Thursday, October 14, 2010

Campaign 2010: ads, an ad, and "moderates"

Ads. Is there anything stupider than this? Not the ad... the bit at the end.


What pinhead wrote a law that requires a candidate, speaking in his/her own voice, to append the words, "I'm Joe Candidate, and I approve this message"? Brilliant!  Right, this message. The message I just spoke. Guess what? I approve it!

If I were running, I'd be tempted to say, "I'm Dan Phillips and, frankly, I have mixed feelings about this message... but let's go with it!" Just to mess things up.

An ad. Gotta love Alaska senatorial candidate Joe Miller's riff on the Old Spice man.



Moderates. So we rock-ribbed conservatives — clinging as we do to God, guns, and the Constitution — are constantly being told that we need to open up wide and make room for folks to our left on many issues. We need a big big big tent. And who will fill that tent?

Moderates!

Moderates, those self-convincedly noble souls who find both goal posts, and supposedly try hard to locate a position right in the middle. That's the theory, anyway; but I've noticed that "middle" usually ends up being within spitting-distance of the left goal post.

Regardless, we hear the call, and we heed it. We try to support conservatives, but in the election, we'll vote for the moderate. We need not to be narrow and parochial. We'll never have national influence, otherwise.

But have you noticed that the love doesn't run in both directions?

If your conservative candidate doesn't make it, you go ahead and vote for a Schwarzeneggar or a McCain.

But if it goes the other way?

Well, look at Alaska's Senatrix Lisa Murkowski. Lost her party's nomination, soundly, to Joe Miller.

So, being a big-tent moderate, what does she do?

Runs as a write in candidate, opposing her party's candidate.

Or look at Crist in Florida (write-in campaign, opposing his party's candidate), or Castle in Delaware (will not endorse his party's candidate).

You know, this pro-moderate argument is just getting harder and harder to make...

...thanks to the moderates!

13 comments:

Robert said...

They want a big tent, but they want to be in charge of the list of who is allowed to run and represent the people in the big tent. Just like Islam is a religion of peace...for those who strictly comply with Sharia law and are not infidels.

Magister Stevenson said...

I think Joe Miller's add would work great with a Latin lesson:

Look: this is the accusative...

Gabby said...

I totally agree, Dan. I'm of the opinion that 'moderates' have done more harm to conservatives than the left could ever do. With the left, at least you know (somewhat) what you're getting. 'Moderates' help me understand why God says He'll vomit out the luke-warm. Give me hot or cold any day!

VcdeChagn said...

Posted for two hours and no one has noted the similarity between Calvinist/Arminian fence sitters and Moderates? They both end up on the liberal side of things inevitably. RINO's and CINO's.

On another note, really liked the Joe Miller ad.

candy said...

Scott Ashjian a supposed "tea party" candidate in NV, secretly taped Sharron Angle and sent the tape to a Las Vegas newspaper. He refuses to endorse Angle, thus setting up the possibility of splitting votes.

Brad Williams said...

Dan! Which end of the field is this one on?

Sorry man, I saw this and thought about how much I would like to see your face when you saw that headline.

And I agree about the subject matter of the post, too. :)

Paula Bolyard said...

The thing that bothers me is everyone is a conservative this year, even the Democrats! I think a lot of people are going to wake up the day after election day to find out - to quote the great philosopher Inigo Montoya - "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

Consider the wrangling for power going on in the GOP leadership right now. Jim DeMint and other conservatives will have a hard time reigning in their RINO brethren if they do by chance win a majority in the Senate.

And the House - does anyone really think John Boehner is a true conservative? For any meaningful change to happen, there needs to be an internal revolt in the GOP.

candy said...

I just finished watching the Reid vs. Angle debate. One contrived moment that made me chuckle was when Harry Reid patted his jacket pocket and stated that he had a copy of the Constitution in his pocket. Oh brother.

Dave said...


What pinhead wrote a law that requires a candidate, speaking in his/her own voice, to append the words, "I'm Joe Candidate, and I approve this message"? Brilliant! Right, this message. The message I just spoke. Guess what? I approve it!


I beleive that is from the McCain/Feingold Campaign finance Reform Act. Yes, it's dumb.

You have Boxer, I have Feingold. I am praying he is defeated in November.

Ron (aka RealityCheck) said...

Right on the money with this post Dan and the comments (so-far at least ;-)) are right on as well. This middle of road nonsense is all over the place and not doing anybody, any good.

Ron (aka RealityCheck) said...

“What pinhead wrote…”

According to Wikipedia the “I approve this message” is “in order to comply with the so-called "Stand By Your Ad" provision of the “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act” (BCRA), enacted in 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_approve_this_message

IOW, wherever the word Birpartism is being thrown around a pinhead is sure to be near by.

Paula Bolyard said...

The funniest one here was a radio ad for Nancy Pelosi-puppet John Boccieri (who was one of the deciding Obamacare votes). The entire ad was Boccieri's mom whining about how unfair all the attack ads were and saying, "John would never do all that bad stuff they're saying, he always keeps his word, blah, blah, blah...". Then...."I'm John Boccieri and I approve this ad."

Aaron said...

Here's the problem with moderates. They aren't moderate at all on social issues. For some reason, people have come to believe that you can divorce fiscal responsibility from social morality. But you can't. Fiscal responsibility flows from morality. No morality no responsibility.