San Francisco Values

Given that you've got to assume essentially all House Democratic candidates can be linked easily enough the Nancy Pelosi, perhaps we'll see more of this:

I think this is a promising direction for the GOP, mainlining homophobia with no real fig leaf rationale or anything. Vote Democrat, and they'll turn your kids gay. If anything, they ought to camp this spot up some.

UPDATE: Okay, there's some suggestion here that the ad is supposed to be about miscegenation but if that's the case shouldn't they find a butcher, more scary-looking black guy? Plus everyone knows San Francisco = gay. Either way, I'm a bit saddened to see that "west coast liberals" seem to have overtaken "east coast liberals" in the conservative pantheon of ills. Doesn't sit well with my Greenwich Village values.

Comments

Too understated for my taste. Where's the giant flashing FAG! letters?

Posted by Antid Oto | May 21, 2008 3:38 PM

Yeah, that ad really isn't gay enough to get the point across effectively.

Posted by Gabriel | May 21, 2008 3:38 PM

Vote Democrat, and they'll turn your kids gay.

And/or black, judging from that spot...

Posted by Roddy McCorley | May 21, 2008 3:40 PM

Okay, I understand we're not supposed to make fun of the rural heartland salt of the earth type folks, but are Kansans or Missourians or whatever really that fucking stupid? Will they watch that commercial and take it in the spirit it's intended?

Posted by Gus | May 21, 2008 3:40 PM

Is that how they dress in Missouri? Cause it definitely isn't how people dress here in San Francisco.

Posted by Kerry | May 21, 2008 3:42 PM

Is that how they dress in Missouri? Cause it definitely isn't how people dress here in San Francisco.

Posted by Kerry | May 21, 2008 3:42 PM

Is that how they dress in Missouri? Cause it definitely isn't how people dress here in San Francisco.

Posted by Kerry | May 21, 2008 3:42 PM

Graves'next ad campaign is a frontal assault on Rice-A-Roni - the San Francisco treat.

Given how distinctly delicious some of the Savory Whole Grain Blends are, I think Graves must be losing his mind. He's certainly not getting my vote, unless I see him eating a heaping pile of Noodle Roni with a grin on his face or something....

Posted by edsbowlingshoe | May 21, 2008 3:42 PM

that ad really isn't gay enough to get the point across effectively.

Indeed. In fact, the gayest thing in it is that buffed-out Abercrombie-looking guy at the end. Oh wait, he's the candidate. Hm.

Posted by James Gary | May 21, 2008 3:43 PM

San Francisco parties seem to not reflect the Midwestern values of having parties that don't suck. Three people standing next to a bar halfheartedly dancing? You might as well be reading.

Posted by Starscream | May 21, 2008 3:43 PM

Why is the perceived gay man Black? There are white women and minority women featured, but one group is missing from the 'liberal party.' The only white man in the add is the candidate. Interesting...

Posted by Peterson | May 21, 2008 3:43 PM

I think you are overlooking the race mixing subtext.

Posted by wren | May 21, 2008 3:46 PM

It looks like a Dance Party USA episode from 1983. Is that really going to scare Missouri voters?

Posted by blah | May 21, 2008 3:49 PM

Actually the latest after-add poll shows that particular republican expanding his lead over the Dem.

Posted by MNPundit | May 21, 2008 4:01 PM

It looks like a Dance Party USA episode from 1983. Is that really going to scare Missouri voters?

It sure would scare me.

That was my first thought too. That ad didn't remind me of a gay bar or drag show, it reminded me of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

Posted by Cyrus | May 21, 2008 4:03 PM

Are you sure that isn't a parody from the Gunther movie? The three dancers look like they're overgrown middle school drama kids who don't know how to stand in front of a camera without looking awkward and uncomfortable. Are Missourians anti-dancing or just anti-bad pseudo-house music? Does Graves really want to tell the voters they are the ignorant hicks from "Dirty Dancing"? "You're too racist and homophobic to dance and have fun! Vote for me! I'm just as racist as you!"

Posted by Reality Man | May 21, 2008 4:11 PM

I'm sure this is being anti-midwestern values or whatever, but the mayor of Kansas City being referred to as a "big city mayor". KC has less than 500k residents. I guess that is code for affirmative action/black people, like San Fran is now code for gays.

Posted by jon | May 21, 2008 4:16 PM

no no no, you must have it wrong. that HAS to be a deleted scene from some random arrested development episode. arent those the hot cops?

Posted by erg | May 21, 2008 4:19 PM

I am going with the miscagenation line.
if you vote democratic, your children will bring home a black kid. scary stuff.

Posted by yep | May 21, 2008 4:31 PM

Jon, how big is big? Using "big city" for a city of half a million seems reasonable to me. Kansas City is in the top 40 US cities by population.

Posted by KCinDC | May 21, 2008 4:34 PM

It looks like a Dance Party USA episode from 1983. Is that really going to scare Missouri voters?

It depends if Missouri is ready to cut loose.

"My opponent is an EVIL LIBERAL who would have you kick off your SUNDAY shoes!"

Posted by Aaron | May 21, 2008 4:38 PM

How do I love this commercial? Let me count the ways:

1. The streetcar and 60's music intro.

2. The old BBC sitcom quality of the sets. The bar scenes look like something off of Rumpole of the Bailey. It's like John McCain's imagination of what zany things the kids are up to these days.

3. If this bar exists, it is the worst bar in the world. The place is so dead that the bartender seems to have left for the night. If this is the party Nancy Pelosi threw for Kay barnes, she owes her an apology.

4. The Wile-E-Coyote-swollen-bump-on-the-head hairdo the blond girl is sporting. Is that look still "in" in Kansas? If this is San Francisco, that overly-exuberant gay black guy needs to find some cooler friends.

5. The intro music, again. It looks and sounds like an expository shot from 60's Batman. Probably the one where Lilac Larry hypnotizes the "Flower Children" and sends them on a crime spree.

6. The not-really-unflattering grainy photo of Nancy Pelosi. Even in a smear ad she commands respect. If Graves ran into her on the Hill, he'd take off with his tail between his legs. She stood up to Clinton's people pretty well, especially after that threat from Harvey Weinstein.

I understand why his numbers are going up. I could just sit and watch this add all day. It's the campiest thing since High School Musical.

Posted by John | May 21, 2008 4:38 PM

How do I love this commercial? Let me count the ways:

1. The streetcar and 60's music intro.

2. The old BBC sitcom quality of the sets. The bar scenes look like something off of Rumpole of the Bailey. It's like John McCain's imagination of what zany things the kids are up to these days.

3. If this bar exists, it is the worst bar in the world. The place is so dead that the bartender seems to have left for the night. If this is the party Nancy Pelosi threw for Kay Barnes, she owes her an apology.

4. The Wile-E-Coyote-swollen-bump-on-the-head hairdo the blond girl is sporting. Is that look still "in" in Kansas? If this is San Francisco, that overly-exuberant gay black guy needs to find some cooler friends.

5. The intro music, again. It looks and sounds like an expository shot from 60's Batman. Probably the one where Lilac Larry hypnotizes the "Flower Children" and sends them on a crime spree.

6. The not-really-unflattering grainy photo of Nancy Pelosi. Even in a smear ad she commands respect. If Graves ran into her on the Hill, he'd take off with his tail between his legs. She stood up to Clinton's people pretty well, especially after that threat from Harvey Weinstein.

I understand why his numbers are going up. I could just sit and watch this add all day. It's the campiest thing since High School Musical.

Posted by John | May 21, 2008 4:41 PM

How do I love this commercial? Let me count the ways:

1. The streetcar and 60's music intro.

2. The old BBC sitcom quality of the sets. The bar scenes look like something off of Rumpole of the Bailey. It's like John McCain's imagination of what zany things the kids are up to these days.

3. If this bar exists, it is the worst bar in the world. The place is so dead that the bartender seems to have left for the night. If this is the party Nancy Pelosi threw for Kay Barnes, she owes her an apology.

4. The Wile-E-Coyote-swollen-bump-on-the-head hairdo the blond girl is sporting. Is that look still "in" in Kansas? If this is San Francisco, that overly-exuberant gay black guy needs to find some cooler friends.

5. The intro music, again. It looks and sounds like an expository shot from 60's Batman. Probably the one where Lilac Larry hypnotizes the "Flower Children" and sends them on a crime spree.

6. The not-really-unflattering grainy photo of Nancy Pelosi. Even in a smear ad she commands respect. If Graves ran into her on the Hill, he'd take off with his tail between his legs. She stood up to Clinton's people pretty well, especially after that threat from Harvey Weinstein.

I understand why his numbers are going up. I could just sit and watch this add all day. It's the campiest thing since High School Musical.

Posted by John | May 21, 2008 4:44 PM

How much you want to bet that Sam Graves takes it up the ass? Just sayin.

Posted by EWard is a fool | May 21, 2008 4:47 PM

This is suburban/exurban Kansas City. Graves is facing a serious challenge from popular former KC mayor Kay Barnes. If he's already running slimy negative ads this early, my guess is his polling shows him in serious trouble.

How well did this "nationalizing" strategy work in the Mississippi special election??

Posted by Jayhawk Max | May 21, 2008 4:49 PM

It doesn;t have to be either/or.

Fear of race mixing, homophobia, 2 sleazy attacks for the price of one.

Posted by eric k | May 21, 2008 5:06 PM

So was this ad made by native Missourian Corky St. Clair? Is this how he's getting back at the Bastard People?

Posted by Shawn | May 21, 2008 5:07 PM

It's got nothing to do with miscegination or homophobia. It's a tirade against the evil liberal idea of public transportation. Damn liberals are gonna tear down everyone's house to lay trolly tracks everywhere. Next thing you know Judy Garland will be Clang Clang Clanging down the streets of St. Louis, singing at all hours... Oh wait ... it is about homophobia.

Posted by Njorl | May 21, 2008 5:17 PM

Or not, SurveyUSA shows Graves up ten points

Posted by Jayhawk Max | May 21, 2008 5:21 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRATA2ypJ3c

Her campaign's response.

Posted by nate w. | May 21, 2008 5:33 PM

Pretty good response ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRATA2ypJ3c

Posted by matthewcc | May 21, 2008 5:33 PM

Yo John-who-hit-the-Post-button-thrice

That wasn't a streetcar. That was a Cable Car. The streetcar is the thing that is attached to a wire in the sky, not in the ground, that runs down Market Steet before going into a big hole at... the corner of Castro.

This is *not* the streetcar named Desire.

And Matt, my liberal heart bleeds for the declining reputation of your old neighborhood.

It may take a Village to raise a child, but it takes a City to craze the mild.

Posted by Marcus Sitz | May 21, 2008 6:02 PM

Apparently all of their dog whistles are broken. They're goin' for the hog calls now, all that's missing is the dueling banjos when Graves photo comes up.

Posted by AJ | May 21, 2008 6:12 PM

Obviously criticizing that kind of ad is like shooting fish in a barrel. But, how does there continue to be such a divide in acceptability, where it's ok and even possibly advantageous for a Republican candidate to deride his opponent for being a "San Francisco liberal", but it wouldn't be anywhere near acceptable to deride connections any Southern or other very conservative area of the country in the same fashion?

San Francisco is one of the great cities of our great nation. And it can't be said often enough, that insulting entire cities and entire large percentages of our population is just despicable. If it's wrong to call Ohioans "bitter" (in a private talk to campaign activists), then it's really really wrong to call San Franciscans deficient in values (in an official campaign commercial).

Posted by Will Hutchinson | May 21, 2008 6:16 PM

insulting entire cities and entire large percentages of our population is just despicable.

Because San Francisco is one of the great cities of our nation, insulting it doesn't matter. Let Graves whine about "San Francisco values" all he wants. San Francisco can just loom over him like King Arthur to the Black Knight and ask, "What are you going to do? Bleed on me?"

Posted by Tyro | May 21, 2008 6:38 PM

"I'm a bit saddened to see that "west coast liberals" seem to have overtaken "east coast liberals" in the conservative pantheon of ills"

9/11 changed everything. :/

Posted by Kalkin | May 21, 2008 6:40 PM

Should have shown a re-enaction of the ACT-UP sods at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC when they desecrated the Holy Eucharist.

Posted by del | May 21, 2008 6:46 PM

Graves'next ad campaign is a frontal assault on Rice-A-Roni - the San Francisco treat.

You think you're joking?

I thought it was mildly telling that the ad attacks Barnes for being a "big-city mayor" -- that would presumably be the city that's right next door to the district. And in line with what Will Hutchinson just said, insulting rural areas in the same way would never fly (unless they're Vermont).

Posted by Matt Weiner | May 21, 2008 6:52 PM

Bwahahahahahah!!!

Clearly none of these clowns have ever been over to Divas!

Divas Nightclub and Bar: The Premier Transgender Nightclub in San Francisco!
http://www.divassf.com/

They could have gotten a MUCH better video there!

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | May 21, 2008 6:54 PM

Clearly it's a twelve-fer. They're trying to say that gay black guys will steal your white woman and get to have a three way with her and a black lady. That way they got all their bases covered, and somewhere in there you were probably both titallated and repulsed (gay men, gay women, three way, interracial sex with limp, undersized, ironic cowboy hats in the mix--aka, the wingnut head explosion cocktail).

Posted by MSB | May 21, 2008 6:56 PM

Did they spend ten or twenty bucks making that commercial? I can see how the talking points would be effective, though (I mean, not to me, but point stands).

Posted by Persia | May 21, 2008 7:03 PM

'A ritzy California fund raiser celebrating white wine.'

Posted by asl | May 21, 2008 7:07 PM

I could have shot a better anti-San Francisco ad just by taping the street in front of my building for a day (Tenderloin livin', gotta love it). You can actually see a street corner on Graves' ad that I think is roughly two blocks from my house. There's hoardes more freaks that pass by that corner daily infinitely more freakier than cowboy hat boy and his two gal pals. (Nothing more white bread and bland than having a threesome, you know).

What's with the slightly overweight blond chick with big hair and bad clothes? We hardly see any of those in San Francisco. If they don't like them in Kansas City, they can send them over here.

Posted by burritoboy | May 21, 2008 7:37 PM

As a San Francisco liberal, I am insulted that GOP assumes I share the values of Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco conservative, relatively speaking.

Posted by dizzyg | May 21, 2008 7:47 PM

"I'm sure this is being anti-midwestern values or whatever, but the mayor of Kansas City being referred to as a 'big city mayor'."

It's the 26th largest metropolitan area in the US and is similar in population to Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and New Orleans. It's a big city.

In many ways, it feels that way, too. Its downtown isn't that impressive, but it does have quite a relatively dense urban sprawl. My mother has lived there since 1996. In terms of national exposure, though, it seems smaller than it is because it's one of those large cities that you rarely hear much about (like Sacramento, for example).

It seems to me, too, that there's been a considerable amount of "white flight" to the suburbs (my mom, for example, doesn't actually live in Kansas City itself anymore) and so presumably to Graves's intended audience calling Barnes a "big city mayor" is intended to evoke "mayor elected by all those inner-city blacks".

Posted by Keith M Ellis | May 21, 2008 9:42 PM

"What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a-goin' on here?! I hired you people to try to git a little track laid, not to jump around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots!"

Slim Picken, Blazing Saddles

Posted by del | May 21, 2008 11:05 PM

Considering that Missouri is the "Show Me" state, I had expected any portrayal of San Francisco gays to be a little more graphic . . .

Posted by rea | May 22, 2008 6:28 AM

Utterly irrelevant point: Kansas City has a lower population density than the Netherlands.

Posted by ajay | May 22, 2008 8:39 AM

If you don't like this ad, donate to Kay Barnes here:

http://www.kay4congress.com/

And while you're at it, take a look at the Missouri Governor's race, where Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon enjoys a huge early lead:

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=56747b35-b96a-4d18-98cd-ade699e03dc6

Look at the Crosstabs. Then donate what you can to help him keep the lead through the summer & fall. This campaign will be one of the most expensive, tough, and important races in the country.

http://www.nixonforgovernor.com/

Posted by JBS | May 22, 2008 9:39 AM

As a San Francisco liberal, I am insulted that GOP assumes I share the values of Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco conservative, relatively speaking.

Yes, always amazes me that these people don't or won't recognize that Nancy is a social-ITE, not a social-IST.

Having said that, San Francisco is the only city where I have had the pleasure of attending a party where I shared a joint --kindly provided by our (Republican) host --- with a member of the police commission (of course that was the '70s).

Posted by Tom | May 22, 2008 2:16 PM

As a San Francisco liberal, I am insulted that GOP assumes I share the values of Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco conservative, relatively speaking.

Yes, always amazes me that these people don't or won't recognize that Nancy is a social-ITE, not a social-IST.

Having said that, San Francisco is the only city where I have had the pleasure of attending a party where I shared a joint --kindly provided by our (Republican) host --- with a member of the police commission (of course that was the '70s).

Posted by Tom | May 22, 2008 2:24 PM

Maybe they're worried that electing Barnes will make all Missouri gay dance parties really lame. Stewie's sexy parties are kinkier and gayer than that and he's an animated baby.

"I am going with the miscagenation line.
if you vote democratic, your children will bring home a black kid. scary stuff.

Posted by yep | May 21, 2008 4:31 PM"

Not only that, but the black kid will get your white son pregnant, just like that guy on Oprah... who is a big city "elite."

One of the funnier things about this year politically is that it seems like "elite" has now become someone who:

1) lives in a city
2) went to college
3) isn't a bigot
4) and isn't a Scots-Irish straight Christian male (except for multi-millionaire Hillary Clinton).

Posted by Reality Man | May 22, 2008 2:51 PM

That party is SUCH a Kansas City college party though, isn't it? Certainly, the woman with big hair, I don't see her when I walk around San Francisco.

Also, people don't really get the city anymore. There's all these really 'different' areas - Haight-Ashbury, and the loser-druggie-freaks (although outweighed by the tourists most of the time), the Tenderloin vagrants, the Hispanic/beatnik Mission combo, the various little Chinatowns (the main Chinatown, the Richmond Chinatown, and the Sunset Chinatown), and then the very well kept, but colorful, Castro area.

And then of course, the Financial district, and the tourist areas of the Wharf, Embarcadero, and around Union Square, where you get yuppies and tourists.

Of the above, the only "un-american", parts, even in the very conservative sense, are the Tenderloin (we gotta do something about the homeless vagrants, really, at some point), the Haight, and of course - one of the nicest, well-kept, and colorful areas in the city, the Castro.

All the rest of the city - which is most of it - you can find in most other Southwestern cities, if you only add more Chinese, and better scenery.

Posted by JC | May 22, 2008 4:56 PM

And hills. Can't forget about hills.

Posted by JC | May 22, 2008 4:59 PM