The Ad Wars

As the midterm elections approach millions of Americans face important decisions. The question of who to support on election day is of vital importance not only to their home state or district, but to the nation's agenda as a whole. And so, as always, it falls to shadowy special interest groups to produce television ads that tell us all how we should vote.

One of the more interesting controversies has surrounded Michael J Fox's ad dealing with stem cell research. This ad I find pretty respectable - it dealt with a single and definable policy, the person appearing in the ad had a vested interest in the policy, and to the extent that it appealed to emotions rather than reason it appealed to hope, not fear. The reaction of Rush Limbaugh to this ad (which he has since apologized for) was to demean it, and to insinuate that Fox was faking or exaggerating his symptoms. This reaction was more emblamatic of the ad wars in that it did not refer to a policy but instead dealt with character, it had no evidence, and relied on fear rather than hope.

Another shadowy group has recently pulled an ad from Tennessee, where Harold Ford was poised to win the Senate seat in an amazing race, becoming the first black Senator from a Southern state in god knows how long. His lead has since slipped dramatically, and the race is getting close. The Democrats are alleging that the ad (seen here) is racist because the blond white girl tells Harold to call her. This is just downright silly in my opinion. The ad would have worked just as well if it was a black girl in that spot - it was making fun of his attendance at a Playboy party and had nothing to do with race. I personally think that the Democrats raised the race issue in order to try and reverse the falling poll numbers of their candidate. And hey, it worked for a little bit, but it's still part of the dirty ad war as far as I'm concerned.