Monthly Archives: April 2023

What in God’s Name Is Up With That ‘Heaven or Hell’ Billboard in Boston?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and driving through Allston, when I came upon this billboard atop one of those sad little retail shops along Brighton Ave.

What the hell, Doc?

– Styx ‘n’ Stones

Dear S&S,

Goodness!

That billboard (along with lots of others around the U.S.) comes courtesy of an outfit called Gospel Billboards, whose online pitch goes like this.

Let’s pick one at random, shall we?

Why do we desire the forbidden? Why does our lust draw us into sensual and secret relationships? Why does a husband or wife have an affair with another person?

Often adultery or any forbidden relationship begins with a small misunderstanding or hurt between husband and wife. This small issue begins to gain momentum until, alas, what you thought you would never do has been done. Lack of communication, unforgiveness, and unrealistic expectations push you over the edge and you commit sins against your spouse that you later regret . . .

And Lordy, there are tapes.

Let’s listen to one at random, shall we – say, The Strike of the Serpent.

That sermon plows on for another 28 minutes, but you get the drift, yeah? And while we’re Bible-thumping, here’s the Gospel verse referenced on the billboard.

As for the billboard’s hot(as hell)line, we left it to others to make the call. Here’s one that caught our ear.

 The Doc’s diagnosis? Heaven knows.

Is Donald Trump’s New Ad Really Like Some ‘Mob Boss Complaining’?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and scrolling through my Twitter feed, when I came across this tweet from #mapoli stalwart and former Bostonian David Bernstein.

Why is it the Trump campaign that’s running this ad, Doc? Doesn’t the former guy have a hitman to do his wet work?

– Mob Squad

Dear MS:

You’re right – the erstwhile Cheeto in Chief has a perfectly good PAC animal for just this kind of job (see Pudding Fingers for further details). Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough set out yesterday to deconstruct Trump’s new ad, but wound up spending all their time dismantling DeSantis.

The New York Post’s Josh Christenson has this helpful play-by-play.

“Ron DeSantis was struggling big time in his primary race for governor of Florida,” says the ad’s narrator, referring to the 44-year-old’s first gubernatorial run in 2018.

“Polls revealed DeSantis was failing so bad, he was losing by a staggering 17 points,” the narrator adds. “Then DeSantis was saved by the endorsement of President Trump.

“Trump’s support was so powerful, just two days after the endorsement, DeSantis took a commanding lead and it propelled him to being elected governor.”

The ad includes a clip from DeSantis’ victory speech in November 2018, in which the potential 2024 GOP challenger says, “I’d like to thank our president for standing by me when it wasn’t necessarily the smart thing to do.”

The spot ends with this dagger: “Instead of being grateful, DeSantis is now attacking the very man who saved his career. Isn’t it time DeSantis remembers how he got to where he is? Truth is, there’s only one person who can Make America Great Again.”

The Doc’s diagnosis? A few more ads like that one and Ron DeSantis could be sleeping with the fishes.

Is Anyone Winning the Trump-DeSantis Advertising Slap Fight?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Charlie Sykes’s Morning Shots at The Bulwark, when I came across this item about how routinely weak Republicans’ criticism of Donald Trump has been.

Let’s start with some stipulations: the criticisms of Trump from his fellow GOPers fall way short since they continue to skirt the main issue: his fundamental unfitness to hold any position of public trust ever again.

And, given Trump’s lead in the polls and the well-documented proclivities of the MAGA base, they are also probably ineffective. All points granted.

But it is still worth noting that Ron DeSantis has finally realized that he needs to punch back.

What’s the deal, Doc? I thought DeSantis was running as Trump without the baggage. Now he’s gonna whack the former president with a briefcase?

–  Sky Cop

Dear SC:

Unfortunately, you’ve stumbled into a proxy war between the former Cheeto in Chief and his former Mini-Me, both vying for the hearts and (small) minds of the MAGAts. This is what changed everything for Ron DeSantis, compliments of the Trumpy Super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

Here’s the transcript for those of you keeping score at home.

Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong. And we’re not just talking about pudding. DeSantis has his dirty fingers all over senior entitlements, like cutting Medicare, slashing Social Security, and even raising our retirement age. Tell Ron DeSantis to keep his pudding fingers off our money. Oh, and get this man a spoon!

That finger in the eye has triggered a couple of responses from the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down Super PAC. The first volley, as Axios’s Erica Pandey reported, came in the form of “a small online buy for ‘Gun-Grabbing Trump,’ which was geotargeted to Indianapolis for the NRA convention. The ad juxtaposes Trump’s comments about the Second Amendment with clips of Democrats: “TRUMP AGREED WITH NANCY PELOSI,” etc.”

The spot essentially accuses Trump of sleeping with the Second Amendment enemies. Drive him nuts graf: “Trump cut and run like a coward. Trump the gun-grabber doesn’t deserve a second chance.”

Ouch.

Now comes Fight Democrats, Not Republicans, which Never Back Down launched on “Fox News Sunday.” It asks the question, “What happened to Donald Trump?”

So what, in turn, happened to DeSantis’s old rope-a-dope strategy? The Bulwark’s Sykes points to this piece by Puck’s Tara Palmeri.

It’s only been a few weeks since Jeff Roe and his band of fellow Ted Cruz alumni parachuted into Tallahassee to help reverse Ron DeSantis’s wilting political fortunes, and yet they’ve already picked at an uncomfortable wound in the governor’s tight, sensitive, and less experienced inner circle. Roe’s more seasoned crew, for one, has a far less sanguine view of DeSantis’s current Trump self-defense strategy. They believe that DeSantis can’t just shrug off the former president’s public attacks on him, which coalesce around the notion that he’s an establishment stooge. Trump’s invective may be juvenile but it’s clearly moving the needle on his polling and allowing the former president to craft DeSantis’s public image.

All that brings us back to to the original question: Is anyone winning this ad-fueled slap fight? Let’s go to the highly unscientific YouTube Index for possible answers.

MAGA Pac’s Pudding Fingers  21,000 views  71 likes

Never Back Down’s Gun-Grabbing Trump  9000 views  61 likes

Never Back Down’s Fight Democrats . . .  136,000 views  125 likes

The Doc’s diagnosis: Donald Trump’s cheeks sure seem redder.

Is a Trump-Aligned Super PAC Ad Lying About Ron DeSantis?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and checking out the news on MediaPost when I came across Wayne Friedman’s piece about a new ad campaign funded by a Donald Trump-supported Super PAC. It attacks Florida governor (and likely Trump presidential rival) Ron DeSantis for his voting record in Congress on Medicare and Social Security.

A Republican-backed TV commercial campaign is targeting Florida Governor and potential Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, backed by Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” Super PAC . . .

The spot — called “Think You Know Ron DeSantis” — talks about how he has backed “deep cuts to social security and medicare” and says that when he was in Congress, DeSantis voted to raise the retirement age to 70. The bottom-line message, according to a voiceover, is that DeSantis “doesn’t share our values” and that “he is just not ready to be President.”

DeSantis is currently on a book tour saying he’s all about protecting Social Security and Medicare. What gives, Doc?

– Ron Conned?

Dear RC:

It is a fact well-established that Donald Trump and his merry band of remoras (a.k.a. suckerfish) are severely allergic to the truth (according to a Washington Post tally, the Cheeto in Chief alone made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his four years in office).

Against that backdrop . . .

The reported $1.5 million ad campaign (most of it spent on Fox News ads) claims that Ron DeSantis, while a congressman representing Florida’s 6th Congressional District from 2013 to 2018, “voted three separate times to cut Social Security . . . Worse, DeSantis voted to cut Medicare two times. DeSantis even voted to raise the retirement age to 70.” (You can see the spot here.)

So the question is: True? False? Alternative facts?

According to a PolitiFact piece by Yacob Reyes in the Tampa Bay Times last month, it’s not all that cut and dried.

In 2013, with Republicans controlling the House, DeSantis joined 103 Republicans on a failed resolution that called for raising the age to qualify for Medicare and Social Security to 70, according to a Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget analysis.

The measure also supported a transition of Medicare, a program funded by the federal government, to a premium support system, for which the federal government would designate a pot of money for each beneficiary to spend on a private insurance plan.

The resolution’s text stated the measure would have affected future beneficiaries; it says, “those in or near retirement will see no changes.”

A PolitFact piece by Amy Sherman five years ago, which addressed similar charges against DeSantis during Florida’s 2018 GOP gubernatorial primary, labeled them Half True:: “[The non-binding resolutions] were a cut in terms of the programs’ future growth relative to the baseline. But the goal of these resolutions was to persuade Congress to make changes to shore up these programs in the future to avoid steeper cuts down the road.”

Bottom line: Those votes cut no budgets, nor did they reduce seniors’ benefits.

Regardless, DeSantis is doing his best nowadays to rewrite his position on entitlement cuts, as the Tampa Bay Times piece noted.

“Look, I have more seniors here than just about anyone as a percentage,” DeSantis told Fox News’ Dana Perino on March 2. “You know, we’re not going to mess with Social Security as Republicans. I think that that’s pretty clear.”

(As if he didn’t represent seniors for the six years he was Florida’s 6th District congressman. But why get technical about it.)

What’s also pretty clear is that the Trumpiacs will keep touting half-truths about DeSantis as long as he remains a threat to the ex-president’s bid to regain the White House.

The Doc’s prescription: Just because in this instance the MAGAts have downshifted from outright lies to partial ones, we don’t recommend getting used to it.