[Come with me into an alternate universe, where Democratic President George W. Bush is running for reelection in 2004...
But where Karl Rove and his media partners (Limbaugh, Malkin, et al.) are still Republicans, and gunning for George W. Bush.
Confusing? Sorry. You'll see what I mean in a moment. I hope.]
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THE SCENE: It's 2004, mere weeks before Democratic President George W. Bush is to face Republican John F. Kerry at the polls.
The Republicans have already expressed confidence that their bona fide WAR HERO of a candidate will beat this pathetic son of privilege, George W. Bush, whose powerful Daddy got him into an elite Texas Air National Guard unit -- only to have Bush go AWOL, and have his Daddy scrub the records later! ("It's been proven beyond a doubt that Bush was AWOL," says GOP mastermind Karl Rove.)
It will be a close election, everyone agrees. So Democrat George W. Bush throws a Hail Mary pass, filming the most expensive ad buy of the 2004 campaign -- one designed to appeal directly to the viewers' hearts.
(more)
Below is a video of that ad, a real tearjerker, which featured a 16 year-old girl who lost her mother in the Twin Towers on 9-11. Her father snapped a picture of (Democratic) President George W. Bush hugging the girl, and the Democratic special-interest group made it into a campaign commercial. Knowing the ad would be emotionally powerful, they saved it for the end of the campaign, releasing it in October:
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As soon as it was aired, Republicans reacted angrily to the ad, accusing Bush and his fellow Democrats of shamelessly expoliting the child just to grab some votes.
Congressman John Boehner of Ohio said:
"To use an innocent young child as a human shield and misrepresent the disgusting security record of this president is, frankly, beyond the pale. George W. Bush let 9-11 happen, and now he's trying to get elected hiding behind the victims of his cowardice in the face of terrorism."
Reupublican radio host Rush Limbaugh gave his take on the matter:
"You know, this is such a blatant use of a child, lying to her about what really happened on 9-11, then strapping those lies to her belt, sending her out via the media in a TV ad to walk into as many people as she can walk into.
Whoever pumped this girl full of these lies about Bush's performance on 9-11 -- which was treason, my friends -- and embarrassed herl with this ad, has betrayed her. They're betraying this girl. Now, unless she actually believes what she's saying, in which case it's just so unfortunate and sad when the truth of George W. Bush's 9-11 treason is right out there to be learned."
Later he added:
"They send the kid out to lie. They filled this kid’s head with lies about George W. Bush, who let her mother get murdered on 9-11. Put lies in the kid’s head, and put it on the script that she was reading. She goes out and reads it. She’s 16-years-old! They will use anybody! They’ll corrupt anybody, to get where they’re headed. That’s who they are, folks.
But Republican Ann Coulter was not as easy on young Ashley Faulkner:
"This self-obesssed brat seems genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acts as if the terrorist attacks happened only to her. ... I've never seen a kid enjoying her mothers' death so much ... "
And for Ashley's father, a self-described Democrat who supported Bush in the 2000 election, Coulter said:
" This Democrat rat endorsed George W. Bush for president, and now he's letting the Demorcat party cut a campaign commercial in his own house... How do we know his wife wasn't planning to divorce this creep? Now that his shelf life is dwindling, he'd better hurry up and do a porn movie."
Other Republicans followed Coulter's lead, and began going after the girl and her father. Republican Michelle Malkin began staking out the family's house, and father Lynn Faulkner's place of work, opening speculating that that the family was paid VERY handsomely to have the campaign commerical filmed in their house.
Others mocked family friend Linda Prince, who -- after the announcer intones that Ashley "closed up emotionally" after her mother's deaths, says in the ad: "Our president took Ashley in his arms and just embraced her. And it was at that moment that we saw Ashley's eyes fill up with tears."
Bill O'Reilly thundered at Ms. Prince:
"Are you saying that the President healed her? Are you equating a far-left politician with Jesus Christ?"
Mark Steyn of National Review online said all the whining about attacking a child was nonsense:
"Sorry, no sale. The Democrats chose to outsource their campaign ad to a 16 year-old girl. If a political party is desperate enough to send a girl to do a man's job, then the girl is fair game. "
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Back to 2007. George W. Bush is still a Republican. And, as always, forever and ever...
IOKIYAR.
Have a good day.