John Cusack notes, on behalf of MoveOn, that George W. Bush and John McCain have the same position on a variety of public policy issues:
Also, though, MoveOn hates America and must be purged (purged!) lest American liberalism self-destruct.
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Say Anything
12 Jun 2008 11:11 am
Comments (14)
Matt, you've gone too far with the droll sarcasm thing.
This ad was way better than it had any right to be.
I think it's a combination of the simplicity and obvious truth of the pitch, and the odd sincerity of John Cusack.
I say this, for whatever it's worth, as someone who hated the Will.I.am video.
I can't see the MoveOn ad, so I dunno what it says. But if I were Cusack, I would be imploring people to look for a dare to be great situation.
This would have been more effective ten years ago when he was making good movies.
Discussion topic: who has a less of sense of how to appeal to undecideds -- John Cusack, Matthew Yglesias or MoveOn?
Who's more out of touch?
Sadly, the American electorate isn't made up entirely of affluent, humorless Gen-X and Gen-Y folks with a love of bad independent cinema featuring miscast slumming (truth be told, not all that talented) actors from America's upper classes. Go figure.
If MoveOn had any brains they'd run the same ad with a white Southern male as the spokesperson.
(But, yeah, celeb-conscious morons that they are, they'd probably go with Steve Earle. Fools.)
I'll keep it simple: no John Cusack, no Sean Penn, no Tim Robbins, no Janeane Garofalo!
And please, please keep the imbeciles who came up with the amazingly counter-productive 'General Betray Us' ad away from any and all media! Is that too much to ask?
There's an election to win!
Good rule of thumb, kiddies & Silicon Valley rich folk: if it'd appeal to a 19-year-old at Oberlin or Matt, well, then it's probably missing the mark!
And, Goddamn it, the blithering idiots behind 'General Betray Us' should just stick to raising money and writing checks!
Let me know when ZZ Top or Alan Jackson are in an anti-McCain ad. Then I'll know smart, cynical grown-ups are at last in charge.
Wow, alwktecbl, what a great idea. We all know that the whole problem with the Democratic Party is that it doesn't have enough white southern males in it. Why, if we could just get one of them to run for President, there's no way that the Republicans would spend eight years accusing him of being a godless hippie rapist hellbent on destroying America, or make fun of his hair and insinuate that he's gay. The good ole' boys would just say "Aw shucks, y'all liberals are ok with us after all." Man, I bet if we could get a decorated Vietnam Vet fun to run, they'd be forced to admit that we're patriotic and strong on national security. That's an even better idea.
You know, if we could just get some popular country singers to rip on President Bush, maybe we could even swing Texas. Especially if they're spunky blondes. Guys love spunky blondes. Hell, if the candidate showed up on stage with John Mellencamp we'd be guaranteed to carry Indiana! I'm totally pumped by your outside-the-box thinking here...
Sincerely,
A Liberal From a Red State Who Is Really Tired of Democrats Pandering to My Hillbilly Cousins Who Won't Vote For Them Anyway
LaFoyette Progressive,
Um . . . name one Democrat who's won the Presidency since JFK in 1960 (was that even in your life time?) who wasn't a white Southern Democrat?
The Dems aren't going to get the South. And they didn't with Gore or Clinton, but, alas, those are the kind of guys who can pull in more undecideds, independents and working-class white voters throught the country. And perhaps win in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. West Virginia too.
Cusak and the kind of celeb mediocrity who appeals to self-described (and all too often self-congratulatory) "progressives" in conservative states doesn't cut it. That's a no brainer.
You're ranting, frankly.
And, just to be clear, by "those are the kind of guys who can pull in more undecideds, independents and working-class white voters throughout the country" -- I mean people like Bill Clinton and perhaps Jim Webb.
Commercials for village atheists in red states or college kids who've had their minds blown by Noam Chomsky aren't needed.
Commericals for the kind of voters who supported Bill Clinton or Jim Webb but who are nervous about Obama (perhaps for appalling reasons) are what's needed.
Liberal celebs = not helping
I love ya John, "High Fidelity" was awesome, but host a fundraiser or something. Doing ads doesn't really do much but give red meat to the right.
Yes, I'm ranting at you for recycling liberal self-loathing from the last 2 election cycles. We have a non-Southern candidate in place who can win the election on his own merits and this is not the time and place for James Carville homilies.
I'm from the Midwest, and the funny thing about people there is that they generally don't like it when you assume they're a bunch of rubes and pander to them. If folks in Ohio are rubbed the wrong way by an "elitist" candidate, you aren't going to win them back by dressing that candidate up in cowboy boots and having a country musician introduce him.
John Cusack probably isn't going to appeal to swing voters in rural PA unless maybe they're 35-year-old women, but so what? It's one perfectly mundane commercial aimed at whipping up the youth vote. There will be countless other commercials in this election cycle. If Jane Fonda or some similarly controversial liberal celebrity were in the ad, you'd have a point. But John Cusack isn't going to raise anyone's blood pressure enough either way.
Just to be clear, very serious concern-trolling douchebags who think they know what the midwest is like because they drove through it once are not what's needed.
LFP:
It's not about who appeals to you, it's that if this ad is aimed at undecideds, John "Hollywood Elitest" Cusack isn't going to win any votes, gay-raun-teed!
"a liberal who knows this election can be lost" Is right on the fucking money with this one. Cusack is probably already hated by most of the people this ad is trying to win over.
Total waste of money for anyone who contributes to get this ad on the air.
Obama has made it pretty clear he doesn't want independent ads, and surprisingly several groups are listening.
This as is Ok. Not great, but a 'just the facts' style (and substance) which shouldn't be incompatible with the 'taking the high road' image Obama is trying to keep. We really don't need attack ads... except on youtube ;)
Liberal Who Knows This Election Can Be Lost should change his/her name to WTAB Masquerading As Liberal Who Hopes This Election Is Lost So He/She Can Say I Told You So.
Comments closed June 26, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Why, those crazy leftist hate-America extremist hippie radicals at MoveOn.org! I bet they soon will applaud those America-hating Supreme Court judges who just ruled that we should give Guantanamo Bay to Al Qa'ida!
Posted by El Cid | June 12, 2008 11:23 AM