There’s been a lot of stupid spin by the GOP over Conor Lamb’s narrow win in PA-18 this week, but by far the dumbest talking point is about how he’s supposedly “pro-life” (aka “anti-choice”) simply because he “personally opposes abortion”.
As I noted in response...
Anyway, this discussion reminded me of the 2006 Michigan gubernatorial campaign, in which incumbent Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm was being challenged by Amway billionaire Dick DeVos (yes, that’s right...Betsy “defend schools from grizzly bears” DeVos’ husband).
Throughout the late summer and early fall of 2006, DeVos was up a good 5-10 points over Granholm, who was suffering greatly from Michigan’s ugly job losses, an early indicator of the impending national recession.
Granholm is Catholic but also pro-choice, and of course the Michigan GOP went after her on that. In response, she released this simple campaign ad:
Here’s the most interesting thing about it, however:
Check out who posted the Granholm campaign ad on YouTube...and when:
Yes, that’s right—the Michigan REPUBLICAN Party posted it on their YouTube channel the very day the ad was released, two weeks before the election.
As far as I can tell, the Michigan GOP honestly thought that this ad would help Dick DeVos.
Granholm went on to crush DeVos by a whopping 14 points (56 to 42%).
Food for thought.
UPDATE: Added my other 2 follow-up tweets above.