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Karl Rove’s TV ad mocks Giannoulias
Tuesday, Sep 21, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Karl Rove’s tax exempt group American Crossroads has launched its new TV ad that attacks Alexi Giannoulias. “Friends don’t let friends vote Alexi” is the tagline. Make sure to watch… …Adding… They pulled the video down and reposted it. So, it’s fixed now. The group has put $482,000 behind the ad for a single week in Chicago, Springfield and St. Louis. That’s almost twice as much as the Democrats are spending right now. And St. Louis means they’ve expanded the field of play…
The Giannoulias campaign tried to get in front of the ad yesterday by predicting it would be a cheap shot. It’s actually a pretty solid ad, and, as you’d probably expect, well done. Probably too wordy, but the visuals keep you focused. Here’s what Giannoulias was quoted as saying…
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- Adam Smith - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:01 pm:
Last refuge of the scoundrel. Alexi has no response on the content of the ad, just a Clintonesque ad hominem attack on the messenger.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:02 pm:
AS, he said that yesterday.
- NW - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:03 pm:
Solid ad.
- Siriusly - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:05 pm:
Great ad. One of my new favorites.
He may not be good on governance and policy and he may not be good at protecting his friends from special prosecution, but Karl Rove is a great political strategist.
- The Captain - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:06 pm:
I spent more time watching the car than paying attention to the narrator or the text that popped up on screen. Maybe I played too many video games growing up though.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:08 pm:
hate Karl Rove, love the ad. it works for me because it
is Jib Jab esque. memorable, quotable. young and fresh,
hitting the young candidate hard.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:08 pm:
We’re not pushing the creative envolope today. The “Friends don’t” knockoff from the PSA is as hackneyed as “Acme Bank Means Business” or “The Cell Phone ‘Talk is Cheap’ Program.”
- Ahoy - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:08 pm:
Solid, it actually stuck to the issues at hand and the facts.
- downhereforyears - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:08 pm:
I thought the ad was a bullseye. 30 seconds and got every negative in.
- shore - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:08 pm:
interesting considering rove and kirk had a fight in the white house in 2007 over kirk’s call to end the iraq war.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:09 pm:
TC, it is a bit busy. I found myself doing the same thing. I think it catches the eye and keeps you just enough focused to work. We’ll see.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:11 pm:
–interesting considering rove and kirk had a fight in the white house in 2007 over kirk’s call to end the iraq war.–
LOL, did Kirk tell you that, Shore? Was that before or after the encounter with the friggin’ Killer Sharks with “Lasers” on their heads?
- 10th Indy - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:14 pm:
Funny, hard-hitting and with twice the buy it drives right over the small and boring (in comparison) DSCC hit on Kirk.
- shore - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:18 pm:
Bush aides berate GOP members
By Jonathan E. Kaplan
May 11, 2007
Top Bush administration officials lashed out at a pair of House Republicans at the White House yesterday after details about a contentious meeting between President Bush and GOP legislators were leaked to the media earlier this week.
The confrontations are the latest indications of an intensifying rift between Bush and congressional Republicans.
Reps. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) attracted the ire of White House officials for allegedly speaking to reporters about a Tuesday meeting between Bush and centrist Republicans on the Iraq war. Details of the contentious meeting first emerged Wednesday evening and attracted Page 1 headlines yesterday.
Sources said that Dan Meyer, Bush’s liaison to the House, confronted LaHood while White House political strategist Karl Rove rebuked Kirk. It is unclear if LaHood or Kirk were the originial sources for the stories, but LaHood was quoted in one of the articles.
Regardless, LaHood and Meyer got into a shouting match as emotions ran high and voices were raised yesterday morning in the White House while lawmakers were waiting to meet with first lady Laura Bush, according to two legislators who witnessed the exchange.
LaHood and five other GOP lawmakers met with Mrs. Bush in the Yellow Oval in the White House residence to chat about the No Child Left Behind law.
“The White House is not happy,” said a Republican lawmaker.
Two GOP lawmakers said that Rove admonished Kirk for talking to the media about the private meeting.
Kirk and the White House declined to comment.
- Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:18 pm:
{The fund lost money due to poor investment decisions by an outside firm. Giannoulias has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the bank or the scholarship fund.}
BS!
Look at the Prospectus for the fund in question. The risk profile as stipulated was significantly different than how the investment option was marketed by Bright Start.
The Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund Plus; should never have been offered in Bright Start in the first place. The fact that they pushed the envelope was the icing on the cake. The cake itself never should have been served.
- Raising Kane - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:19 pm:
Great ad!! But somehow they forgot to put the mobster in the passenger seat.
- Draznnl (Rhymes with orange) - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:20 pm:
If only Rove wasn’t so evil, this would be easier to say. It’s a good ad. It has a big enough buy that people will see it more than once and enough going on that they won’t hit the mute button after one viewing.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:22 pm:
shore, sounds like LaHood is the one who got into a real fight.
- Cheswick - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:27 pm:
The ad has been pulled from Youtube. Only invitees of Karl Rove can view it.
- Cheswick - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:28 pm:
Not pulled. Made private.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:31 pm:
That was fast Shore, almost like you’ve had that clip taped over your computer or something. How long have you been waiting to use it?
As for the ad, it gives me a message that it is private. I’d rather not “friend” Karl Rove, so I’ll have to wait and watch it on the tee-vee like everybody else.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:43 pm:
When I went over to You Tube, it didn’t say “private” or that I needed to “friend” someone. It said “removed.”
I’ll have a shot of ouzo, then try again. Helps me to focus!
- circularfiringsquad - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:45 pm:
Ad is old news gotta. Wondwr what. COMMNDO MAKEITUP Promised. Rove? Dance. With the wife?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 5:54 pm:
It’s back up again. They went from private, to removed to posting a new video.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 6:04 pm:
OK, now having seen it, I agree that it’s a good ad. But a couple of things struck me:
First, while it’s a common metaphor, didn’t Obama use this same image to explain how the GOP drove the car into the ditch under Bush, and that we shouldn’t give them the keys back now? I wonder if that muddies this up for anybody? Probably not, but that’s what I thought of when I first saw this. Maybe Rove is sincerely flattering the President but I doubt it. Like I said, it’s a good metaphor either way.
Second, this ad loses a lot of ooomph without sound. The message points are still there in the graphics, but without sound, it doesn’t command the same level of attention.
From my perspective as a Democrat, this is $482,000 that won’t be spent against Russ Feingold. So there’s that. But this is just the opening salvo from the pro-Kirk forces. There will be plenty more where this came from.
At some point, I think we’ll all keel over as the ads just become so much clutter on the airwaves.
- easynow - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 6:20 pm:
So, what’s the problem with a “failed mob banker”? Would you rather have a successful one?
- sal-says - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 6:22 pm:
“Karl Rove’s TV ad mocks Giannoulias”
Karl Rove : Enough Said.
- And I Approved This Message - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 6:29 pm:
47th, my thought exactly. President Obama has for weeks been using the riff about the Republicans driving our country, and especially the economy, into a ditch and then asking whatever audience he’s in front of who they want to give the keys to in November: “When you want to go backward, what gear do you use?” Audience always responds “R!!!”
“And when you want to go forward, what gear do you use?” D is the obvious answer and it looks like it gets a good rise out of the faithful.
Guessing that in some poll somewhere Rove has seen that this is an effective punch and has moved in this race to counter it. I bet we see a variation of this Rove-sponsered ad around the country.
It’s cute (kind of like the Toonsis cat driving the car on SNL from years ago) but very lazy. Too easy.
Keep a closer eye on the statements of Newt Gingrich who is so far over his skis in his criticism that you wonder what he’s smoking.
- Dirt Digger - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 7:04 pm:
I am usually hostile to cutesy ads. Having said that the rampaging SUV is pretty funny.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 7:08 pm:
–interesting considering rove and kirk had a fight in the white house in 2007 over kirk’s call to end the iraq war.–
Shore, how do draw the conclusion above from the article you posted? You must have misremembered it wrong. Is your name really Shore?
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 7:48 pm:
lol.
I guess I understand the attempt at a preemptive strike now!
It’s “catchy”.
- Responsa - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 8:08 pm:
That’s finally an election ad which has a message to independents and to waffling R’s about AlexiG. That’s finally an ad that ties together some of the old news headlines about Alexi’s issues into relevance to the current campaign and to the office AG is seeking. That’s both a funny, yet serious ad, that younger voters especially, may appreciate on its slick production quality as well as its focused story line.
I get what some of you have raised about the Obama/Bush/Ditch thing, but that stump speech staple (as far as I know) has been mostly used by Obama in friendly audiences of supporters or at fundraisers. The independents and undecideds who still need to be brought into the fold are tired of the “Bush is evil-Bush created this mess” meme. So I don’t think this commercial is going to “confuse” anybody–and may indeed finally help some voters to make up their minds.
Grade: A
- shore - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 8:54 pm:
it sounds like kirk leaked the discussion so that voters in his district who hated the war knew that he was picking a fight with the white house. smart pr.
- Louis Howe - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 8:58 pm:
Good Ad…Rove hasn’t lost his touch…
- Still Gettin Twisted - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 9:22 pm:
that’s a good ad..
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 21, 10 @ 10:35 pm:
–it sounds like kirk leaked the discussion so that voters in his district who hated the war knew that he was picking a fight with the white house. smart pr. –
So if I get this straight, you contend that Kirk had a “fight” with Karl Rove in the White House over “Kirk’s call to end the war in Iraq.” And the only evidence of any of this, in your mind, is some “leak” from Kirk?
Well, consider the source.
- Liandro - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 1:05 am:
I was going to give it a B+ after my first watch. Excellent substance hits, great use of multiple sources, very solid production, but it seemed just a bit to busy to hit “A” range.
After my second viewing, though, I definitely have to bump this up into A or even A+ range. Main reason: this ad held up far better during the second viewing then the average ad. Far better. I think long past when most political ads get annoying or get annoyed (and I tune them out after one to two viewings), this one will make people want to watch it. Now THAT is a good ad.
- Liandro - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 1:06 am:
I meant to say “get annoying or get ignored”….sigh. Also, switch “then” to “than”. Oh, for an edit button.
- Blazing Saddle - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 6:38 am:
I think the ad was catchy and will be effective. I’d give it an A-.
The “asleep at the wheel” section reminded me of the Cary Grant drunk driving scene from “North by Northwest”.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 8:22 am:
Best ad of this campaign. Memorable entertaining funny mocking and stick to the facts.
Makes Giannoulias look like a clown.
Bam!
Great ad.
- Justice - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 9:57 am:
Great ad. That’s gonna leave a mark.
- D.P. Gumby - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 11:44 am:
Good ad, A-, I hate Karl Rove and Citizens United…but I can envision the same style ad w/ Kirk flying over Bosnia, then being ejected–”he was never there”, then at an awards/medal ceremony–”he was never there”. Then in the Senate–”Make sure he’s never there!”
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 @ 7:43 pm:
lol, Gumby. You should have gotten paid for THAT one.
Lemon or milk? Sugar?
- Love the Ad! - Sunday, Sep 26, 10 @ 9:20 am:
This was the BEST campaign ad (unless you are Alexi) by far.
It goes along with the DEMS taking the keys back comments and now stripping down the car (I think Rush said that??)If I were the ad maker I would proceed with this idea and show Liberal Dems stripping the car to nothing and the scavenger birds coming in for the trace leftovers.
The Dems of years ago ARE NOT the Dems of today.
And The Rep are smart to continue to be more conservative-that’s what the people want.