Let the Repubs Hang Themselves 

Let the Repubs Hang Themselves

I got an email from the Kerry campaign today asking me to view an ad (I had a link to the ad here, but the link no longer takes you there) for the Bush Campaign, then write to the Bush campaign expressing my outrage. The ad features footage of various Democrats, such as Al Gore, Howard Dean, Michael Moore, and Kerry, raising their voices in anger over the way Bush/Cheney have been running the country, along with a very brief clip from the entry in the MoveOn ad campaign that featured Adolph Hitler.

There are two reasons that I'm not going to do what the Kerry campaign asks of me. One is because that is the kind of chickenshit move Ed Gillespie and the RNC rely on when the Dems run ads that supposedly offend the Republicans. If your opponent runs a classless or offensive ad, let the voters figure that out on their own and react as they see appropriate. Quit insulting our intelligence.

My other reason is because I think it is actually an effective ad for the Democrats. Anybody who isn't outraged by now hasn't been paying attention and I'm happy to see that kind of passion from our side. And although I've never seen the whole Hitler/moveon entry, the snippet used in the ad, with a brief reference to war crimes in the forties, will naturally bring to mind in contemporary voters Abu Ghraib.

I don't see that this ad makes the Republicans look better than the Dems. I think it makes them look weak and passive.