Holy crap. Watch this anti-Romney campaign ad.
It’s from Newt Gingrich. We have a Rethuglican paying to push a progressive liberal political message on television.
When Romney wins the Republican nomination, can Obama just borrow these ads and run them for his campaign? Or won’t it work because Obama has benefited so much from Wall Street donations?
(via Salon.)
There’s no fight more vicious than a domestic. This is gonna get ugly.
Pass the popcorn…
I’m pretty sure Obama and Democrats have received less walls street donations in every year since 2008.
We don’t want the reality bothering the voters, would we?
A de facto attack ad run by one Republican against another that suddenly starts talking about corporate greed and gross socila inequality as if they think that these are bad things? The entire GOP is built on unearned privilege, old money and selling political favours for campaign donations.
What will Gingrich’s politcal slogan be from now on?
“Progressive, when it suits me.”
Ha. What?
I assume Gingrich knows his own fiscal policy talking points. I’m not sure how he can imagine this playing out without totally backfiring.
Apparently Newt has forgotten or junked Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment from the 1980 primary campaign: Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill Of Another Republican.
It’s good to see. Historically, an incumbent president who doesn’t get a challenge from within his own party gets re-elected, especially when the other guys spend a year or so beating the crap out of each other.
On the other hand, I don’t think Obama can sell the “Morning In America” tripe. Not this year. And if Romney wins New Hampshire as handily as the polls are indicating, he might get a free ride from here on out.
Let’s hope Newt doesn’t give up easily, and makes one last heroic stand in the south.
Killed By Fish
Didn’t Clinton and Obama tear shreds out of each over, 4 years ago?
But, but, but, The Salamander promised us he would never run an attack ad…
and he hasn’t, yet.
The machinations by which these politicians (and, eventually, Obama too) try to distance themselves from these super-PACs will be interesting this campaign season. I wonder if anyone in congress will promote sane campaign finance legislation after election day.
Technically, socialist sentiment like this would actually be a return to the roots of the Republican party. You know, the party of Lincoln and Greeley, from back when being Red in the United States meant the same as it does in other countries.
Of course, Gingrich doesn’t actually believe any of it.
Yes, but 1)Obama didn’t have the disadvantage of running against an incumbent, 2) the economic meltdown, which took place during the campaign and was hard to miss, could be laid at the feet of the other party; 3)Obama was a fresh face without a long track record to attack, and wasn’t an executive, so “the buck” never really stopped with him; and 4)Sarah Palin.
Obama isn’t done yet, but the sooner Mitt wraps up the nomination, the better his chances will be.
Wait, so greed is not good?
jimnorth: I’m having a hard time calling that an attack ad, its possibly the most informative and factual political ad I’ve seen from the republican side in decades.
Ok, he is omitting that he is the exact same kind of douche, but still, its actually based on reality.
That’s not something you see often.
It’s not just this ad. There’s a pattern.
George Will was wrong: Newt Gingrich IS a Marxist
(Warning: wingnut alert!)
Of course, I could’ve told you about George Will being wrong a long, long time ago.
George Will still thinks Barry Goldwater won the 1964 election in 1980.
What does “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee” mean? Do Newt Gingrich’s supporters produce videos without his knowledge? Doesn’t he (or anyone else) bother watching them?
Hm. Could someone provide some evidence this is from Newt Gingrich? PZ didn’t link to anything proving it’s from Gingrich. I have a hard time believing a bastard like Gingrich could promote something so sane.
Seriously. What kind of fucking Marxist would think it was anyone other than Jesus?
Winning Our Future is a Gingrich Super PAC.
@17 consciousness razor
Wow, now I feel like an idiot. Thanks for letting me know.
…It occurs to me that my last comment sounded bitter. It was not. It was thankful >_>
Rip Steakface – Here’s some background. The key part:
“People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz.”
Directing the trains.
Is it wrong that I find this cannibalism entertaining?
Oh and by the way, this isn’t just a web ad, it’s the trailer for a half-hour “documentary” exposing Mitt’s history as a corporate raider. It’s nice that Obama has Newt to do his dirty work, and with better production values and less shame to boot (putting in the laid-off woman with Parkinson’s was a nice touch).
And when I saw that, the thought that whipped through my little mind was, wow, I’m glad a Dem didn’t produce this or Rush Limbaugh would accuse the woman of skipping her medications just to look more pathetic etc.
And I also thought that this promo looks like a condemnation of everything the GOP stands for — pure unregulated greed.
Jesus Hussein Christ.
Jesus
Hussein
Christ!!!
In a European context, I’m not surprised to see the extreme right fringe slide around to the other side of the circle and end up adopting some positions of the left. There’s a reason for the name National Socialism. But… I absolutely didn’t expect this in a US context, where the right is monolithically liberal instead of leftist on economic issues, and this holds twice for the slimy amphibian among the Reptilians!
…Wow.
Indeed; that’s what’s so funny about it. It’s not like Newt (or, presumably, the people paying for this ad) are against any of this themselves. Josh Marshall at TPM thought that the intro was a nod towards saying “you can be a trickle-down Reaganite and still hate Mitt Romney”, but it sounded to me like a barely perfunctory acknowledgement of the US’s economic history, before launching into a full-throttle “some people use capitalism to turn the American dream into a nightmare!!!” I could easily see MoveOn writing the exact same script.
Well, I’m not well-versed in the European context, but this is Newt (and Romney and the rest) being a lying opportunist, not genuinely adopting a leftist position. He knows a lot of people these days think greedy corporate goons and do-nothing government fuck-ups are the problem. He wants to continue to be one, so he has to pin it on his competitors, hoping enough people will buy it.
Believe it or not, many aren’t capable of recognizing this as a problem with conservatives in general: apparently having been spoon-fed right-wing propaganda their entire lives, some genuinely think this is the sort of thing liberals do. Thus, you hear confused nonsense about “Nazi communist muslim atheists” and whatever*. The more confusion that can be sown, the better, because people tend to stick to what they already “know” when they’re confused. Turn their brains into putty and their voting will be fairly predictable.
*“I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.” –The Noot
Well, WTF do you expect? A “fundie” Catholic is running against an “fundie” Mormom, both trying to run on a “fundie” xtian platform – and the “fundie” xtians don’t consider either of them “real” xtians…..
It’s a bad bedroom farce; a Peter Seller’s movie; a comedy of terrors.
Newt…Gingrich’s supporters…are running…this?
…I need to sleep. Badly. I guess Obama’s happy that his supporters didn’t have to spend money on it, since another Republican is airing it.
Well said all…. would love to put shortened, catchy versions of these observations on placards to use at demonstrations and left-supporting political rallies.
It seems so hard to get a solid feel on the strength of the left, especially with the fog and sleight-of-hand performed with such deft by the major media, particularly all mainstream TV news. It’s depressing,… as it usually is.
Wow, Naderites are still trying to push that “Dems are funded by Wall Street” lie? Uh, no, it’s still labor unions. Nice try, though.
If one wants to dislike Romney all you have to do is read the wikipedia page rather than invent some straw-man position wherein he is responsible for the economy of multiple countries. Bizarre. It’s microtargeting NH voters.
jentokulano: Uh…what? It’s companies that Mitt reamed out, not countries.
As an aside, lest we forget, this is being put out by [supporters of] the guy who has a $250,000 credit line at Tiffany’s.
It won’t happen because democrats seemingly have no spine for tough action and response.
@#31 You do know the unions are incredibly diminished from their historical role in the us?
I have to say I’m impressed with the production values. I love hearing the scary extreme bass rumble when the announcer says Romney at the end. The Cain Campaign should have used these guys to do their weird yellow flower ad.
David Axelrod said the other day that they wouldn’t need to create ads, they’d just run verbatim clips from the Republican primary debates.
Looks like Newt has decided to distance himself from Winning our Future. Theoretically these PACs are separate entities from the candidate and can therefore spend money freely, but everyone knows that they talk to the candidate of choice and work with him. On the other hand, the candidate always has the option of denouncing his PAC when there’s a backlash.