Alison Lundergan Grimes's newest ad doesn't pull any punches as the sheet-shooting candidate takes potshots at Barack Obama and Mitch McConnell. Joe Arnold:
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes fires a shotgun six times in a new television ad, each shot aiming to poke a hole in the campaign of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Most significantly, Grimes leaves no room for interpretation that she disagrees with McConnell's assertion that a vote for her is a vote to further the agenda of the Obama administration.
"Mitch McConnell wants you to think I'm Barack Obama," Grimes' voice is heard as she fires a shotgun to begin the ad.
"I'm not Barack Obama," Grimes says later. "I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA," Grimes says, turning toward the camera after firing the shotgun, her safety glasses and ear plugs intact.
It's not like Mitch has left her much of a choice. This is Kentucky, as I keep saying, and the only way Grimes is going to win is to run against Obama as much as she is running against Mitch. His latest ad ends with the tagline "Obama needs Grimes, Kentucky needs Mitch." But Grimes takes her shots at ol' Turtle Face too.
Grimes also uses the shotgun blasts to target a mix of McConnell campaign flubs and arguments against her.
"This is the same guy who thought Duke basketball players were U-K," Grimes says, referring to a flub by McConnell's ad maker in a March web video which showed Duke University players celebrating the 2010 NCAA basketball championship rather than an intended University of Kentucky highlight. The clip lasts less than one second, but has become frequent fodder for Grimes.
"... or who's attacking me on coal," Grimes continues, " after doing nothing while we've lost thousands of coal jobs."
"He even said it's not his job to bring jobs to Kentucky," Grimes intones, repeating a quote McConnell insists was taken out of context but a Beattyville newspaper editor says was reported accurately.
The end of the ad seeks to undermine what the McConnell campaign has used as imagery in its favor, McConnell holding a shotgun over his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference before presenting it to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R).
"And, Mitch," Grimes laughs, "That's not how you hold a gun."
Chuckle all you want. That works in the Bluegrass State. It's a good ad, for a bad situation, to get rid of an awful incumbent. If this gets Mitch out of the Senate, Grimes can disagree with President Obama on some issues. Better than trying to actively block him on all issues.
The StupidiThing is, those coal jobs are going to keep on going away no matter who sits in the Senate - or in the White House, for that matter. I can understand people hurting, people being angry, and that makes them open to manipulation contrary to the facts... but as an outsider I really didn't like that ad.
ReplyDeleteStill I want her to win, because at this time the institutional support for Speaker Reid is more important than the thirty to forty percent of the votes where I expect her to defect to the bad guys.