Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Latest television ads telling in SC Governor's race

Both State Representative Nikki Haley and Senator Vince Sheheen have released new television ads this week. Nothing surprising there. As November gets closer, we are only going to get saturated with more and more political television ads.

But we thought the two ads were pretty telling. We've posted the videos of both below. Take gander at them and see if you can spot the difference.

We're waiting...

You done yet?

Ok...what did you notice about these ads? Both of these ads have been labeled "negative" by the media. Does each ad focus on going after the other candidate? Yes. But did you catch the difference between the two?

Sheheen's ad, titled "Think," takes specific claims by Haley and attacks them with specific facts. Haley's ad, titled "Mirror," makes generic accusations against Sheheen. It's obvious Haley is appealing to the Tea Partiers by throwing such generic crap against the wall to see what will stick. It's Pavlovian politics at its base form. Let's call this person these things and see if we can make the simpleton voters salivate.

We've got news for Nikki, she's an "Columbia insider" too. The hand-picked protege of her mentor, Mark Sanford. And whatever issues she thinks the term "trial lawyers" brings to people's minds, it ain't like the term "accountant" is any better. Enron anyone? Say what you want about Sheheen's ad, but at least there is a bit honesty in his attacks, while every one of the charges laid in Nikki's ad are just plain false.

The "Obama Spending and Healthcare disasters?" While the stimulus spending has done all that was hoped (unemployment being the big disappointment), the majority of economists agree that as a whole it has been successful. The bank bailouts and GM bailouts have all been successes. And there is absolutely nothing to substantiate her claim that the Affordable Healthcare Act has been a "disaster." That's as faulty and disingenuous statement as Boehner's claim that the passage of the act would be Armageddon. We're still here, assholes.

The Slush fund thing is simply so lame and generic we don't know how to respond. Probably because it is complete horseshit.

The "runaway lawsuits" line is the same crap that has been peddled for years. We've had tort reform and guess what...the only thing it has done is made more money for insurance carriers and limited the ability of those harmed to be fully compensated. Tort reform, no matter what state you look at, has never lowered insurance rates or created/saved jobs. It's a red herring.

But what these ads really do, we think, is frame the question voters will need to answer this November: Who should be our chief executive here in South Carolina...A successful trial lawyer or an incompetent accountant? That doesn't seem like much of a question at all, now does it?



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