If I were Kerry Healy’s media advisor, I would have pulled her “cop killer” ad from heavy rotation as soon as the LaGuer story picked up steam, the better to focus attacks during the short life of a rather weak “gotcha” story. Instead this overly dramatic ad continues to run ad nauseum and attract clear thinking commentary (Ralph Martin, etc.) while the LaGuer issues (what Deval knew and when) seem to have dropped from the radar screen.
Do all you hand-wringers out there still think any of this stuff is going to cost our man real votes? The average voter understands that lawyers represent clients and you can’t judge a lawyer by the cases he has handled. The cop killer ad is desperate and just too much of a stretch. I think it might actually help Deval. Isn’t it possible that some intelligent citizens contemplating a vote for Mihos or Ross might be inclined to register their disapproval of such heavy handed pandering by voting Patrick? Call me naive, but I still see 20 points plus. RESPOND TO POLL
and I had a list of unenrolled and light voting Dems, mostly. Several people I talked to expressed disgust with that ad. I heard the same thing from the caller next to me. I think it was backfiring, and although still undecided, my sense was they could use it as a decision point.
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Hard to know from the dozens of answering machines what most people felt, though.
…from a Kerry Healey point of view that she should drop the “cop killer” ad and focus to the inconsistancy’s of the LaGuer story, I’d agree. So from our prespective, let’s keep the “cop killer” ad up.
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No doubt I’m considered the top “hand-wringer” around here, so I want to be clear–it’s not the “cop killer” ad that I’m worried about, it’s the “Deval is a liar” ad that I assume is coming out very soon, which worries me.
Healey’s strategic problem is more fundamental than how to portray Patrick. She started the race with high unfavorability because she chose to run on Romney’s record, and Romney just isn’t as popular here as he is in, say, Utah or Iowa.
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Not that she necessarily would have helped herself by running away from it. Then she would have had to convince people she had some clue how to govern and get things done. But she might have had a better chance claiming to have no record and no experience than taking on Mitt’s.
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The following is something I long to believe…
The unspoken part of that being that the average voter will not be influenced by the ad. However, considering the evidence — consisting of high-profile examples like Willie Horton and Swift Boat Veterans, and the fact that this type of ad is not going out of style (because it works so well) — I can only conclude that either
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As others have pointed out, there are folks who won’t watch the debates, only read the Herald, and will get way too much “information” from these ads because they’re being targeted according to the type of programming. (Disclosure: I’ve seen them so frequently because the only thing I watch on TV is sports and gubernatorial debates, so that’s not a put-down re what people are watching.) The ads are designed to get people to the polls who would otherwise be disengaged from the process, until and unless they’re whipped into misguided outrage by the scary images flashing on their screens.
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That may sound elitist and harsh, but I’ve given my fellow citizens the benefit of the doubt over and over, only to sit there in shock on election night, wondering “WTF just happened?”
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The smart course is to assume the worst, keep to the high road, but don’t let any of it go without a reasoned but forceful response.
I, too, have sat “in shock” on election night. But not this time. We have: a) a weak opponent; b) a great (by that I mean dismal) record to run against; c) a climate of yearning for a new direction; and d) a five tool candidate (to borrow a baseball phrase).
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So have hope, ye broken hearted wretches. Come the seventh of November we will drink the sweet wine of victory and bask in the glory of a new age.
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Or you’ll probably never hear from me again.
Two outstanding GOTV organizations working together.
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