In Alabama this year, we are fixin' to re-elect all our incumbent congresspeople and our Republican governor. It's almost not worth the trouble of having the damn election.
The only decent race going in the entire state is the campaign for lieutenant governor between Democrat Jim Folsom Jr., who used to be governor several years ago, and Republican Luther Strange, whose claim to fame is that he's really tall and has a funny name.
Folsom has a commercial out that is by far and away the best I have seen in a very long time. It is simple, to the point and delivers the kind of powerful populist message that used to be standard Democratic Party fare before the party drifted from its working-class roots.
Here is the commercial.
Here is what it says:
I've been married to the same wonderful woman for 29 years. I have two great kids, three dogs and four shotguns. I go to church every Sunday and never have played tennis at the Mountain Brook Club. I'd rather be hunting. I've spent the last 12 years in business bringing economic growth to Alabama just like I brought Mercedes.
I'm Jim Folsom. I haven't forgotten my roots. I'll be a lieutenant governor who stands up for the little guy.
Part of that ad is an attack against Luther Strange that you probably wouldn't notice unless you were from Alabama. Mountain Brook is the symbol of wealth and privilege in Alabama. It's where Birmingham's elite live. It's also where Strange, who is a lobbyist, lives.
It's the kind of frontal assault on Republicans as the party of the rich that former Sen. Howell Heflin was so good at.
Heflin once called his Mountain Brook Republican opponent a "Mercedes-driving, polo-playing, Jacuzzi-soaking, Gucci-wearing, Perrier-drinking, debutante-dancing, Richie Rich Republican from Mountain Brook with a home in Kennebunkport."
Actually trying to pit the common man against people of wealth goes further back than that. In 1970 George Wallace ridiculed Albert Brewer in an ad because he got his hair cut at the Country Club - by appointment.
Folsom's ad is more subtle than ole Howell, but the point is the same. And it also drives home the point that Folsom, when he was governor, was responsible for putting together a deal that brought a Mercedes auto plant to Alabama.
The Mercedes plant west of Birmingham is where the M Class is built. It led to two other auto plants being located in Alabama -- a Honda plant near Talladega where the Odyssey minivan is built and a Hyundai plant near Montgomery.
Now --- compare Folsom's ad to this one from Luther Strange.
It tries to paint Folsom as a fat, sweaty, disco-dancing mobster who is a (shudder) LIBERAL, who actually gave money to John Kerry.
It's so ridiculous, it's funny.
Back during the primary Strange actually had a funny and effective commercial. It played off his 6-foot-9 height, showing him playing basketball with his kids but the camera cuts off his head so you only hear his voice.
Luther used to be funny. Now he's just strange.
A recent poll shows this race to be a dead heat.