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 poking around the web, when I came across this headline at MSNBC’s site.
‘Trump doesn’t trust women; I do’: Biden ad hits Trump’s attacks on reproductive freedom
Really, Doc – that’s the best he’s got? Doesn’t trust women? That’s his indictment of the Grabber in Chief?
– Trusty Reader
Dear TR,
The TV spot was triggered by the state of Florida’s new six-week abortion ban, and according to this piece by Weija Jiang at CBS Mornings, “[Biden’s] campaign says it has a ‘seven-figure buy’ for this ad as part of a $30 million advertising effort in the major battleground states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.”
“In 2016, Donald Trump ran to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, in 2024, he’s running to pass a national ban on a woman’s right to choose,” Biden says in the ad. He pointedly avoids mentioning either Florida’s new law or Trump’s stated opposition to a six-week abortion ban, letting viewers draw their own conclusions, accurate or not.
(Then again, Trump was America’s first Cubist President – on every side of every issue – so previous statements are no guarantee of future policy.)
The Doc’s diagnosis: There’s no question Biden’s assertion that “Trump doesn’t trust women” soft-pedals Trump’s reprehensible history of misogyny, misconduct, and more – see Mariel Padilla’s piece at The 19th for further details – but there are plenty of people out there excoriating Trump in far harsher terms (lookin’ at you, George Conway).
Over all, it’s sensible for Biden to leave the heavy lifting to others on this front.
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 enjoying Bess Levin’s Vanity Fair newsletter, when I came across a link to this Politico piece by Elena Schneider about a new ad blitz for Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.
[The Biden campaign] will start a six-week, $30 million TV and digital ad buy on Saturday, aimed at drawing out the “full-throated” contrast between Biden’s vision for “where the country can go” against “Donald Trump’s dark, dangerous and chaotic vision for the country,” said campaign communications director Michael Tyler on a call with reporters Friday morning. The ads will target battleground states, as well as Black and Latino-focused outlets and channels.
I dunno, Doc – isn’t that like Macy’s running ads in March for a one-day sale in November?
– Ad Homonym
Dear AH,
The Doc has taken a dim view of presidential campaign advertising on multiple occasions, but this seems to be a special case for one particular reason.
Those numbers come from an AP-NORC poll conducted last month. But Biden’s problem goes beyond the mind-boggling fact that more Americans believe Donald Trump “has the mental capability to serve effectively as president” than he does. There’s also this from a new Wall Street Journal poll, as Aaron Zitner reports.
Some 73% say Biden is too old, at age 81, to stand for re-election, the same share as in an August Journal poll. By comparison, 52% see Trump, age 77, as too old to run for the White House, up 5 points from August.
Ouch.
Baked-in public opinion like that can’t be turned around overnight, so it makes sense for Biden to get crackin’ now. And his first TV spot goes right to the heart of the matter.
The ad hits many of Biden’s high points: Covid response, infrastructure investment, climate change reform, job growth. It also hits several of Trump’s low points, including that “he took away women’s right to choose.”
The spot ends with an outtake, as Nicholas Nehamas notes in the New York Times.
After the standard announcement that Mr. Biden has approved the message, a voice off-camera asks him to do one more take.
“Look, I’m very young, energetic and handsome. What the hell am I doing this for?” Mr. Biden replies, flashing a mischievous grin before the screen goes black.
The Doc’s diagnosis: If Biden has any chance of defusing the time bomb underneath the Resolute Desk, this approach is probably his best bet for doing so. Given that pro-Biden forces will spend close to $1 billion on advertising in the next eight months, the current $30 million ad buy is a decent way to prime the pump.
Really, Doc? Trump’s trashing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is going to put a dent in his poll numbers when 91 felony charges, a sexual assault conviction, and an endless series of lies and grifts haven’t? Does that seem reasonable to you?
– Trump Stumped
Dear TS,
According to this New York Times report by Nicholas Nehamas, the Biden campaign “is running [this] digital ad in three states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that have significant populations of voters with Eastern European roots.”
The ad notes that every president since Harry Truman has been a rock-solid supporter of NATO – except for Donald Trump, who wants to walk away from NATO and its Article 5 mutual defense pact. (The spot also notes that Article 5 has been invoked exactly one time: in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on America.)
Trump’s “you gotta pay” message to NATO members, the ad concludes, is shameful, weak, dangerous, and un-American. (It’s also the unofficial slogan of made mobsters, but why get technical about it. Not to mention Trump’s lifelong commitment to stiffing his own creditors.)
As NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba writes, “[the] campaign is aiming to reach the more than 2.5 million Americans who identify as Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian — all NATO countries that share a border with Russia.”
That doesn’t seem like much, until you break down Trump’s likely electoral math: About 30 to 35 percent of his voters are ride-or-die MAGA who are largely there for the cruelty and the crazy; then you’ve got maybe 10 percent of voters who mumble “something something something Dementia Joe.”
It’s the next four or five percent who will decide the 2024 presidential election. This Biden ad might tell us whether Article 5 works for ballots as well as bullets.
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 BU Today, when I came across Doug Most’s Q&A with Boston University School of Social Work professor Bronwyn Keefe about Nikki Haley’s new ad campaign mocking Joe Biden and Donald Trump as “Basement Buddies” and “Stumbling Seniors.”
BU Today: When I saw this ad, I admit that I chuckled, but at the same time I cringed a little bit. Is this going too far in your mind? Is the ad an example of ageism?
Ageism is just pervasive. When you go to CVS or someplace to get a birthday card, it’s everywhere, jokes about being older, not being able to hear—it’s so normalized . . . This makes older people feel invisible, small, and useless. It has an impact on the older adult population that is really detrimental.
Isn’t that the point of Haley’s campaign, Doc – to be detrimental to the presumptive 2024 presidential nominees?
– Bidin’ My Time
Dear BMT,
Let’s start by reminding ourselves that Nikki Haley is no stranger to the issue of ageism, having been on the receiving end last year of sexist/ageist comments from ex-CNN bigmouth Don Lemon, who declared in an on-air flameout (leading to his exit from the cable network) that Haley was past her prime.
Haley tweeted in response, “Liberals can’t stand the idea of having competency tests for older politicians to make sure they can do the job.”
So Haley’s new media campaign – which consists of online videos, digital ads and voter emails according to Jazmine Ulloa’s report in the New York Times – is very much on brand.
As for the issue of ageism, it’s not like Haley is trying to take the car keys from Gramps. One of those two guys is going to occupy the Oval Office a year from now. Their age and mental competency are legitimate questions.
But that’s not the most important concern for voters this November. The real issue, which Haley’s campaign blithely glosses over, is that both guys might be old, but only one of them is an unhinged anti-democratic grifter. We’re not talking six of one, half dozen of another here, folks. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not a matched set, no matter what Nikki Haley or Cornel West or the No Labelsniks want you to think
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 flipping through the Boston Globe, when I came across this full-page ad on A3.
What the hell, Doc – this guy’s calling card is his anti-vaccine jihad, but no mention of it in this costly five-figure advertisement? Is the Super PAC just trying to inoculate him?
– Vax Vexed
Dear VV:
First of all, you gotta admire any full-page ad in a major metropolitan newspaper that starts off with a quote about being silenced.
Beyond that, now that we know who the bad guys are, let’s take a look at the purported good guys, starting with the outfit that paid for the ad, American Values 2024. Its website fails to list any of the Super PAC’s good guy funders, but it does showcase Our Team.
The website also spotlights the bad guys at ABC News.
ABC News makes a point of letting viewers know they censored RFKJ
ABC News made a bizarre announcement that they censored RFKJ’s statements about COVID, vaccines and autism following an interview with him on Thursday, 4/27 that included a discussion of the ongoing censorship of him by the corporate media.
“We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” ABC interviewer Linsey Davis said following the interview. “We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.” Davis added.
At this point we will just quote Kennedy, “Show me where I am wrong.”
The group helpfully provides video of the offending segment.
Finally, there’s this boilerplate about the Super PAC.
About a week ago, Slate’s Jim Newell took a look at those polling numbers.
Kennedy officially launched his Democratic primary bid on April 19, after a month or two of making noise about it. In an April 9 Morning Consult poll, 10 percent of those surveyed said they would support Kennedy for the Democratic presidential nomination. The day of Kennedy’s launch, a USA Today/Suffolk poll had Kennedy at 14 percent. The Fox News poll released April 26, referenced by CNN, showed Kennedy at 19 percent. Kennedy was at 21 percent in an April 27 Emerson College poll . . .
It’s not just Kennedy who has a little bit of traction, though. Marianne Williamson, in her second consecutive Democratic primary, is registering in polls as well. In the Fox News survey, Williamson was polling at 9 percent. She was at 8 percent in the Emerson poll.
The main reason these two eccentrics have a surprising primary polling foothold against an incumbent president, then, is because they are the only two warm bodies giving it a go against a president who a supermajority of Americans believe should not run for president again.
If you haven’t read Mona [Charen’s] fantastic piece about RFK Jr., go do that right now.
For me, the most interesting question is: Why is this guy running as a Democrat?
As Mona demonstrates, RFK Jr.’s biggest fans seem to come from conservative world. He’s a Fox News / InfoWars kind of candidate . . .
And RFK Jr. is much closer to Alex Jones and Trump and even DeSantis than he is to Bernie Sanders or any other Democratic figure . . .
[It] seems possible that if DeSantis hollows out, the opening isn’t for Nikki Haley, or Tim Scott, or Brian Kemp—it’s for someone like RFK Jr., or Elon Musk, or Alex Jones to take from Trump by making him look like part of the establishment.
The Doc’s diagnosis? Forget Covid boosters – get yourself a Dramamine drip and settle in for the long run.
P.S. Still no idea who’s bankrolling American Values 2024, but it’s bound to come out sooner rather than later.
Jim Lamon, a Republican candidate in Arizona running for the U.S. Senate, released a controversial new ad this week that will run during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
In the ad, which takes place in an Old West-style town, an old man yells “It’s the D.C. Gang!” as three figures – two men and one woman – walk up the main street.
The figures are then introduced as “Old Joe” (Joe Biden), “Shifty Kelly” (Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona), and “Crazy Face Pelosi” (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California). A man wearing chaps and a leather vest with a Sheriff’s star on it approaches the gang, introduced as Jim Lamon.
Eventually . . . “[Lamon] fires three shots, taking out just the weapons of each of the politicians and sending them running away. No one was even fake physically hurt during the ad, but Democrats and others may find it in poor taste for Lamon to take a shot at Kelly, husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was famously shot by a mentally ill man in 2011 during a campaign stop.”
What the hell is up with that, Doc?
– Lamonting It All
Dear Lamonting,
Videos of Arizona Republicans visiting violence on Democratic politicians seem to be all the rage in the Grand Canyon State these days.
Now comes Jim Lamon’s TV spot, which is slated to run in the Tuscon market during tonight’s Super Bowl broadcast.
A piece by Jack Dutton in Newsweek (which has become a steaming cauldron of crackpot conservative clickbait, as Alex Shephard has detailed in The New Republic) notes that Lamon is no stranger to controversy.
It is not the first time a Lamon ad that stoked outrage. In January, he released a commercial that used the phrase “Let’s go Brandon, which is a euphemism for “F*** Joe Biden.”
Yahoo refused to run the ad, saying it would only allow it if the phrase was omitted.
Lamon hit back, accusing Big Tech of stepping in “to help their liberal buddies who can’t win elections fairly.”
Clearly Lamon is a shoot first, answer questions later kind of guy. Typical Senate material in today’s GOP, no?
Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.
Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.
Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.
Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.
Ask Doctor Ads 