I was just over at FiveThirtyEight, which I read compulsively, and I was bothered by the McCain ad that's been running at the top of the page.
Of course I don't care that 538 is letting it run there-- by all means, Nate, do take that Republican money and run with it. It's the text of the ad I can't stop thinking about:
Obama TALKS BIG on Equal Pay for Women
--as a disembodied Obama head, eyes askance with an ominous shadow darkening his brow to better convey the appearance of a scowl, actually floats across the screen--
But the Women in His Office Make $0.83 on the Dollar. Obama All Talk LEARN MORE
To click on the thing, of course, is to be directed to the McPailin campaign page. If the pseudo-Ebonics of the ad itself aren't enough to clue you in: you're going to lose brain-cells if you even attempt to follow the logic of this gambit.
So why does this ad feel like deja-vu?
It just hit me: because it completely rips off the theme of an anti-McCain ad that's been out for a couple weeks now-- a Wakeup Walmart ad highlighting McCain's slimy work against Equal Pay legislation in the Senate:
Yep. McCain's been a tireless advocate of businesses who wish to pay women less than men-- companies like Walmart-- and he's stood with those businesses when it counted in Congress. And now that people are talking about this fact, as he attempts to woo the very most bitterly disappointed of HRC supporters-- well, he's only too happy to say that he is rubber, and we are glue, and whatever we say bounces off us and... What was that about Equal Pay? Don't look at me. Heh heh. That one.
More recently, McCain's been a tireless advocate of businesses who wish to lock their employees out of opportunities to unionize-- companies, you betcha, like Walmart.
I do some work with Wakeup Walmart, and I guess it's gratifying to see that Senator McCain thinks so much of our ads that he's simply copying them and switching out the names.
Ah, the freedom of being as cynical as a McCain staffer. How clearly I can picture the meeting in which some bowtie-wearing toadie verbalizes, Well, we might as well just make up some crap and just, you know, like, say it-- there's gotta be a few people in America dumb enough to believe it!
Are you living better yet?
(Cross-posted at MyDD and SquareState)