Discussing the newfound aggressiveness of the Democratic Party, CQ leads with the DSCC's game-changing ad in North Carolina:
So how is it that Dole may well be toppled next week because of a pair of old guys in rocking chairs at a country store?
Because the men were actors hired by the Democrats this summer to star in one of the year’s more talked-about television spots — an advertisement that, by its very existence as well as its apparent effectiveness, symbolizes the extraordinarily strong position the Democratic Party has put itself in for the final fortnight of this year’s Senate and House campaigns.
The ad crystallized, in 30 seconds, four of the party’s main arguments against Dole. One actor asserts that she "is 93," then points to her ranking as one of the least effective senators in a survey by a nonpartisan political Web site. "I’ve read she’s 92," says the other, citing a calculation that she’s voted that high percentage of the time in support of President Bush. But the implications, of course, are that the senator (who’s actually 72 years old) is way past her prime and a carpet-bagger more comfortable in Washington, and they are hammered home in the final lines. "What’s happened to the Liddy Dole I knew?" says one man. "She just not a go-getter like you and me," says the other.
While TV advertising may not be as effective in an era of fragmented media options and DVRs, we've seen more spent on it than ever before, to the point that much of it must be getting pissed away. There is a point of diminishing results. And the content of those ads has generally been pretty bad, as is usually the case in political advertising. But the ad referenced above stands tall over any other ad aired this cycle. Here it is:
It'd be nice to see more like this, instead of the usual tripe the parties and candidates offer up.