At the California Republican Party convention in Santa Clara today, failed CEO Carly Fiorina launched another of her campaign’s ridiculous and, in this case, even offensive web video ads. This one portrays Barbara Boxer as a blimp (because she’s “full of hot air” – get it?!) terrorizing California from above.
The ad reaches new lows in both the pathetic and the bizarre. It is also deeply self-contradictory and a classic case of projection.
In the ad, Fiorina argues that Boxer is a “failure” because she’s only had 3 bills passed in 18 years. What isn’t stated is that for most of that time, Boxer served under either a Republican Senate (1995 to 2007) or a Republican president (2001 to 2009). Only in her first two years in the Senate, 1993 and 1994, and this last year, 2009, did she serve with a Democratic Congressional majority AND a Democratic president. While there, Boxer is poised to deliver health care reform and climate change legislation.
Apparently Fiorina thinks that’s bad. Is she afraid Boxer will rain down health insurance subsidies on the masses from her blimp?
The ad also mocks Boxer’s claim that climate change is one of the most serious national security crises America faces. By mocking that claim, Fiorina appears to be outing herself as a global warming denier. I’m sure that Central Valley farmers suffering from drought, residents made homeless by wildfire, and San Francisco Bay Area businesses concerned about rising sea levels have nothing to worry about.
There’s more nonsense in this ad, which has to be seen to be believed. The apparent thinking behind this ad is that to win the Republican nomination for US Senate, one has to prove they can lob the best insults at Barbara Boxer, rather than explain to Californians why right-wing economic policies will somehow work this time when they’ve failed every other time they’ve been attempted.
Once you’re done laughing, give some money to Barbara Boxer at ActBlue. As ridiculous as these ads are, Fiorina clearly has the money to keep putting these messages about Boxer out to the public, and that’s something to take very seriously.
They really do live in another universe, these people.
They do realize they are running in California, right?
So Fiorina’s more depending on online media picking it up and hyping it, no?
Being so outrageously over-the-top that people are compelled to watch it.
And this is a classic “Big Lie” attack. Carly’s biggest weakness is her abysmal performance at HP, so her logical propaganda angle is to accuse Barbara Boxer of poor performance, while lying shamelessly about her success at HP.
I’ve long thought the best attack on Carly is to reveal that on every ink-jet printer you bought from HP when she was there, Carly cheated you by giving you a partially filled cartridge, so you would have to go out and buy new ones right away. That was her approach to business. It’s her approach to government. Empty ink cartridges. Empty promises.
I’m a Progressive and certainly no fan of “Failurina”…and this ad against Barbara Boxer is trash, of course.
But, I’m guessing that if Ms. Boxer wants to get elected again in Nov. she should be spending all next week making sure the HCR bill includes a robust Public Option or a Medicare Buy In for all. And she should be very public about attaching her name to that effort.
Signing a letter written by another Senator and hoping that provides her with pro-PO cover is not enough. Progressives and other Democrats understand that signing a letter when you do not expect the letters pledge to come up is meaningless.
Ms. Boxer voted for the flawed Senate HCR bill that includes increased limitations on those who are pro-choice. She’s voted for continued war funding and she voted for Bush’s bailout of wealthy bankers.
She needs to ask herself where in California, outside of Orange County, she sees a constituency for right-wing and Corporatist votes like that.
I understand that some Democrats are naive enough to believe it’s better to have a Democrat in office who won’t represent them than it is to have a Republican in office who won’t represent them. I can even see some slight logic in that in some cases, however flawed the position.
However, I believe in payback at the polls when a Senators’ votes become as outlandishly outside the values and wishes of their constituency as Ms. Boxers have.
And, I expect many other Democrats will believe in just staying home in November.