The RNC should really be ashamed of this ad, which tosses together a bunch of yelling liberals (Al Gore, Howard Dean, Michael Moore, even Dick Gephardt), also splicing in that MoveOn.org ad that compared Bush to Hitler, and posits that these are "the faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party."
Now, the big headline from most coverage of the ad has been that it "used Hitler," although really it was using an entry from a contest sponsored by MoveOn.org. Just a few problems with the ad's reasoning:
-Michael Moore is not a Democrat, and has not said that he's supporting Kerry.
-MoveOn.org, while a left-wing organization, is not officially affiliated with either Kerry's campaign, or with the national Democratic party; in fact, the "Hitler" ad was created months before Kerry was named the nominee.
-Gore and Dean are merely raising their voices, while Dick Gephardt is shown, in a normal, non-screaming register, calling Bush a "miserable failure." People give screaming, negative speeches on the floor of Congress every single day- since when was passion a political crime?
I'm not here to defend Moore, Gore, Dean, or MoveOn- as readers of this blog know, I've had few positive things to say about any of the above. But the fact is, this ad was out of bounds in many different ways.
Posted by Stephen Silver at June 27, 2004 11:55 PMAnd, to reiterate, MoveOn never sponsored the Hitler ad. It was one of hundreds of entries in their ad contest, and it didn't make it past the first round.
Posted by: Ben Dreyfus at June 28, 2004 12:53 AMHitler invaded sovereign states and bombed the arse out of them. Bush did the same. So why shouldn't they be compared?????
Steve, you really are a right-wing naive fool!
I sometimes wonder who really is running the Bush campaign.
At what point do you say to GW, "You know, we really haven't used Hitler yet. Maybe that'll convince the American public that you're a 'make no mistake', no nonsense, honest kind of guy who is serious about fighting terrorism, and economic and social challenges."
And if we agree with the ad, and associate Hitler with the democratic party, how should we respond? I would say Bush should re-focus his war efforts against the Democrats and bomb them to pieces.
This may not have been an avenue of campaigning too well thought out. No exit strategy!
Posted by: Jeff at June 29, 2004 11:51 PM