Bill Clinton’s coming to town. Dems love him, Republicans fear him. This is nothing like the Dick Cheney event, where Kerry Healey hilariously went to ridiculous lengths to avoid being seen with him in public, for fear that a photograph of her and him within a mile of each other might appear in the press and forever dash her chances of becoming Governor. You can bet that photos of Deval Patrick and Bill Clinton together will be all over the place by sometime tonight.
Anyway, the Healey campaign has taken the bizarre tack of trying to show how close she really is to Bill Clinton. They’ve created this incredibly amateurish video (HT: Globe) in which they contrast certain positions on which Patrick and Clinton supposedly disagree.
What are they trying to do — show that Clinton really backs Kerry Healey? Small problem with that idea: everybody knows Clinton backs Patrick. That’s why he’s in town to raise a million bucks for him tonight. That’s why he’s coming back in a couple of weeks for a rally.
What on earth do the Republicans think they’re accomplishing with this silly “maybe Clinton wasn’t so bad after all” strategy? Do they love the guy, or do they hate him?
Bill Clinton could never have been Governor of Arkansas if he opposed the death penalty, we don’t have the death penalty in Massachusetts. When did Bill Clinton come out against driver liscenses for illegal immigrants? How does it help Massachusetts drivers if illegal immigrants cannot get drivers liscenses? If they don’t have liscenses they can’t get insurance, so again how does that help other Massachusetts residents? When did Deval Patrick come out against welfare reform? Wasn’t he working for Clinton when that legislation was passed? This ad is as bogus as the rest of Healey’s campaign.
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So, he really DOES oppose it, it was just expedient for him to say otherwise?
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1996. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.
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Times too numerous to mention!
I’m not saying he is really for it or against it, but come one we’re talking Arkansas. I just don’t think it’s a good comparative. I just read the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and I didn’t find anything pertaining to drivers liscenses. If the act was passed in 1996 why are illegal immigrants currently able to obtain drivers liscenses in several states? Bush, by the way, is at least for temporary liscenses for illegals, so I guess Clinton’s to the right of Bush. Again, I think it would be dangerous for these drivers to be denied liscenses because they would not be able to get insurance, which puts other drivers at risk. Deval came out against Clinton’s welfare reform in the 90’s, I guess I missed that.
The IIRIRA did not come out against drivers licences for illegals, it merely called for state pilot programs to determine “the viability, advisability, and cost-effectiveness of states’ denying driver’s licenses and identification cards to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
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Gee… I think, just on the strength of this video alone, we’ll see a lot of Republicans write-in votes for Bill Weld!
This looks to me like a classic “wedge” ploy, and desperate is the word for it. I can’t imagine they really think they can sell the idea that Kerry Healy and Bill Clinton are birds of a feather. It’s about separating out and wooing the most conservative slice of his support, I guess, like Karl Rove targeting demographic groups not out of philosophical affiliation (gay-bashers, NRA types, etc.), but as a calculation designed to make the numbers add up on Election Day.
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What they can’t understand about their opponent this time is that Deval Patrick’s campaign appeals at a much higher level. For them, it’s about getting and keeping power, at all costs. There’s no understanding of public service or stewardship; in fact, they look at those ideas with contempt. For them, getting elected is one thing, and leadership in office is another.
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I think people are behind Deval because how he runs is a model of how he will lead, and that is so compelling and refreshing to voters as to be irresistable, transcending demographics and single issues.
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p> After the events of the last few days, when I read these words…
…I know now that’s not just rhetoric. This incredible man is out there taking these vicious hits not just to win this office, but to take us beyond the failures of past campaigns, to encourage good candidates to run, and to show moderates and progressives how they can withstand whatever the slimebags throw at them; in short — how to win on the high road.
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And this cheesy ad shows that the slimebags obviously don’t have an answer for it…because they don’t get it.
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And I can see the politics changing in front of my eyes.
That video is hysterical. I haven’t had that good a laugh in weeks.
i made that observation this morning in the fray.
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it seems to me that there is a disconnect between the GOP and Kerry Healey’s campaign, or at least this ad implies that. I say disconnect because there was an article in the herald with the title GOP pans Bubba as Deval aims for boost. So if the GOP is panning Clinton and that ad is saying Clinton and Deval are very different, then does the GOP support Deval?
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Side note, considering Clinton’s now svelte appearance, can he really still be called Bubba?
Not to be confused with “bubbaleh” :->
That video…well, let’s just say it makes the Spend-O-Meter look like sheer genius. My eleven-year-old could do a better ad. Good heavens…And yes, the content is frankly weird–what is their point exactly?
OK all you liberal elitist snobs, quit picking on Kerry Healey’s student interns. It’s a thankless job with long hours and very little glory.
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So the campaign threw them a bone and let the student interns create a web spot. It’s not going to hurt anybody, and it will make them feel like they really contributed their time and their creativity. Is it the Healey campaign’s fault that students couldn’t come up with a better, clearer concept that might actually add something to the debate? Well, since they are the boss, I guess that answer is yes, but I think you should really blame their professors for not teaching them to think high concept–or hell, just concept period. Of course, you people being elitist snobs, I’m sure you’ll end up blaming society.
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You’d think, however, that the campaign would let them work on the expensive equipment. I won’t bet my professional reputation on this, but if I was going to speculate, I would say that based on the resolution and quality of the graphics, and the specific animation pattern, this was done on Ulead–a really cheap knock-off piece of software whose purpose is to be quick and dirty (the latter having real appeal with the Healey campaign, I’m sure). Cripe, they don’t even get a chance to work with Premiere or Avid? Now that’s exploitation.
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Move to Hollywood kiddies. There’s no future down this path.