could be persuaded by someone they see as influential, or believable, or in a position to know. In effect that is what the Obamas and Biden are doing with their own voters. The question is–who serves that purpose, and it will be different for each community, for various other constituencies.
For example I think that ads aimed specifically at the parenting community about her work with kids, and ads aimed specifically at the (so called) pro life and religious community about her work and her personal connection with disabled people will also be very effective. Because she’s worked so hard and so long in so many locations it should be easy to find lots of people who are testifying to her “heart” (which was one of the big themes of the convention) from a local perspective. These aren’t going to be national ads, they are going to be very narrow cast and targeted.
Trollhattan
@Miss Bianca: @Tokyokie: You people are giving me a haddock.
Tokyokie
@Calouste: Yeah, it’s like he’s been shipping the work off to Elbonia as in Dilbert.
Roger Moore
@Robin G.:
I think hitting him on character- and all those things are really character attacks- is the right way to go. Most of the people who can be convinced to vote for Hillary based on policy have already been convinced, so you’re going after people who either don’t care about policy or actually agree with Trump on some policy issues. The ones of those people who can be convinced are more likely to worry about whether Trump looks like somebody they’d be willing to trust with presidential responsibilities, so character attacks are a good way to go.
JCJ
@dmsilev:
Maybe Trump can get money for his campaign from a loan shark.
Tom Levenson
@Trollhattan: I’m happy with my current perch. It’s no fluke that I get to write for the halibut mid afternoon. Still, trawling the internet instead of filling my word quota’s gonna get my head on a pike.
And with that….scene. Or seine.
JMG
My daughter worked for Senator Warren’s campaign in 2012. Her parents kicked in $50. Good Democrat that she is, Warren gave her fundie list to Clinton. That doesn’t bother me. The up to three times a day Hillary robocalls do bother me. Not only are robocalls useless except to irritate the callee, Clinton’s calls are particularly wretched. Somebody in her vast campaign organization needs to do something about this.
? Martin
@James E Powell: That’ll come after labor day.
Tokyokie
@Trollhattan: In that case, I should change my tuna.
JCJ
@Trollhattan:
I’m just reading this thread sitting on a perch.
MattF
Well, I’ve told this story before, but how often do the subjects of puns and fish arise together?
When I was in grad school, the grad student dorm I was living in had a Christmas competition for the best pun on the name of a Christmas carol that involved the name of a fish. I was informed that there was some eschatological significance to it, but what do I know? Anyhow– I won! With ‘Little Tuna Bethlehem’. The runner-up was ‘Shark! The Herald Angels Sing!’
JCJ
@Tom Levenson:
OK fine. You got the perch one in first, you whipper snapper!
Cal D
That’s what I’d call a trans-Pacific partnership.
Tom Levenson
@JCJ: Can you catch everything we’re saying? Or are you hard of herring?
dmsilev
@JCJ: Well, he already has those Rusdian connections for his business…
aimai
@JMG: I haven’t answered my home phone in months. If someone really wants me they can call my cel. But almost all of the calls are political and they simply hang up when I don’t pick up. I haven’t missed anything important.
Tokyokie
OK, I’ll admit my last fish pun was crappie.
Major Major Major Major
I heard Hillary was just running an anti-Trump campaign and had no positive agenda and she still hasn’t given me a reason to vote for her and that tax isn’t good enough and she eats babies. Jill Stein!
scav
@Gin & Tonic: Well, with one so notoriously easy to bait, a little mudfish on the mud hook … Especially as he’s already out there chumming the water with white suckers, trying to work up a feeding frenzy for the cameras.
Tom Levenson
@Major Major Major Major: In the spirit of this thread, I propose we change her name to Gill Stein.
The Thin Black Duke
@WereBear: Hey! Hi! Where you been? We missed you.
JMG
@aimai: Unpossible for me. Too many of my old friends and colleagues from ancient times only have my landline number, and sometimes, if not as often as I’d wish, they call.
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic: I like the cut of his jib.
scav
@Mike J: Ah! proof that everything’s rigged, no?
Trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
I can spin no further shall cast my lot with you, chum.
Kathleen
@Tom Levenson: You had better seas and desist before Blogmaster Cole pun-ishes the lot of you.
Grumpy Code Monkey
What scares the ever-loving crap out of me?
It’s only August. We’ve already had a full election season’s worth of gaffes and fuckups and laments for the future of the Republic, and it’s only fucking August. The first week of August. The country will be in flames by October.
Major Major Major Major
@Tom Levenson: Second.
Redshift
@JMG: Luckily for me, our old friends and colleagues (and parents) will actually leave messages on our answering machine, so I can pick up.
scav
@Kathleen: Walleye don’t know about that.
Patricia Kayden
@James E Powell:
Why? Rightwingers are not going to vote for Secretary Clinton under any circumstances. It’s better for Secretary Clinton to let Trump continue to self-implode and then run ads against him reinforcing how dangerous a Trump presidency would be. People like me who already like her don’t need ads.
Lizzy L
According to the NYT, Trump’s campaign has made up the funding deficit and now has the money to compete with HRC. Most of the money came from small donations. (Re-posted from prior thread.)
Schlemazel
@Tom Levenson:
You’ll have to speak up, I am hard of herring. But puns make me eel over so try to keep them to a minnowmum or I will school as sure as my name is Gill.
Then reading through I see some of these are in earlier so I am going to listen to music, right now it is Salmon Chanted Evening played by Tommy Dorsel.
AxelFoley
Not to be crabby, but all these puns krill me.
japa21
I swear to cod, if these puns don’t stop, I will scream out, in my bass voice, as loud as I can, that I will never sinker to the bottom of this pond.
scav
@japa21: Whaling about it won’t kelp the situation.
Patricia Kayden
@aimai: I live in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area where an ad about Secretary Clinton’s work to improve healthcare for children ran a few weeks ago. Not seeing them anymore but assume, they’ll be run again soon.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/284901-new-clinton-ad-focuses-on-childrens-healthcare
Major Major Major Major
I think history will show that this campaign ended the day Trump first shad upon the memory of Captain Khan.
bluehill
This article provides insight into why poor whites are voting for Trump. It’s not simply racism, but more about being heard. I would argue that the dems have tried to do a lot to help all people that are struggling as well as give them a voice ( like fighting against citizens united), but the repubs have blocked them at every turn, so there is some misdirected anger. However, I appreciate the bigger point that these people are struggling and they are rising up in the only way they can. We wonder why they can’t see the harm that will come if Trump is in president, but when you are barely surviving as is, I’m guessing that it’s hard to imagine life getting much worse.
http://www.theestablishment.co/2016/05/24/i-know-why-poor-whites-chant-trump-trump-trump/
J.D. Vance echoes similar thoughts in his book, “Hillbilly Elegy.” He comes from, you guessed it, hillbilly country and goes on to the Marines and then Yale Law, so he’s got a unique perspective on what is driving a lot of Trump supporters.
japa21
@scav: Maybe I should just humpback to my seat and reel in another line of thought.
Quinerly
@Tokyokie:
Give yourself SOME credit. It just floundered.
Uncle Cosmo
Screw the fish puns. Both the clips at the link come up “This media cannot be played” & when I dug up a link via USA Toady it got me a 429 error (“this site is generating too much traffic”). If anyone’s got a link that works, let’s see it.
R-Jud
These fish puns serve no porpoise, you guys.
Jim Kakalios
@Tom Levenson: Do you get paid extra for these puns, or are you just working for scale?
Splitting Image
So I went downtown today (in Toronto) to do some shopping. Standing in front of Old City Hall was a 70-year-old white guy carrying four different signs saying “Trump for PM too!” “Trudeau = Obama” and “Dump Trudeau”. I forget what the other one said, but the gist of it was the same as the other three.
The guy looked so lonely and pathetic with all those signs, as if he was trying to give the impression that the rest of his sizeable protest group had to go the bathroom just a moment ago, and they’ll be back any minute now.
gogol's wife
@JMG:
I told this to an actual person who called me (after I had requested five times that they stop calling me — I contribute online when I can and I don’t need to be called). But I got another one today.
Trollhattan
I now understand the cross-generational appeal of Sponge Bob.
scav
There is a tide in the timestream of all punstorms. Waves to @japa21:
SiubhanDuinne
Gar, all this false modesty! Everyone’s so koi.
And that is my sole word on the subject.
sm*t cl*de
@Tom Levenson:
He who dealt it smelt it.
japa21
.@Major Major Major Major: It it is pretty obvious that when he did that, the entire GOP basically got scrod.
ETA: With that, this brain is going through a major thought trout and I give up.
FlyingToaster
@Lizzy L: 38 Million isn’t “caught up”. Hils&Co raised more than 100Mil, and 2/3 is hers while the rest is shared between the DNC and state D party orgs. Trump is about 100 million behind and falling further.
Where is the staff for all 50 states?
Where is the datacenter? (I swear to dog, one of you is going to answer Minsk)
Where is the rapid response team?
Where is the
veal penoffice full of interns combing the robocall list for work numbers and the e-mail list for non us addresses?I am assuming complete incompetency here, given the antics of the past couple of days.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Ah, they’re all pikers. I dolphinitely think it’s shellfish of them to give up.
p.a.
@WereBear: Are you an English, Australian, or Finnish MP? Own up to it.
Feebog
Keep up all these fish jokes and somebody’s head is going to wind up on the end of a pike.
Keith G
Now we are confronted with the painful side effects of wall to wall Trump blogging.
chopper
@Tom Levenson:
it’s gotta be difficult having critics perched over you all day.
Major Major Major Major
@bluehill: This isn’t that hard. Postindustrial-ish, post-extraction life hit the rust belt, Appalachia, and large swaths of the South hard, and the federal government didn’t do as much to help as they could have. (For earlier, see also “Reconstruction, Failure Of”). Meanwhile, these voters, who are already inclined towards religious paranoia and xenophobia, were easy marks for the Southern Strategy. Their politicians then sold them out for personal and financial gain. Now life really sucks for them. 90%+ of the problem is Republicans. This is a tragedy of their own devising. To a large extent they were rubes, but poor white people have agency and they made racist decisions of their own volition, too. They keep voting for Republicans because a lot of them are, at this point, irredeemably prejudiced.
Southern minorities had it even worse and they manage to not vote against their best interests. What’s the difference?
Baud
@Keith G: It’s all in good fun. Don’t be such an eel.
Technocrat
@Keith G:
I think whaling on Trump is rather cathartic. Lord knows we’re all happy Krillary is keeping her head down.
Mr. Mack
Getting reel tired of the puns...Here’s an ad I like.
Major Major Major Major
@Technocrat: lol, krillary
Origuy
All these fish puns reminded me of the classic Wet Dream by Kip Addotta.
James E Powell
@aimai:
Very much agree.
They could also use some “I wasn’t sure who I was voting for, but then a friend showed me this . . .”
Baud
@James E Powell: I suspect you’ll start to see some of those after Labor Day.
scav
If nothing else, everyone’s gone hook, line and sinker here for non-trolling modes of baiting the hook and throwing barbed remarks, weir-as we’ve probably previously gone overboard on other angling techniques. So, net benefit.
gene108
Part of me thinks Trump is part of an elaborate scheme by Bill and Hillz to secure the Presidency for her, and right before the election he’ll “rip his mask off”, and give the big reveal.
James E Powell
@Patricia Kayden:
Because we need more than people like you, or like me. We need the people who don’t follow politics, who don’t really pay attention to the news, and who currently do not feel like they can trust or emotionally connect with HRC.
cmorenc
@japa21:
The GOP still thinks they will get some sort of squid pro quo for continuing to support Trump.
p.a.
Some of the sea references have sunk to the level of tautog-logy.
geg6
@bluehill:
Bullshit. I’m surrounded by Trump voters here in southwestern PA. It’s race, misogyny and bigotry. And few of them are poor working class people. They are middle and upper middle class racist fucks, all white and late middle aged and elderly. The excuses people are making for them come right out of the Jim Webb playbook. Fuck these motherfuckers. They don’t merit empathy or understanding and their voices have ALWAYS been heard.
Technocrat
@cmorenc:
“squid pro quo” wow. /golfclap
Technocrat
@geg6:
This. I work with highly educated, highly compensated engineers, and Trump support is fairly widespread.
The Ancient Randonnuer
Walleye never …
Jim Parene
@JCJ: Could be expensive, Loan Sharks don’t work for scale.
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
Given where I work, I bet I could put them on hold with an endless loop of a certain song.
I wonder how long it would take before they went mad?
bluehill
@geg6: I think there’s a class dimension to this and the author of the article posits that white, wealthy class has used race to keep the poor whites from joining with the poor blacks to dilute the political power of the then slaves and white indentured servants.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
You betta believe it.
The Ancient Randonnuer
@geg6:
This point can’t be overstated. Trump supporters have to be uneducated low wage earners? Most of his support comes from people who are not stupid. Does it make people uncomfortable to think that Trump supporters have backgrounds very similar to ours? Most of them are people you stand in the checkout line with at the grocery store. The difference is they are just very good at hiding all the hate they have inside. A hundred years ago white folks got dressed up, made a picnic lunch, and took the kids with them to make a day out of a lynching.
The Thin Black Duke
@bluehill: Sure, but having said that, it always seems that people of color have to be the collateral damage in the end so those poor white people can feel better about themselves.
Tom Levenson
@Uncle Cosmo: Both the vids at the link work for me. Are you sure you’re not just picking a coral?
Mnemosyne
@bluehill:
It’s tricky because, as others have said, rich white elites have been telling poor white people, Hey, at least you’re not an n**! for about 300 years now, and a lot of them still buy into that.
I agree that they need a new identity other than “better than a n**,” but I’m not sure what that would be.
Major Major Major Major
@The Ancient Randonnuer:
Sadly, yes.
I enjoyed this read.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Technocrat: Agreed. That’s some quality work right there.
The Ancient Randonnuer
@Major Major Major Major:
I was born in Nebraska but raised elsewhere. I still have family from both sides that never left. It still creeps me out how nice they seem to be, but–always a but, right–if you listen closely you hear it. Lots of subtle but unmistakable hatred for people of color and non-Christians. The racism isn’t surprising because one of my grandfathers was a virulent and outspoken racist but the fact that all of them are now Jesus loving is very shocking to me. No one on my dad’s side of the family went to church, ever. Not even for the big holidays. Our generation was the third unchurched generation but somehow about half of my cohort are religious to the point of zealotry.
The Ancient Randonnuer
Just for giggles here is the least crazy thing Trump has said this week(Politico link):
Seriously? FSM help us all.
Major Major Major Major
@The Ancient Randonnuer: Now watch this drive!
Renie
@WereBear: My office got one yesterday too! Why would they be calling offices? Waste of time and money.
Miss Bianca
@The Ancient Randonnuer: And Obama says, “sure, Donald…I’ll play for the Presidency. I mean, I’ve only got 5 months left, right?”
Kenneth Kohl
@The Ancient Randonnuer: Donnie still running against Obama? What kind of advisers does he have, fergodssake?
bluehill
@The Thin Black Duke: True. I have no illusions that racism isn’t a major driver of Trump’s support. It just seems like could be an opportunity to win back the white working class because their interests are in line with dem efforts to increase social spending, shift tax policy etc. The irony is that I think the “moderate” wealthy republicans will be the ones that can tip the House back to the dems, which will enable the dems to make some more significant changes.
low-tech cyclist
@Roger Moore:
I think hitting him on outsourcing goes deeper than character. I’m sure most of his fans don’t give a shit about his character – they just want him to be a bigoted asshole who will be a bigoted asshole to all the people they don’t like – an asshole who’s on their side.
The outsourcing ad undercuts that, by showing him enriching himself by sending their jobs overseas all along. Think he’s on your side? Think again.
FlipYrWhig
@bluehill: The white working class, and some of the middle class, is the base of the Republican Party. There’s no killer app that wins them over. They’re gone. Take care of them because it’s right, as the Democrats have been doing for 150 years, but expect no rewards for it. We have two parties and someone’s always going to vote for the other side on some basis.
sdhays
@Major Major Major Major: I agree with most of this (that Trump’s supporters are driven by racism and bigotry not economic angst), but I do think that the people who run our country, both in government and out, don’t fully appreciate how hollowed out a lot of towns in the midwest are and how Reagan’s economic policies and NAFTA destroyed them with little to no hope of return.
I grew up in a small city in the midwest and it was in slow decline my entire life; after W ascended the Presidency, the last anchor factory moved to Mexico. A bunch of smaller factories which supported that anchor factory closed in its wake. I still have family who live there whom I visit annually, so I’ve see how the town as changed in the last 15 years and it breaks my heart. Lackluster local leadership hasn’t helped. A booming national economy doesn’t really reach these places; the economy is just always bad. And the really sad part is that of a bunch of towns throughout the local region, my hometown is still the nicer and more prosperous, even though it’s already a shadow of its former self.
Infrastructure investment and reduced inequality through taxation are good things which may eventually change some dynamics, but I haven’t seen an actual attack plan from the Democrats (I don’t expect one from the Republicans) to actually change this situation for the rural and not-quite-rural midwest. I fear it’s partially because most of the places truly hurt like this vote Republican (although my hometown is represented by a Democrat in Congress) so it’s less on Democrats’ radar. It’s also a tough nut to crack when people are always whining about the government spending too much already.
It reminds me of an argument Booman put forward a while back regarding the heroin epidemic. It’s hitting Republican areas especially hard, but their leaders are so ideologically bankrupt that they aren’t helping their people and the people won’t vote for Democrats, so nothing changes.