Many of you may have already heard about Clinton's latest utterly obscene bastardization of Democratic values, her last-minute mailer that accuses Obama of being anti-gun:
Cementing her status as one of the most shameless, soulless panderers of our time, Annie Oakley Clinton has sent out a mailer utterly indistinguishable from what the wingnuts would send.
Too bad her ad staff screwed the mailer up big-time.
You see, the rifle pictured isn't what the average, rural Indiana recreational hunter would have. In fact, Ben Smith reports that it's a customized, $2,200 German import.
Not to mention, the rifle pictured doesn't actually exist. Her advertising flacks reversed the image for aesthetic or layout reasons, creating a non-existent left-handed version of that particular rifle:
“The gun in the photo does not exist,” said Val Forgett III, the president of Navy Arms in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Forgett's company was Mauser’s agent in the United States when the gun was released, and who sold Mauser guns here again in the 1990s. “The bolt is facing to the left side of the receiver, making it a left-handed bolt action rifle, indicating whoever constructed and approved the mailer did not recognize the image has been reversed.”
Another rifle enthusiast had this to say on Smith's blog, and most appropriately, note what the rifle was commonly used for:
“I bet the Clinton folks did a mirror flip on the stock image to make it look more ‘aesthetic,’” wrote one, David Phillips. “What a latte-sipping, Gucci-wearing thing to do.”
The Mauser 66, released in 1966 and no longer manufactured, is a high-end hunting rifle that found military use as a sniper rifle. In Clinton’s mailing, it’s pictured with a double-set trigger, a customization that’s popular in Europe, but “almost unheard of in the United States,” Forgett said.
“It’s a $2,200 German import – it’s hardly typical of what the average workingman in Indiana uses,” he said.
Yes, you read that correctly...the rifle her people used on an attack-mailer was a sniper rifle! You just can't make this stuff up.
So let's see...
We've got Annie Oakley Clinton attacking Obama from the right on guns, despite being a vocal advocate for gun-control before she was against it. Then her campaign chooses a fancy German customized rifle to use in an ad, obviously showing their lack of real knowledge about guns. And that rifle was used as a sniper rifle, recalling the nadir of her thoroughly dishonest campaign. Then they even screw that up by reversing the image to create a rifle that doesn't exist.
On top of this, she had a week where she was completely flummoxed by a coffee maker during her comical gas-station photo op:
And on top of that, she went on the Big Falafel's show and proclaimed, "Rich people--God bless us":
Indeed, the fake populist who raked in $107 million this decade has had quite the regrettable week. Her pandering and blatantly artificial campaign persona have been revealed this week, so we should fully expect all the smug pundits to ridicule her the same way they do Obama for having the gall to mention arugula. I can't wait for the Chris Matthewses of the world to hyperventilate about Clinton's manufactured image being hurt by these embarrassing flubs.
Ha ha...Oh, I crack myself up. Now let's roll that footage of the crazy black pastor!
Update: Hey, I'm at the top of the rec list! Thanks everyone, though the real credit goes to Ben Smith and his readers. Glad everyone got a kick out of the blue-collar gal sending out such a ridiculously inept mailer.
Update 2: To address some of the questions/criticisms below and summarize my responses to them:
I don't think the mistake will change any voters' minds, but I certainly think that if you're going to pander to White Working-Class Voters who apparently have become almost godlike in their importance, I do think you better use the right props. An imported $2,200 rifle isn't what the ordinary lower-income rural voter would have, and for a candidate who's attacked Obama non-stop for opposing a theoretical $30 gas savings, it's pretty inconsistent and off-message. (Not to mention it's reversed and therefore non-existent.)
Clintons' people got in a few shots on Obama because his campaign sent out a mailer to Oregon voters that accidentally said "Pennsylvania." Don't complain about this being petty, unfair or irrelevant, because you know the Clintons darn sure would've ripped into Obama had it been the other way around: "Obama is so out of touch and elitist that he doesn't even know what real Indianans hunt with! He didn't even know it was reversed!" And the media would happily pile on, creating a Kerry-level feeding frenzy.
Finally, I don't care if this particular rifle was used as a sniper rifle. That's more of a humorous bonus than a major issue. The point is that Mausers apparently were adapted as sniper rifles, and "sniper" is the word her campaign should want associated with them.