2012 Campaign Ads

[erfalf]

Best quote regarding the latest add.

"Voting is like sex," Romney's a "bull*****er," "Romnesia," "Big Bird." I thought you had to be older than 15 to be President.

https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/261605469125214208

[Townsend]

Best quote regarding the latest add.

Gotta keep it simple or she won't be able to explain it to the audience.

[Hoss]

Gotta keep it simple or she won't be able to explain it to the audience.

Doh!

[Townsend]

Lena Dunham Ad Brings Out the Crazies

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/10/26/lena_s_dunham_s_your_first_time_video_sex_joke_sparks_conservative_hysteria.html

Lena Dunham has done a ad for the Obama campaign, aimed at young female voters, where she cheekily explains that your "first time" should be with Obama, because he actually supports your rights. She means first time voting, but of course the joke is that it sounds like she's talking about your first time having sex. Dunham's considerable charm drives the joke home.

But really, what makes this entire thing so funny is the unhinged, crazy reaction it's gotten from the right. It's as if the Obama team is the ultimate troll, expertly goosing conservative anxieties about the growing ranks of young single women with ambitions outside of getting married. Not that it's hard to figure out how to push their buttons: Throw up an accomplished single woman who doesn't blush at the mention of sex, and watch the frothing begin.

First up: Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review, whose reaction has a nice dose of "nuh-uh, my mom says that the real cool kids are the ones who don't do it" to it:

Beyond awkward. I'll borrow her "super uncool" and raise it. Of course, in its way it is totally appropriate for the administration that thinks all women care about is mandated birth control, abortion, and sterilization coverage and that those of us with moral objections are bitterly clinging to an outdated understanding of what's healthy, for democracy (religious liberty), in our lives.

Reading conservative responses to this ad, I realized how similar grown adults in this country can be to middle school Twilight fans as they picture losing one's virginity with the same combination of fear and cheesy romanticism. Take, for instance, Ben Shapiro of Big Government:

So she chose to do it for the first time with Barack Obama, since he "cares about and understands women." In fact, he understands them so well that he exploits them for insane commercials comparing losing your virginity with voting. Obama has young daughters. But that didn't stop him from releasing this commercial. Because this is what Obama thinks of your daughters. This is Obama's official campaign ad. Paid for with his campaign money. Distributed by his campaign. If this ad were any more demeaning to women—who apparently care only about having sex, if you listen to Lena "You Want To Do It" Dunham—it would be produced by Bill Maher and star Bill Clinton.

Are we talking about politics now, or is this yet another instance of a khaki pants-loving weenie announcing that women are broken because they pick the sexy guys over the "nice" guys that will respect you into a life with four kids and no orgasms?

My favorite reaction, however, came from this diarist at Red State, who characterizes Dunham as having been raised in an "over-sexualized household" and whose post neatly sums up why this sort of trolling-with-single-women works every time.

There seems to be no low to which President Obama will sink in his desperate attempt to win reelection. One has to wonder, is there any point at which the main stream media and the public get some self-respect and toss out this loser? First he asked for your wedding gifts, then your yard sales and now he has asked for your daughters.

Your daughters. What more is there to say? Sexy young white women are the rightful property of Republican men, and Obama is stealing them from you and filling their heads with this ridiculous notion that they own themselves. Of course, the cause and effect process is being reversed here. The truth is that women already have heads full of their own notions. The Obama campaign is simply following their lead and, as you do in politics, giving the voters what they want.

[erfalf]

The Obama campaign is simply following their lead and, as you do in politics, giving the voters what they want.

Free sex. So that's what the author thinks about Obama voters?

In a nutshell that is why libs have zero problem with that. I get it, it is looney time, but to pretend that this ad did not truely offend real people is just as ludicrous as those quoted in this article.

[Townsend]

Free sex. So that's what the author thinks about Obama voters?

In a nutshell that is why libs have zero problem with that. I get it, it is looney time, but to pretend that this ad did not truely offend real people is just as ludicrous as those quoted in this article.

Outraged huh? 

Miss O'hara has the vapors.

You and yours see so much.  It must be what someone wishes to see.

Lighthearted commentary is pornographic to some apparently.

[erfalf]

Outraged huh? 

Miss O'hara has the vapors.

You and yours see so much.  It must be what someone wishes to see.

Lighthearted commentary is pornographic to some apparently.

Not pornographic, just degrading to women. But only righties can hold women down, right?

[Hoss]

Not pornographic, just degrading to women. But only righties can hold women down, right?

Yeah, like 'legitimate rape'

How about this last moron Mourdock and his stupid screed?

Last I checked Santorum was a Republican.  He also thinks contraception should be outlawed.  Not just unavailable per healthcare provider, but outlawed.

I don't think I know of one Democrat who holds that belief.  Not one willing to admit it anyway.  If so, they're a closet Republican.

[erfalf]

You guys are right, this kind of ad/thinking really is just nothing.

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/nation/mitt-romney-gaining-back-womens-vote-according-to-new-poll

[erfalf]

I don't think I know of one Democrat who holds that belief.  Not one willing to admit it anyway.  If so, they're a closet Republican.

You never cease to amaze me. 

[Hoss]

You never cease to amaze me. 

Feeling's mutual buddy.  I'm not the only one on here with that sentiment about you, either.

[Townsend]

You guys are right, this kind of ad/thinking really is just nothing.

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/nation/mitt-romney-gaining-back-womens-vote-according-to-new-poll

Obscurity.  You have found it.  Congratulations.

[erfalf]

Obscurity.  You have found it.  Congratulations.

http://ap-gfkpoll.com/uncategorized/findings-from-our-latest-poll

Better?

Do you even read them or just assume you know better?

[Hoss]

http://ap-gfkpoll.com/uncategorized/findings-from-our-latest-poll

Better?

Do you even read them or just assume you know better?

Wow, someone must be looking in the mirror today.

[Townsend]

Do you even read them or just assume you know better?

Do you read them?

As the election nears, Romney has been playing down social issues and trying to project a more moderate stance on matters such as abortion in an effort to court female voters. The AP-GfK poll, taken Friday through Tuesday, shows Romney pulling even with Obama among women at 47-47 after lagging by 16 points a month earlier.

But now his campaign is grappling with the fallout from a comment by a Romney-endorsed Senate candidate in Indiana, who said that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape "that's something God intended."

Romney quickly distanced himself from the remark by Republican Richard Mourdock. But Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the incident was "a reminder that a Republican Congress working with a Republican President Mitt Romney would feel that women should not be able to make choices about their own health care."

A renewed focus on social issues would be an unwelcome development for Romney: Among female likely voters, 55 percent say Obama would make the right decisions on women's issues, compared with 41 percent who think Romney would.

It means that women find your guy offensive and scary unless he hides his real intent.  He has to be deceitful in order for women to vote for him.