Comically Outlandish Videos from Perry, Rove
Just to change the subject for a moment, here are a couple of videos that have been making the rounds, and struck me as worthy of consideration.
First up, Rick Perry’s Strong video:
Apparently it’s surpassed Rebecca Black’s “Friday” as the most disliked video on YouTube. But the part I hadn’t realized until it was pointed out to me was that Rick Perry really does appear to be wearing Heath Ledger’s jacket from Brokeback Mountain (see the previous link for images and decide for yourself). Was that just coincidence? Some weird subconscious choice by Perry’s image people (or Perry himself)? Or was it on purpose? And if it was on purpose, why would they do that?
The second fun video I’ve wondered about is this one: It’s an attack ad against Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren that has been put out by Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS super PAC:
The thing that’s interesting here is how over-the-top dishonest the ad is. Kevin Drum explains in Elizabeth Warren: Wall Street Shill:
Here on Earth Prime, of course, Warren is perhaps one of the financial industry’s most loathed figures. Saying she’s too close to Wall Street is sort of like saying Ralph Nader is too close to General Motors because, you know, he spent a whole year researching a book about the car industry.
Drum talks about this as representing possibly the most out-there attempt yet by Rove to neutralize a political opponent by using a head-on attack on his or her greatest perceived strength. That’s been Rove’s trademark over the years. Warren is a champion of the middle class who strikes terror into the hearts of bankers? Then run an ad that pushes the fear that actually no, she’s really in bed with those hated bankers.
I’d like very much to believe that low-information voters aren’t that stupid, that the attempt will fail, and fail badly, and that Warren will be elected. But I’d also like to believe that Exxon and BP will wake up tomorrow, realize the error of their ways, and instantaneously transform themselves into companies that use their expertise with drilling to launch a no-holds-barred effort to develop clean geothermal power sources to save civilization from the effects of profligate fossil fuel emissions over the last few centuries.
Clearly, my liking the idea of something doesn’t carry any particular weight with the universe. I’ll just have to wait and see.
