A blast from the past--the Iowa ad that helped sink the Dems in the 2004 general

[eridani]

Every time the ad ran, it said that Dems are wrong and Republicans are right. This is what the Clinton practice of using Rethug memes does--it sinks both her and Obama in the GE.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/16/politics/main588924.shtml

In its third ad in the past two weeks, the secretive 527 group Americans for Jobs, Healthcare & Progressive Values (AJHPV) brings out its harshest attacks to date against Howard Dean.

The ad's sole visual is a slowly moving shot of a Time Magazine cover featuring Osama bin Laden. As the picture zooms in on a close-up of bin Laden’s eyes, the announcer intones, "Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy." The ad concludes by asking Democrats – presumably those who currently support Dean - to "think about that … and think about it now."

<snip>

At the moment, it appears that the group has more than a passing connection with one of Dean's opponents, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt. The group's new president, former Rep. Ed Feighan, has contributed $2,000 to the Gephardt presidential campaign, and former Gephardt fund-raiser David Jones is the group's treasurer. The Washington Post reported that the Gephardt-endorsing Machinists Union has made a "substantial contribution" to AJHPV. Leo Hindery, Gephardt's national finance co-chair, is also a "backer of AJHPV."

More Rethug Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. It cannot ever help a Dem candidate. Use Rethug framing = FAIL every time.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1216-02.htm

The spot opens with a Time magazine cover featuring Osama bin Laden as synthesizer music seemingly out of a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie is heard.

As the camera focuses on Mr. bin Laden's eyes. the following words flash on the screen: "Dangerous World," "Destroy Us," "Dangers Ahead" and "No Experience."

"Americans want a president who can face the dangers ahead," an announcer intones. "But Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience. And Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy. It's time for Democrats to think about that — and think about it now."
<snip>

Mr. Jones said the advertisement was simply emphasizing a crucial campaign issue. "Foreign policy experience and military experience is going to be, if not one of the top issues, the top issue, over the next year," he said. "And the question is going to be raised: Who has the experience to handle it?"

http://www.counterpunch.org/lewis03062004.html

The most stunning single fact to emerge-which should have been covered more heavily nationwide and was first broken by the Web site PoliticsNJ.com-was that disgraced former Senator Robert Torricelli, severely admonished for his unsavory campaign finance practices and forced to leave the Senate, had quietly donated $50,000 from his old Senate campaign account to Americans for Jobs. Torricelli reportedly also is a fundraiser for Senator Kerry's presidential campaign.

And guess who's turned up like a bad penny pulling the exact same crap in 2008? Someone who wants the Dem candidate, whoever it is, to lose in November.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-nix/history-lesson-for-robert_b_92033.html

Let's start with the fact that you walked away from your U.S. Senate seat with your tail between your legs in 2002, after being implicated in bribery and campaign finance scandals. How much tainted money did you raise for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, as one of her biggest supporters and chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee? Your many years in Washington, including 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and your term in the Senate, sure don't bode well for that experience argument in the Clinton establishment arsenal.

You certainly didn't leave office with any kind of remorse about the wrong-doing we know about -- the money and gifts you took from Korean-American businessman David Chang. You left because the polls predicted you'd be blown out by your virtually unknown Republican opponent -- in New Jersey -- a state that hadn't elected a Republican in more than 30 years. But with your fund-raising prowess, the Clintons made sure you stayed in the fold, didn't they?

The very next year, in 2003, you were raising money for John Kerry, an establishment pick for presidential nominee in 2004. Kerry (I hope unknowingly) eventually became the party's nominee in no small part because of your efforts to knee-cap insurgent candidate Howard Dean, most pointedly with your $50,000 donation to the 527 PAC, Americans for Jobs and Health Care. That money helped to pay for those precious ads that juxtaposed Dean with Osama bin Laden in an opprobrious and successful attempt to raise doubts about Dean's foreign policy ideas. It was your version of the red phone tactic -- although you tried to keep your participation on the down-low, because back then it was considered bad form for surrogates of Democratic candidates to openly attack fellow Democratic candidates.

Tell us, Torch. I know you're a proud HillRaiser, but are you also behind the misleading ads aired in Ohio and Texas (and soon Pennsylvania), by the new pro-Hillary 527, the American Leadership Project? Since FEC filings from ALP appear not to disclose all of the group's funders, I'm left to wonder whether you're a silent donor, still funneling your old Senate campaign "trust fund" and other cash into coffers supporting your establishment buddies' shadier activities. This new 527 sure looks like something you'd have a hand in.

[eridani]

1. So, nobody thinks that Dems agreeing with Rethugs that we are a country--

--permanently committed to an endless war is a problem?