So all day, I've been hearing about the big bad motherfucking "Wolves." Ooooh, scary. So late tonight I headed over to the Den of Iniquity (the Bush web site) to check it out. I thought it was laughable, really cheesy, bad production values, the whole works. The kind of thing a Republican would think was "very impressive."
To test my theory, I had my very astute 9 year old son check it out. Now, he's very bright and imaginative, but can be a little freaked out by "scary" stuff. Doesn't like to go to sleep alone. He watched it once, looked at me and said "That's it?" We watched it again. I asked him "Was that scary?" He laughed and said "No. They didn't look like wolves, they looked like puppies." I swear, he never saw Atrios' post calling them just that. Hilarious.
If they think they're going to "scare" anyone into voting for them based on that ad, they're out of their everlovin' minds. If they can't scare an impressionable 9 year old, what voter in their right mind is gonna go "Ya know, Ethel, I just about pissed my pants watching that ad. I better just go out and fuckin' vote for Bush. He's gonna go kill those goddamn wolves. Yeah, that's it."?
If such voters actually exist, they were already too dumb not to vote for Bush in the first place. Fact is, they're probably too dumb to turn on the computer and watch the freakin' ad in the first place.
Update [2004-10-23 1:6:36 by jsmdlawyer]: So the kid is really happy with his first diary. Lots of comments, and he now knows all about diaries and comments and ratings, but now he wants more, the little pisher. He wants more recommendations, so he can wake up in the morning and see his diary still on the front page. Dad is enough of a kosWhore to give in to him and put in this shameless plug, banking on your sympathy and utter lack of cynicism. Also, there's not a whole hell of a lot going on late on a Friday night. So won't you make a child's dream come true? Just call me Jerry Lewis.
Update [2004-10-23 8:50:59 by jsmdlawyer]:Man, remind me to invite you guys to my next Support a Lawyer telethon. Go to sleep for less than seven hours, and bam, lots 'o recommendations. My son is now seriously impressed with the power of participatory blogging. I think he needs his own dKos account. Ummm, on second thought . . . Seriously, though, this is an important point. This ad was clearly held for several months by Rove & Co. as some kind of ace in the hole. Now that they're in a jam, they're like "take a look at this." If even kids are saying "Awww, look at the widdle cute PUPPIES," what in the name of God is Rove thinking? October surprise? More like October laugh in your face, Karl. As I and others have posted before, Rove has traditionally been best at running anti-incumbent, anti-establishment candidates in a changing electorate (Alabama & Texas, and 2000). This time, his guy IS THE INCUMBENT, his party controls all the levers of government, and the electorate is more diverse and if it's changing, it's changing AWAY from Rove's guy. So Rove is having to try something new. More than anything else, I think flops like this ad show that Rove is truly, truly a one-trick pony. The emperor has no clothes.