Griper Blade: Comparing Weaponry in the Wisconsin Ad Wars

Earlier this week, the Republican Governors Association announced an ad buy for Wisconsin in support of Governor Walker. My first impression of the spot was that it seemed lazy and unlikely to make any difference. It's basically everything Walker has been saying all along, adapted to attack ad format. This hasn't been working for him so far and it's unlikely that converting it to ad form will make it work any better. By this time, everyone knows the facts -- that is, everyone who cares to know the facts -- and all this messaging has been spectacularly ineffective.

But you know the GOP motto; if something is failing, do more of it.



When it came out, Greg Sargent did some adbusting. The spot was "premised on a serious distortion that borders on an outright falsehood," Sargent wrote. I don't know why the equivocation though -- the ad doesn't border on being a lie, it is a lie. Walker doesn't need to do away with collective bargaining to balance the budget. He has a balanced budget now. In fact, the ad doesn't even mention bargaining, as if there's someone in Wisconsin who has no idea what this is all about and can be hoodwinked. Like I say, lazy. Not to mention insulting to people's intelligence...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]