With one campaign ad that his website is featuring, Rick Perry is raising more questions about HIMSELF than anything else.
The ad paints Rick Perry as a rock-hard patriot who will make everything right if he gets elected president. In all the patriotic bravado he displayed in the ad, someone apparently forgot to tell Perry that trying to portray himself as American as apple pie leaves out one BIG thing-- he once spoke about the possibility of his state seceding from the Union.
So much for Perry the patriot. And it gets even worse as one looks further at his ad, as Keith Olbermann pointed out last night on his "Countdown" show.
First, here's the Perry ad:
More below.
Did you notice one frame in Perry's ad in which he portrayed himself as "an American" (at the 1:08 mark)?
Is he really implying through that frame that Rick Perry was "an American" while President Obama was not? He is sure implying that in that little snippet in his ad, and if he didn't want to show that he doesn't care about facts and is willing to say anything and even lie to get into office, he shouldn't have used that snippet in his ad.
In introducing the ad, Olbermann said:
"Perry also dog whistles to birthers. . .(The) Perry campaign, rereleasing this ad today, casting Obama as the destructive interloper and Perry as the good ol’ cowboy, riding in on his steed, to save the nation, with dyed hair. Watch carefully for the visual dog whistle (referring to the "an American" frame)."
Olbermann continued after playing the ad:
"Subtler for president. “V for Vendetta” joke. Did you catch the imagery? Look at this. An American — as opposed to a president who wasn’t born in America? The birthers may have finally found their cretin. I’m sorry, that wasn’t supposed to be “cretin,” iIt was supposed to be “candidate.”
Someone apparently forgot to tell Perry that the frame could raise questions about his own credibility.
Perhaps this
link may have caused Perry and his advisers to think twice before making such a factually flawed claim in a campaign ad.
Subtle appeals to hard-core birtherists who don't care about facts and showing himself to be an American patriot while once contemplating the possibility of his state's seceding from the union may be enough for Rick Perry to gain the support of teaheaders needed for him to win his party's presidential nomination. When it comes to showing qualties desired from an American chief executive, Perry has presented positions that are not only irresponsible, but in his implied use of birtherism in his campaign ad, he has shown that facts don't matter to him.
Facts really do. So does judgment, and Rick Perry has shown a complete lack of that both as my state's disgrace of a governor and as a presidential candidate.
If Rick Perry wins his party's nomination, he must be defined quickly. He is not a responsible leader with even minimally good judgment.
And he must be defeated completely and decisively.