GOP Invokes "Daisy" In Gitmo Web Video
The Republican National Committee has put out this new Web ad, borrowing from the Democrats' infamous "Daisy" attack ad against Barry Goldwater in 1964 -- and likening the danger of Guantanamo detainees being brought on to U.S. soil to the 1960s threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union:
Interestingly, this Web ad uses audio of the nuclear explosion from the Daisy ad, but the RNC wasn't daring enough to incorporate the full visual of a mushroom cloud. The ad also uses audio of Lyndon Johnson saying "These are the stakes!" but cuts off the full statement: "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." That kind of aspiration for a world of love isn't exactly a GOP slogan these days.
The message of original Daisy spot, by the way, was that Goldwater would recklessly get us all killed. So it would logically follow that the message of this ad, of course, is that Obama will recklessly get us all killed.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
This is what happens when you have a Senate majority leader that doesn't rally the troops behind their parties leader.
May 22, 2009 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
If and when Obama realizes he needs to start kicking ass, Reid should have his ass booted back to Yucca Flats.
May 22, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought the message was that all of the t'rr'sts are capable of combusting in multi-megaton bursts of thermonuclear fusion if they are allowed onto U.S. soil. Yeah, they're that dangerous!
May 22, 2009 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is insane. These are PEOPLE....they aren't all evil supervillains with extraordinary powers. We're supposed to be the greatest, strongest country on earth, and yet we seem to be shaking in our boots over a handful of crazy extremists.
Do those on the right believe that we have an army of Barney Fifes working in our prison system? Do they not believe these people can do their jobs? Well, on behalf of my father who spent 20 yrs as an MP in the army and another 20 yrs as a correctional officer for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, I'd like to tell each of those scaremongers to go Cheney themselves.
May 22, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's fascinating, isn't it?
On the one hand, Republicans portray themselves as the "grownups". On the other hand, they think Americans are easily cowed and afraid. And that our prison system is absolutely no match for these evildoers. But I thought we were the greatest country on the face of the earth? Huh?
May 22, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
GOP daddies clearly have impulse control issues -- they're always running around clutching their sticky copies of Guns n' Ammo like they've gotta pee real bad, going "I can't help myself, I just gotta do my sexy thing and BLOW SOME SHIT UP RAAAAAAGH JesusohJesusyes. And they're perpetually crapping themselves (or pretending to) with fear -- of nonwhites, of creeping socialism, of the Soviet threat, of Muslamofascism, of universal healthcare, etc. Basically, they're all three-year-olds zapping ants with magnifying glasses and playing dress up with daddy's loafers, talking about how grown up they are. Their motto should be "A Monster Under Every Bed."
May 22, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are far more eloquent and descriptive than I.
My compliments.
May 22, 2009 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it stems from Bush and his fan club, who constantly portrayed him as a superhero who was America, endlessly looking for a supervillain to do battle with (Saddam, bin Laden, Ahmadinejad.) He constantly talked as if all he had to do was be personally tough enough, and when the evil leader was defeated, we would have won and it would all be over. He seemed to sincerely believe he was living in a comic book. This was just one of the many delusions that made Bush foreign policy so disastrous.
May 22, 2009 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dem's should make their own video:
The Democratic Party should immediately create a video of their own depicting the famous Abu Ghraib prison abuse. They should show some of the worse photos of abuse and then show segments of all the reports that say these actions by President Bush, Vice President Cheney's Administration and the GOP put today's little girls and boys -- and the rest of us -- at even greater risk than we were in --before 9/11.
Where were the GOP when we held trials against those terrorists that are either currently serving out their prison sentences in the U.S. or those we've put to death, like.....Show photos of these terrorists (Timothy McVeigh, Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh, etc..)?
Where were people currently complaining about the closing of Guantanamo Bay like Newt Gingrich, back when Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh were being convicted and sent to our prisons back in 1993? Did they warn Americans that these prisoners would be housed in their back yards? NOPE - not a peep came from them!
May 22, 2009 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the Dems should come straight out and make a video pointing out that the GOP are chickenshit cowards. Enough beating around the bush.
May 22, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm so glad the GOP has moved on from playing to our fears, because it worked so well in the Fall.
May 22, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Logical follow-up question: How fucking stupid is Harry Reid?
May 22, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not remotely as fucking stupid as he's going to get in the next 17 months before he loses re-election.
It'll be quite the race to see if Harry can cave to the repugs faster than his poll numbers can crater.
May 22, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Somebody ought to tell Harry that his poll ratings are half what Obama's are and about the same as your average Republican's because he's not enough of a Democrat, not too much of one.
May 22, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess we shouldn't put the blame entirely on the GOP for this attack -- Americans are once again SWALLOWING their crap (according to polls) -- otherwise the GOP wouldn't bother with these stories or comments.
May 22, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Regarding this whole pro-torture stance the Republicans have taken got me to thinking.
Maybe the U.S. should just go back to using chemical weapons since they were so effective in battle. We could have won the battle of Fallujah in a matter of minutes!
May 22, 2009 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
1964? Way 1964? So the message is that if Obama allows them to be imprisoned in a maxi prison, we will be blown ? Why are the GOP using an ad from 1964? It isn't even in color. Who can relate to that?
Ooh wait, the church going old white people of the party.
May 22, 2009 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are we really going to get back into the habit of giving free advertising for these stupid videos?
As I recall, despite all the "brilliant" media-cycle-winning web ads released by McCain, this stupid shit is ignored by the vast majority of the population. Can't we do the same?
May 22, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, ignoring idiocy like this might be the most sensible course, but Steele and the RNC, Bachmann, Inhofe, Palin, and many others put such a clown face on the Republican Party that it is hard to resist helping them to show it off.
In contrast, Cheney's lies and deceptions need to be carefully analyzed and rebutted every time. He has fooled many millions of Americans in the past, and he's deadly serious about fooling many more today.
May 22, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink