Posted on 06/26/2004 10:39:21 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Edited on 07/06/2004 6:39:44 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP)
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Hitler Image Used in Bush Campaign Web Ad
By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Adolf Hitler's image has surfaced again in the White House race. President Bush's campaign is featuring online video of the Nazi dictator, taken down months ago from a liberal group's Web site and disavowed, in a spot that intersperses clips of speeches by Democrats John Kerry, Al Gore and Howard Dean.
Democrats want the video pulled from the site. Campaign aides said it would remain.
Republicans had criticized the group MoveOn.org in January because it briefly posted an ad contest entry that linked Hitler and Bush. It showed images of Bush with text saying, "God told me to strike at al-Qaida," before turning to images of Hitler with the words, "And then He instructed me to strike at Saddam." The submission ended with the words, "Sound familiar?" on a black and white screen.
The group later said the entry was in "poor taste" and pulled it from its site.
The 77-second video on the Bush-Cheney re-election site splices footage of Kerry, the presumptive nominee, and his 2004 rival Dean along with 2000 nominee Gore and film director Michael Moore. The spot calls them Kerry's "Coalition of the Wild-eyed." Clips of Hitler's image are seen throughout the spot.
"The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong," said Kerry's campaign, Mary Beth Cahill, who called on the GOP campaign to remove the Web video from its site.
"We're using the video from MoveOn.org to show our supporters the type of vitriolic rhetoric being used by the president's opponents and John Kerry's surrogates," said Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.
The Bush-Cheney video spot appeared on the campaign Web site Thursday and was sent electronically to 6 million supporters.
The online spot begins with clips of Gore assailing the Bush administration. "How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein's torture prison," Gore shouts during a public speech.
It then cuts to an image of Hitler, followed Dean, Moore and Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., all bashing Bush. There are more clips of Hitler, Gore and then Kerry, before the screen cuts to the words, "This is not a time for pessimism and rage." Video images of Bush follow.
A disclaimer was added to the beginning of the Web spot on Saturday afternoon to explain that the video contains "remarks made by and images from ads sponsored by Kerry supporters." The disclaimer also accuses Kerry of failing to denounce those who have compared Hitler to Bush.
It's definitely not apparent in that commercial. Except for the last few seconds, that could be a Dem commercial.
The contrast, too, is very jarring---all that wrath and shouting, then suddenly a calm endorsement of Bush-Cheney. It's as if they're not listening to the madness preceding it. Why present it, then?
It's a terrible commercial, worse than none at all. Why couldn't they just pick one Dem charge, one imbecilic statement, and refute it soundly? One at a time.
And where are the President's next 5 speeches about Iraq?
Say, since the Kerry Kampaign is spending resources defending Moveon.org, does that count as "coordination"?
The point you made is obvious to you and I, but not to all members of the viewing audience or the particular moron writer of the article.
Whether the writer (or any viewer that also doesn't get it) is a moron, or whether the concept is poorly executed is beside the point. It failed on this one account (the writer of the article). It certainly fails on many more.
I got it when I viewed the ad because I pay attention to politics. This won't be the case for all people viewing the ad.
Preaching to the choir isn't enough. The morons need to get it too.
Watch it again. It's been updated with an intro which makes it more effective and points out that Kerry objects to the Bush video, but not to the actions of his own supporters.
Danger Will Robinson, danger. The vote of the "moron" counts just the same as that of a member of the heavenly chorus.
But I feel your pain - the politically engaged run out of 2-by-4s long before they run out of mules.
Exactly my point. Thank you.
Thank you. Now we are getting somewhere. Glad the RNC is listening.
Nope, no bias here. </sarcasm>
Bush is not "try[ing] to liken [his] opponents to the Nazi dictator." He is pointing out that THEY SMEARED HIM with that imagery. And before anyone tries to claim that MoveOn.org is not a major group, note the fact that Al Gore, among others, has spoken at their events...
I wasn't confused when I saw it .. but that may be because I had seen the MoveOn.org ad and recognized it - and the wording is there which says "MoveOn.org".
Some of the text was added in response to Kerry's attack on the ad.
I agree. Point well taken.
Thanks for the info. I fired off an email to her to correct her story.
Tell it to Al Gore, Mary Beth.
A tactical blunder by the Bush campaign, but it can be set right if they just edit out the Moveon.org footage.
I don't watch much TV, so had never seen the MoveOn.org ad. I noticed the "MoveOn" words at the bottom of the Hitler clip only the second time I saw the ad, it went by so quickly the first time.
Yes, it did go by very quickly .. I would have liked to have seen that defined more .. I want people to see the type of ads the democrats are sending out.
However, it might have been done on purpose .. to draw the dems out and make them complain .. thereby allowing the RNC to show off what the dems are doing .. hmmmm? do I smell some strategery here ..??
Wow, dawn. Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen the MoveOn ads. Why would I raise my blood pressure. They are really over the top.
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