O h, those wild-and-crazy DFLers. They've come up with a parody of the sleazy political ads that pollute the airwaves and cheapen political discourse.
In this knee-slapping TV DFL satire, they've got a closeup of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's eyes watching as Minnesota streets are filled with sexual predators.
What? Not a parody?
The DFLers were so serious they held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the 30-second spot that is supposed to show that Pawlenty is responsible for sexual predators being freed, presumably to rape and murder.
"Were you at the press conference?" Sen. Jane Ranum, DFL-Minneapolis, asked me.
"No," I said.
"Well, you missed the context," said Ranum, a member of the Senate's Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee. "It's a complicated issue. That's the reason we spent so much time showing that the ad is fair and accurate."
We went back and forth.
"The viewers aren't given context," I said. "They get a 30-second ad that plays on fear. ... It was cheap."
"I was thrilled with the ad," Ranum said.
I said it was desperate. There are huge issues in the state. The governor's refusal to budge on taxes. Job losses. School districts wanting. The higher ed system wanting. Transportation wanting. Health care in disarray. A bus strike.
Given all of this, the DFL is trying to politicize the issue of sexual predators?
"It's one of the two big issues over here this session," Ranum said. (Budget cuts, she said, are the other.) Besides, she said, it's been Pawlenty who has politicized the issue.
Dealing with sexual predators is one of two big issues in Minnesota?
Bill Morris, a former Republican Party chairman who now does polling for all types of organizations doing business at the Capitol, was startled by the notion that dealing with sexual predators is one of two great issues in the minds of Minnesotans.
"In terms of all the polling we've done," Morris said, "the big issues are consistently job creation, education, taxes and spending and health care."
So why would the DFL come up with this ad? It is, after all, unprecedented in Minnesota politics in that it's an attack ad coming three years before Pawlenty's up for reelection.
"They're trying to create an issue," Morris said.
What will the impact of this ad be?
"I believe it will boomerang," Morris said.
Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the ad sends a powerful message.
The message?
"The DFL is seriously lacking in strategic intelligence," Jacobs said. "This is Exhibit G."
I told Jacobs that Ranum and Mike Erlandson, the DFL's party chair, seem quite proud of the ad. They believe that it shows that Pawlenty's budget cuts are jeopardizing quality of life in Minnesota.
Jacobs groaned.
"It's very telling that a day later they're standing behind it," Jacobs said. "We all make false starts; those little mistakes. They could just groan and say 'bad idea,' pull it off the air and move on. But that they're still defending it is troubling. You have to wonder what planet they're on."
Here's how self-defeating the ad is: Ron Eibensteiner, the chairman of the Republican Party, isn't really upset by it.
"I had two reactions to it," said Einbensteiner. "One, I chuckled and said to myself, 'How stupid.' My second reaction was that it was incredibly bad manners."
Eibensteiner is among the Republicans convinced that Attorney General Mike Hatch is behind the ads because his campaign has donated thousands of dollars to the DFL. (Wisely, Hatch's office denies the donation was made for the purpose of creating the ad.)
But mostly, Eibensteiner is smiling.
Many more DFL ads like this, and his party won't have to buy ads at all.
[ edited by stonecold613 on Mar 18, 2004 07:53 PM ]
posted on March 18, 2004 08:24:47 PM new
DFL means what???
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Have you noticed since everyone has a Camcorder these days no one talks
about seeing UFOs like they used to?
posted on March 18, 2004 08:47:08 PM new
Democrats getting desperate...uh-huh....all the election polls are in statistical dead heats...and then there's this little bit of info about how satisfied with the country's direction the voting population is:
That's an article about some local squabble...big deal.
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posted on March 18, 2004 09:25:50 PM new
I don't know profe....President Bush and Nader appear to be off to a good start since the Bush ads have started.
http://www.davidwissing.com/gen2004polls.html
posted on March 18, 2004 10:53:15 PM new
DFL - Democratic Farmer Labor...Party. Old name for the democrats....
[ edited by Libra63 on Mar 18, 2004 10:55 PM ]
