In what has to be an especially cynical move, Senator Blanch Lincoln (D-AR) has created a dueling set of ads for her re-election campaign: A video ad where she talks about she is helped to block Health Car Reform (HCR) legislation, and a radio ad where she discusses how much she has helped HCR become law. Now if these two hypocritical ads are not bad enough, its even worse that the radio ad is being played predominately on black radio stations in Arkansas. Or to put it another way (and the way her campaign must apparently be thinking), obviously the black listeners in Arkansas are not as in tune with what went down for healthcare reform, and therefore I can basically completely obfuscate my role in the passage of this historic legislation. Uh yeah...
I am frankly astonished at the sheer political tone deafness of these moves by the Lincoln campaign. First, the fact you would actually create this set of ads in the first place which could very easily be highlighted by an opponent (hello Mr Halter) to detail just how two-faced Blanche Lincoln has been in the whole healthcare debate. But even worse, by using one ad to specifically target the black audience in Lincoln’s home state, Lincoln’s campaign is making the implicit assumption that black voters in Arkansas are less-informed and that she can lie about her role and votes in the legislative process. Yeah, that’s a great message to send to a key voting block in your state! This behavior is utterly cynical, and reeks of the worst kind of ridiculousness that I have not seen in the battle for healthcare since Senator Lieberman voted against Medicare expansion, an idea he previously supported! Certainly one for the annuls of chutzpah.
And in this whole sideshow, there is still the vote from Senator Mark Pryor (against healthcare reform passage) hanging out there, which seems to have been solely for the purpose of giving Lincoln cover. I would love to know what Senator Pryor’s office thinks of the Lincoln campaign (especially in light of this new behavior) and if Senator Pryor would want his vote back now that he has seen how Lincoln has acquitted herself in the aftermath.
Personally I would love to hear from some locals about how these dual ads are doing back home in Lincoln’s home state and if these ads have any impact in raising her terrible approval ratings back home.