The Indepublicrat Wants You!
columnist: The Indepublicrat

Topic: Political Advertising
Commercial Review: Mike Huckabee Wants Ron Paul Dead?

---

Within the week we'll have some idea whether Huckabee's religious pandering can be effectively countered by Romney's attack ads, and we'll have a prime suspect if Ron Paul is attacked by ninjas throwing old Beatles albums instead of stars.

---

by The Indepublicrat
(Centrist)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The first real primaries and caucuses of the presidential campaign are coming up fast, and the Indepublicrat has been watching the attendant commercials with equal measures of amusement and annoyance.

In New Hampshire, Mitt Romney is blasting John McCain for, essentially, not being as fiscally irresponsible as Romney or as much of a bastard to illegal immigrants. It's an awkward attempt that plays loose with the truth and mostly blows back in Romney's face but the real message to his base is clear: Romney's your candidate for going negative early and often--and if you think he's being harsh now, just wait until Fall!

In Iowa, Mike Huckabee is surging after presenting a commercial suggesting that his most important policy is a complete reliance upon Jesus, with a cross-shaped bookcase sliding across the darkness over his shoulder as he speaks. This candidate laudably showed no qualms in pulling an anti-Romney attack ad that crossed the line--and having that ad shown for free on every news show in the country as a result--but the Jesus ad apparently produced no such qualms.

The Indepublicrat expects some level of pandering to the base at this point in the campaign, by all candidates of both major parties, but this situation is irksome in at least three different ways.

Irksome Thing Number One is that Huckabee has repeatedly denied that the bookcase was anything more than a bookcase, as if nobody in his campaign office, production company, or focus groups noticed the quite-visible image and thought to pass that knowledge up the chain of command. Several times each year somebody sees Jesus in the rust pattern on an oil tank or the Virgin Mary on a pancake but nobody noticed a gigantic white cross glowing like a neon beacon? Yeah, right!

Irksome Thing Number Two is that Huckabee has consistently laughed off suggestions that his commercial, in addition to pandering, shows a shocking disregard for the importance of maintaining a proper separation of Church and State. It's not just that he's failed to acknowledge detractors who might have a point with which he respectfully disagrees, but he's actually gone on the verbal offensive against anyone suggesting that the ad may be improper. The Indepublicrat doesn't care at all that Candidate Huckabee is a former Southern Baptist minister, if his political qualifications are also in order, but it's not entirely clear whether he's running for Commander in Chief or Minister in Chief.

Irksome Thing Part Three is the specific language Huckabee used when dismissing his floating cross as a figment of overactive imaginations, suggesting that he also included a "Paul is dead, Paul is dead, Paul is dead" message recorded backward in the commercial's audio track. He was, of course, referencing the messages some people claimed to hear when playing Beatles songs backward--but it must have also been in his mind that a candidate in his party is named Paul, and that Mr. Paul has been particularly vocal and particularly critical of Huckabee's Jesus-themed commercial. "Paul is dead" repeated three times comes off as a death threat or wishful thinking, at least on a subliminal level.

Someone needs to take Huckabee to task, following the Indepublicrat's "Three Irks And You're Out" policy, and Mitt Romney seems to be stepping up to the job. Romney's attack commercials have a different target in Iowa, where McCain is lagging the field and Huckabee is riding high. Romney's anti-Huckabee ad in Iowa is as inaccurate and unfair as Romney's anti-McCain ad in New Hampshire, which only serves to reinforce that "early and often" message noted above.

Within the week we'll have some idea whether Huckabee's religious pandering can be effectively countered by Romney's attack ads, and we'll have a prime suspect if Ron Paul is attacked by ninjas throwing old Beatles albums instead of stars.

Did you like this article?
If you did, Thumb It!
6 thumbs so far

2008 The Indepublicrat, all rights reserved.
Published: Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of The Indepublicrat only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. The Indepublicrat is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

Report violation by The Indepublicrat of Nolan Chart LLC's terms of use policy.