Remember the clunky, overlong video the South Dakota Republican Party released last week to lambaste Matt Varilek for getting educated, traveling the world, and hosting parties with corndogs and beer? Oh, if only we could get video of Varilek eating a corndog from a bayonet on horseback!
Team Varilek agrees that this ad proves the Republicans can't defend Kristi "No-Show" Noem's record of non-achievement in Congress. They are so confident this ad makes their guy look good that they are running the ad in full and unedited on their website... and asking supporters to Donate for Corn Dogs!
When your challenger co-opts your attack message and makes it a fundraising pitch, that's a pretty good sign that your attack was a bad idea. Come November 7, Kristi Noem could well find herself in the unemployment line right behind hapless SDGOP exec Tony Post.
Now can Kristi Noem somehow make this new negative ad from Team Varilek play in their favor? Somehow I doubt it: there's just no good side to phone addiction, Fox addiction, or support for the Ryan budget.
This just shows that Varilek has a lot more education, and an impressive resume. I would be quite embarassed to be Noem and have to be told to get off the cell phone at a congressional meeting!
This is terrifying. That people in SD can be swayed, or that candidates and their handlers believe that SD voters can be swayed on the idea that education and experience is something to be feared and scorned puts so much of this election into perspective.
Be it candidates for office or ballot measures, I only hope SD voters rise above ignorance, recognize the shadows on the wall, and come out of the cave into the sunlight.
I hope for a Noem loss - now even more to reject HOW she has run this campaign than to reject her stand on issues. Treating people as scared fools ought not be rewarded.
What happens to her war chest money if she loses? Is Bryan a paid consultant?
W. T. F.!!
Hokey small town Jaycee endorsements are enough to put someone in an office that comes with access to classified information and national security clearance?!
An education and seeing the world are now attacks and something to be ashamed of in SD politics?
WTF is wrong with people in South Dakota?
Of all the political ads in the U.S. this election cycle, South Dakota had the best - Doug Barth's "Why Jeff Barth for Congress", and the worst - this rotten p.o.s. ad from Noem.
How does it feel when your sitting US Rep thinks you're all a bunch of stupid hicks.
"Vote for Me! Because Real South Dakotans don't take kindly to them highfalutin' ejicated worldly corn doggers!"
Somehow, Jeremiah, I don't think she'll spend a penny of it on world travel.
I can't understand those pictures but my granddaughter says it's like a ZBorg Console which I still can't grasp. Mr. Kurtz probably knows how to run one with these Xborgs and Yborgs or whatever they are lurking about. Why can't young Mr. Verileck talk to me and my generation in a way we can understand? Give me straight up common sense. Slamming on this borg stuff is a waste of my attention. You lost my vote.
Grudz, now you're just doing sloppy satire. Get real.
Is this why Tony Post is paid to work for the SD GOP? How much is he being paid anyway?
Good thing the SD GOP hired a Minnesotan instead of a South Dakotan. SD wouldn't have had the foresight to come up with this stuff.
The hick versus the geek! Ah, what a shew!
The Noem ad plays to people's cynicism about those politicians who would use global warming as a tool and an excuse to expand the scope and power of government.
The Varilek ad plays to people's fears that the Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it, raise taxes on the middle class, and widen the gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99%.
Not sure which one is worse. But they both make valid points.
The production quality in the Noem ad is better; it reminds me of movies we used to have during the Cold War. You know, Red Ship Sinking, or something.
I predict: Noem by 10 points. More hicks here than geeks.
Democratic County Parties shoulds start holding corn dog parties around the state.
Noem's just jealous she didn't win Miss Corndog SD. There's always next year.
I wish Matt or someone... anyone... would ask Kristi if she supports Paul Ryan's views on outlawing most popular birth control.
I'm guessing most women who vote don't realize that Mitt, Ryan and the GOP House have supported not just banning the pill, but applying criminal sanctions against popular forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization.
Heck, ask that question of our state candidates and see if they would support a personhood bill outlawing contraception and giving a fertilized egg all the legal rights of a human being even in the case of rape, incest and health of the mother.
Ask them if a woman has to have an abortion to save her life if she should also be forced to pay for it out of her own pocket...even if she doesn't have the money. (Of course they might suggest borrowing the money at 79% interest)
See what version of GOP definitions of rape they agree with. Let's see there's the "Gift from God rape" the "Legitimate rape" the "Honest rape," "Emergency rape" my favorite "Easy rape" "Forcible rape" and of course the old favorite of the GOP the "Just relax and enjoy it rape."
Ask each and every GOP candidate if they want to make government so small that it can fit in a vagina...like an invasive transvaginal probe ultrasound procedure.
OK, maybe that was a little harsh...just ask them if they support Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney's views on rape and contraception. Ask them if they think that they are in the best position to make very personal and private reproductive choices for all women. (note: It would be hard for them to answer whether they agree with Romney as either yes or no could be the correct answer...but Mitt has been for outlawing abortion even in the instance of rape or incest.) Paul Ryan advocates making women who are the victims (or is it accuser in GOP South Dakota?) of rape or incest face criminal charges for having a legal abortion.
Varilek's ad is much better just because its a 30 second ad. It can go on TV. The Noem one is the one that you are suppose to send by email, but the problem (for the GOP) with it is that its way too long. Yeah Noem is a farmer, but it shows tha Varilek has done a bunch of stuff. Many independents like intelligence in their elected officials.
"Hicks" and "geeks" both have their places, Stan. Both make lifestyle choices that don't need to be validated by denigrating the lifestyle choices of the other. Folks who stick around the farm all their lives shouldn't have to criticize those who take advantage of opportunities for education and travel around the world, and vice versa. Note that Varilek doesn't criticize Noem's farm background; he criticizes her performance on the job and the things she's actually voted for. His argument is more valid; Noem's video is worse.
"Folks who stick around the farm all their lives shouldn't have to criticize those who take advantage of opportunities for education and travel around the world."
I think Noem is trying to appeal to those "hicks" who sense (or imagine) an attidude of arrogance, elitism, and disdain for ordinary folks among the academia.
She apparently tries to brand Varilek as one of those snobby intellectuals, someone who lives in a fantasy land because, supposedly, he's never had to get his hands dirty in order to survive.
Noem's video fails with me for two reasons: (1) I know that the true prevalence of disdain among academics for ordinary folks (like farmers, firefighters, police, service workers, utility workers, etc.) is not nearly so great as some ordinary folks imagine it is; and (2) Her video is too long. I didn't finish it. However, I must say that Varilek's audio is not loud enough.
As I learn video production in my own nerd cave, I'm finding out just how bad the audio is in many, if not most, videos. I couldn't hear Matt's audio without pasting my ear directly to the computer.
Onward we go. For better or worse, it's Noem by 10 points.
And Frankenstorm for all those intellectual colleagues of mine in Boston and New York! For now, I'm glad to be out here with the "hicks."
Glad to have you here, Stan! You get me thinking about "arrogance": could it be that "geeks" do a better job realizing the need for "hicks" in society than "hicks" do of recognizing the equal value of the "geeks'" contributions?
Aw, shucks. Beats me!
So Chris Hayes ("Up With Chris Hayes" national political talk show Saturday mornings, @chrislhayes) tweets the link to this ignorant Noem video and comments, "Beyond Parody." Was RT'd by the senior editor of The Atlantic - @thegarance, who added, "This SD GOP ad pretty much explains everying in American politics."
Varilek gets some earned national media this Saturday on Hayes' Saturday morning show? Or written about in The Alantic? Yes, Please!
Taunia makes a great point. From the git-go, Kristi has done far more to increase Matt's name ID and favorable reputation than he himself has. LOL. The guys running her campaign should be taken out to the woodshed and whipped with wet noodles.
"Kristi has done far more to increase Matt's name ID and favorable reputation than he himself has."
That would be true among your New Age Theocrats.
It's true by any measure and in any demographic, Sibby. Noem has been promoting Matt more than she has herself, for better or worse. Last time she ran against Nancy Pelosi. This time she's running against people with an education. She might as well just do an ad that says "Vote for me, I'm still just an ignorant South Dakota bumpkin like Sibby."
"Vote for me, I'm still just an ignorant South Dakota bumpkin like Sibby."
And Varilek would respond:
Vote for me, I'm the same self-righteous elitist like Obama who knows more than you ignorant South Dakota bumpkins.
"And Varilek would respond:
Vote for me, I'm the same self-righteous elitist like Obama who knows more than you ignorant South Dakota bumpkins."
Except Varilek didn't, as Cory pointed out above. Because perhaps he doesn't feel that way about himself or see other people as you suggest he does.
But you did, Steve. Why do you feel that way?
Exactly Taunia. The Noem ad flaunts ignorance as a virtue and disparages education and experience beyond SD borders. We have empirical evidence. Whereas with Sibby we have the usual paranoid/schizophrenic hallucinatory rantings.
Give it a rest, Sib.
Maybe go get a corn dog or something.
And a beer. Or 10.
"But you did, Steve. Why do you feel that way?"
No Fleming did, so what say you Bill?
Have another corn dog, Sibby.
The GOP tweeted about how their video is going viral like it was a good thing.
Gawker had it up today. Andrew Sullivan had it on Hathos Alert. ChrisHayes tweeted the video (as previously stated) At the very least I'm betting his fundraising has gone up.
I wasn't as big on (Varilek) pushing this as some where. But I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. It does 2 things for him. 1 is it makes him look qualified to those independent voters who value education and qualification. Many of those vote on experience (incumbency). It also humanizes him to many others. I mean he threw a party with Jeg, PBR and corndogs, believe it or not, those are pretty popular around South Dakota. Basically makes him cool, instead of dorky.
Justin, I am thrilled to see the SDGOP and Kristi Noem get such well-deserved national scorn, not to mention see such high-profile bloggers as Andrew Sullivan reach the same conclusion as local observers like David Montgomery and I did when the video first surfaced.
I want to believe that local videos going viral nationally can have some impact on the race. But remember Jeff Barth? Unless one can show me that his video raised Barth from 18% to 28%, I'm not going to get too hopeful about this national attention swaying the race. Of course, a key difference this time is that this video isn't a product of one candidate's brilliance in his own favor; it's the GOP fouling up with an attack ad that backfires. Does that create a different effect?
http://inthesetimes.com/ittlist/entry/14093/today_in_laughable_campaign_ads_congressional_candidate_portrayed_as_corn_d/
http://gawker.com/5955371/this-baffling-ad-for-a-south-dakota-congresswoman-is-an-excellent-ad-for-her-democratic-opponent
Fox News, of course, suggests it's the best attack ad of the year: http://nation.foxnews.com/political-ads/2012/10/25/best-attack-ad-year
http://wonkette.com/487888/south-dakota-gop-halloween-tale-of-terror-dirty-hippie-running-for-congress-went-to-cambridge-has-masters-degree
http://foolocracy.com/2012/10/corn-dog-parties-become-issue-in-race-for-south-dakotas-house-seat/