Tennessee RNC Attack Ad Pulled: Blame Canada?
| Thu Oct. 26, 2006 5:08 PM PDT
What got that racist anti Harold Ford attack ad pulled off the air? Was it complaints from NAACP? The DNC? Or was it our neighbors to the north? This, from a Canadian news station:
It's not often Canadians care about who's running for the U.S. Senate. But when we figure prominently in one of those quintessential American-style attack ads, nearly everyone on this side of the border sits up and takes notice.
A fierce fight between a Tennessee Republican candidate and his Democratic opponent has gotten personal - and Canada is right in the middle of it.
The controversial commercial from right wing candidate Bob Corker attacks a man named Harold Ford. It features supposedly ordinary citizens commenting on the Democrat, indicating he'll increase taxes and take guns out of the hands of residents, two huge issues in the south. There's also a shot of a rather questionable young woman who claims she's spent time with Ford at "The Playboy Club". But it's the next statement that seems to have rankled many. It comes from a comment made about some recent controversial nuclear tests.
"Canada can take care of North Korea," a man who resembles a young Wilfrid Brimley jokes. "They're not busy." The suggestion that we aren't pulling our weight in the world - and the fact that we've lost 42 soldiers in Afghanistan - is never mentioned.
The commercial, which has already been part of an equally nasty campaign between Ford and Corker, has been the subject of a protest by Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. And that complaint has apparently led to action.
Officials in Tennessee have agreed to pull the offending advertisement. But the U.S. Ambassador to this country has a response to our anger. He notes Canadian ads during the last election treated U.S. President George Bush with far more contempt and no one really issued any major complaints about those.
Continues Below
Continued From Above
Comments
No objection to treating Bush with contempt? Maybe because he's deserving of it, eh?
He certainly has my contempt. Once upon a time I thought Nixon was as low as we could go in picking a President. I am sorry to learn that I was wrong.
"He notes Canadian ads during the last election treated U.S. President George Bush with far more contempt and no one really issued any major complaints about those."
There was nothing to complain about.
George W. Bush is far more worthy of contempt.
"But the U.S. Ambassador to this country has a response to our anger. He notes Canadian ads during the last election treated U.S. President George Bush with far more contempt and no one really issued any major complaints about those."
As a matter of fact, it might interest the U.S. ambassador to Canada to know that former PM Martin of Canada ran a very anti-American, anti-Bush, anti-NAFTA campaign last time out, and as I recall, was defeated by Mr. Harper in part on that platform. Turns out the Canadians actually like us Americans in spite of ourselves (through they are baffled by our choice of presidents, sometimes) and most rejected the anti-U.S. tone of the Liberal's campaign, and think that NAFTA has been good for them. It's nice to know that the U.S. ambassador to Ottawa who complained about the Canadian campaign is as much a dunce as the rest of this administration. Perhaps he is an expert in Arabian horses?
