Beshear Ad Gets Disclaimer

Gov. Steve Beshear's radio spot on the Louisville Christian radio station, WJIE, now comes with a disclaimer from the station. Immediately preceding the ad, an announcer states that the following ad "does not necessarily reflect the views" of WJIE.

I have listened to this station for years and do not recall anything similar. Then again, it is not a station on which Democrats typically advertise.

WJIE is financed in large part from listener contributions. It's a socially conservative station that targets a socially conservative audience: the dreaded "religious right."

Apparently enough members in that audience, and perhaps some of the WJIE staff, did not appreciate Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear touting her husbands religious bona fides as he runs for reelection.

About That $2K Deductible

Sometimes political ads come with unintended consequences. That may be the case with Jack Conway's Medi-scare ads. Conway keeps pounding Rand Paul with ads containing sound-bites, in which Paul suggests that a $2,000 deductible for Medicare might be a good idea.

Notwithstanding Conway's attempt to scare seniors, Paul has made clear that his comments would not apply to current Medicare recipients. Rather, Paul has endeavored to start an adult conversation about how to reform entitlements going forward. Most seniors who are paying attention will grasp that distinction. So the ad will not convince seniors to vote for Conway unless they were already predisposed

Here's the unintended consequence: seniors are not the only people listening to the ad, and it is back-firing young voters.

It turns out that some -- maybe many -- young people think the $2,000 deductible is good idea. I sat with an 18-year old, first-time voter as Conway's Medi-scare ad came on for the billionth time. And the 18-year old commented that he thought a $2,000 deductible made sense.

He gets that the only way that he and his generation will ever see a penny of Medicare benefits is if the entire system is overhauled. And he looks at the hypothetical amount of $2,000 and notices that it is fraction of the $5,000 deductible his family pays for healthcare. So that $2,000 amount with which Conway tries to frighten voters, it actually sounds reasonable to many.

Conway Blew It

Rand Paul's candidacy for the U.S. Senate has been spiraling downwards the last few weeks. Due to his own gaffes, he is polling behind the Generic Congressional Ballot. He does not have nearly the presence of yard signs that he did in the primary, and few bumper stickers. Enthusiasm for him was waning.

Then Jack Conway -- who was beginning to look like he had a shot -- turned the election in Paul's favor by running a stupid ad that questions whether Paul is a Christian.

The Conway spot will go down in the history of political advertising as one of the slimiest ever. It took a college prank from 30 years ago and extrapolated upon it to suggest that Rand Paul worships false idols.

But as Paul angrily retorted in last night's debate, according to Joe Arnold,

Those who stoop to the level of attacking a man's religious beliefs to gain higher office, I believe that they should remember that it does not profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul in the process.

This was a turning-point for some of us who did not support Paul in the primary. This election is no longer about electing Rand Paul so much as it is about seeing Jack Conway lose.

Dueling Medi-Scare Ads

We've reached that part of the electoral cycle when candidates simultaneously accuse each other of lying about a particular issue.

On the issue of Rand Paul supporting a $2000 deductible for Medicare, it is a false conflict. Paul was very candid in the Fox debate Sunday (see post below) by stating that Medicare needs drastic reforms to continue to exist. But Paul was adamant that any such reform cannot, must not apply to current recipients. This deductible is a reform that younger voters may bear.

That Jack Conway ad, in which a bunch of grumpy old people complain about Rand Paul imposing a $2000 deductible against them is therefore dishonest; this group is "grand-fathered" from any such reform, so to speak. And Conway knows it.

Likewise, the follow-up Conway ad that quotes Paul calling for a $2000 deductible is beside the point. Paul has reiterated that such a deductible is a very real possibility for younger voters; indeed, it is their only hope for ever seeing a Medicare check. But none of the sound-bites in the Conway ad quote Paul as applying the deductible to those Seniors who now enjoy Medicare.

That's why the Demo-blogs misquote the Paul ad as stating that Paul claims he "never supported higher Medicare deductibles." Note that the end of the Paul quote drops the operative words "for Seniors."

An Even Better Lally Ad

Hot Air has linked another Todd Lally ad that features the best of John Yarmuth, including that unforgettable line at the Obamacare Town Hall, when Yarmuth responded to the question "How are we going to pay for it ?" by admitting that he did not know, and appeared not to care.

Well, it's not like he's paying for Obamacare with his money; he's paying with ours.

I have always appreciated Yarmuth's honesty. He has never hidden the fact that he is to the left of Obama-Reid-Pelosi. To the contrary, he is proud of his ideology.

The choice for voters in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District is very clear. This latest Lally ad uses Yarmuth's own voice to remind voters that a vote for Yarmuth is a vote for bigger government, higher taxes, unsustainable deficits and less freedom.

Yeah, It's Mourning

Here's the link to the YouTube ad, "Mourning in America," featured in Kathleen Parker's latest column. It makes me too sad to say anything more about it. Watch for yourself.

New NRSC Ad

The interesting thing about this NRSC ad is that it steals a page from Rand Paul's play book. Paul's best line has been, in response to the accusation that he's extreme, that what's extreme is our debt. The NRSC extends that to include the Mosque at Ground Zero, health care and all the other excesses of the Obama-Reid-Pelosi triumvirate.

Anyone who was shocked that Paul won -- note that his ideas and rhetoric are now fueling the NRSC. The maverick has co-opted the establishment. I understand that the NRSC has decided to catch the Paul wave, but the lack of creativity in so doing alarms me.

Kelley Paul Defends Rand

Rand Paul's wife Kelley has made an ad to take on the media for being mean to Rand about forming his own opthamaologist board (of which Kelly is vice president).

Jake at Page One says it reminds him of a hostage video. I think it looks like one of those commercials that try to ape Desperate Housewives.

In any event, the ad suggests that the Paul campaign, despite the turnover of personnel, is still not ready for Prime Time. The video was poorly produced. The camera work was worse than amateurish (there's this new technology called the zoom in: use it). The audio contained the repetitious noise of shuffling cue cards. And the cue cards apparently were held so high above the camera that poor Mrs. Paul looked heavenward the whole time, which made a weird ad even weirder.

Even more basic, however, was the decision to run the ad in the first place. It has only prolonged a story that would quickly die otherwise. It made the Pauls look like whiners. And it didn't exactly enhance Rand Paul's looming masculine presence to send his wife out to fight for him.

Not a good showing for the GOP nominee.

Rainy Days and Election Days

Grayson's get out the vote effort has shown more passion than his ads. I say the rain helps Grayson more than Paul today

No matter the outcome, I am just grateful for an end to the robo-calls and mailers. And the TV ads, none of which was particularly good. Why can't Kentucky candidates do political ads like this guy in Alabama? Finally, a muscular conservatism.

Save Now

H/t: Hot Air

American Future Fund Targets Rand Paul

The American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization, is running an attack ad against Rand Paul that hits him on energy, agriculture, national security and unemployment. According to the AFF website, the ad airs today through next week.

The American Freedom Fund is a multi-state advocacy group that focuses on conservative and free market principles.

About Those Poll Numbers

The Rand Paul campaign boasts that it leads by 20 points, but its most recent TV spot calls that into question. No candidate who is truly up by that wide a margin would run an ad this negative -- particularly when Trey Grayson is running such a positive ad.

But the ads are not just different in tone. Grayson's ad features Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who won an overwhelming electoral victory just last year and remains very popular among Kentucky Republicans. McConnell, after all, did more than anyone else to transform Kentucky into a Red State.

Senate Candidates Dueling TV Ads

Trey Grayson launched his third ad of the week and Rand Paul responded with his own ad -- with Barack Obama playing the part of Willie Horton.

Grayson's television ad portrays Paul as a weak appeaser by quoting Paul promising to balance the budget by cutting military spending. It's a pity for Paul that so few al Qaeda operatives are registered to vote in Kentucky, as they would no doubt agree that the U.S. military budget should be gutted.

Well, it didn't take long for Rand Paul (who is rolling in dough from out of state donors) to launch his own national security ad. Paul may still lead in the polls, but he has shifted to reactive mode. Grayson is setting the agenda. Paul's reflexive launch of an ad every time Grayson runs one is making Paul sound like Ethel Merman singing "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."

As for the substance of ads, Paul is now on the record, on camera, as stating that he would cut military spending. Not a smart move when we are fighting two wars plus the threat of terrorist attacks here. Grayson's ad is therefore quite powerful.

Rand Paul's ad, not so much. He reminds us that in his youth, Trey Grayson voted for Bill Clinton. Hello! Ronald Reagan was a Democrat in his youth, as well. Grayson has grown up. He is a conservative. No one seriously thinks that Washington would make him go all wobbly and start voting with Harry Reid. Paul's argument does not work because too many Kentuckians know Grayson first-hand and know him to be a solid conservative.

Paul makes a second point in his ad, and this one is even more specious than the Bill Clinton jab. Paul quotes a sound-bite of Grayson saying that as Secretary of State and a citizen he will do his part to work with President Barack Obama.

The Paul ad concludes ominously that Grayson and Obama are "dangerous allies" just as a giant head shot of Obama appears over Grayson's shoulder! Seriously, Paul is treating Obama like he's Willie Horton. I'm no Obama friend, but Paul's disrespect of the President of the United States is staggering.

As for Paul's point that Grayson is an Obama collaborator, for all of Paul's professed love of the constitution, he forgets that public servants like Gayson take a oath of office that requires Grayson to "support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth." Obama is the duly elected head of the executive branch. Maybe Paul should re-read the Constitution of the United States, particularly article II, section 1: "the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America."

For Paul to attempt to tie Grayson to Obama because Grayson recognizes the president's constitutional authority is just more of the peculiar, illogic that has come to characterize the Paul campaign.

Joe Arnold reports that Paul has reserved air time leading up to the May primary to run many, many ads. From what he has run so far, Paul's ads are back-firing. The more Kentuckians learn about this guy, the less they will like this legacy candidate son of wacko Ron Paul.

Rand Paul's First Ad: National Security

Dr. Rand Paul has released his first campaign ad, and like Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's speech earlier today, it focuses on terrorism.

Paul flatly contradicts Trey Grayson's repeated attacks that Paul is "dangerously" naive on how to treat enemy combatants and fight Islamofascists.

In the ad, Paul says that he would keep "prisoners" off U.S. soil. Earlier in the campaign, Paul had said that Gitmo's enemy combatants should be returned to their country of origin. The Obama administration recently proposed moving Gitmo's enemy combatants to Illinois, a policy Grayson has criticized.

Paul also said that "prisoners of war, enemy combatants and terrorists captured on the battlefield should be tried in military court and not brought to the U.S. I do not believe they should be tried in civilian court." Grayson has made that point forcefully and repeatedly; Paul, not so much.

It is unclear from Paul's ad whether Paul approves of the Obama administration interrogating the Christmas Day Bomber like a common criminal, reading him Miranda rights and providing him with a taxpayer-funded attorney. The Christmas Day Bomber was captured by fellow passengers on a flight bound for Detroit; does that constitute the "battlefield" in Paul's analysis?

That Paul felt the need to respond to Grayson's attacks is implicit acknowledgment that foreign policy and national security are the two issues that distinguish the front-runners in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate -- and are the issues on which Paul is most vulnerable.

Bruce's Hound Dogs Turn On Him

Here's the latest McConnell ad. I like the dogs, but I'm betting my boys will prefer the shots of Bruce's private jets and fancy cars.

DSCC Spreads Wealth to Kentucky TV Stations

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is still sulking about Tom Daschle's defeat four years ago to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D); that's why the DSCC has dumped $2 million in Kentucky in a vain attempt to defeat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, according to The Hill.

That looks downright stingy compared to the $ 18.5 million that the DSCC has spent on television advertising against Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) Bruce Lunsford should call his buddy Chuck Schumer and complain.

The Hill notes that Democrats

have been waiting to give Republicans a taste of their own medicine after then-Republican leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) broke an unwritten rule of Senate civility and targeted Daschle for defeat. Frist took it a step further by traveling to South Dakota to campaign against Daschle - a shock to some of his Senate colleagues.

Democrats were denied the opportunity to directly retaliate against Frist, who retired from the chamber in 2006, but now appear to be settling for McConnell, instead.

DSCC chairman Charles Schumer told reporters Wednesday that he had no qualms about targeting McConnell because of Daschle’s experience.

Schumer's lie of the day: "Schumer insisted, however, that he had not targeted McConnell because of his leadership position." Right, and tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch and bring toys to all the good children.

David Boswell Misrepresents Brett Guthrie's Position on Social Security

Democratic Congressional candidate David Boswell is running a new ad that accuses Republican Brett Guthrie of wanting to privatize social security.

However, Guthrie said not once but twice that he opposes privatizing social security; he was clear and unequivocal. Boswell well knows Guthrie's position because Boswell was there (at debates in Bowling Green and Elizabethtown) and even said that he and Guthrie appear to be "on the same page" on the issue.

In a season of ads that have twisted words and records, Boswell's latest ad appears to be the most dishonest.

Kentucky Union Boss Becomes The Face Of Card Check

Kentucky AFL-CIO union president Bill Londrigan was caught on camera assaulting the cameraman at a family parade earlier this summer; the footage aired as an NRSC ad here. Londrigan is a big supporter of Bruce Lunsford in his race against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and has criticized McConnell for opposing legislation that would strip employees of private ballots in union elections.

Now, according to Hotair, footage of Londrigan -- "Union Boss Bill" -- may pop up in other states to put a quasi-human face on the "card check" issue.

Minnesotans are hoping that U.S. Chamber of Commerce will air a Londrigan ad there, where Republican Senator Norm Coleman is in a tight race against Al Franken. Not surprisingly, Coleman opposes "card check" as anti-democratic, whereas Franken supports it.

Kentuckians are renowned for our horses and our Bourbon, but our union bosses, not so much. Who would have guessed that of all the union heads around the entire country, Londrigan would become the face of "card check," the guy who wants to look over a worker's shoulder when she votes on whether the company should unionize. Personally, I'm prouder of our horses and Bourbon.

Boswell Called Out on DCCC Ad

The Bowling Green Daily News took Democratic Congressional candidate David Boswell to task for an ad -- the second such one -- by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The ad accuses Brett Guthrie of "shipping jobs to Mexico."

That is not so, according to the paper, and by failing to disavow it, Boswell condones the lie:

At this stage of the game we have to assume that 2nd Congressional candidate David Boswell condones a second set of television advertisements that say his opponent, 2nd Congressional candidate, Brett Guthrie’s company sent jobs to Mexico.

As you might recall several weeks ago the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a television advertisement saying that Guthrie’s company, Trace Die Cast, was shipping work to Mexico that should have stayed in Kentucky.

We took issue with Boswell at the time and now we take issue with him and the DCCC again for running a more recent advertisement saying that Trace Die Cast shipped work to Mexico. In the advertisement, Guthrie is heard speaking and a caption said that he sent jobs to Mexico.Mr. Boswell, this ad is simply not true and you have had plenty of opportunity’s to condemn these ads and tell the DCCC to stop running them, and instead you have sat idle while they continue.

That is a real shame.

During debates with Guthrie, Boswell has said he didn’t know the context of the advertisement, but he himself continues to appear in the ads.

This could suggest that he is working in lockstep with the DCCC.

The truth of the matter is that Trace had a contract to make a part and ship it to Mexico. All of the work was done at Trace Die Cast by employees of the company and shipped to Mexico and the part didn’t come back to Trace Die Cast.

Mr. Boswell, who has been in politics for a long time, should know better than this. He is allowing the DCCC, which knows nothing about the 2nd Congressional District in Kentucky, to run these ads that distort an American success story embodied in the Guthrie family.

Why doesn’t Boswell contact the DCCC and tell them to stop these inaccurate, distorted ads?

One can only speculate that Boswell condones the advertisements and is willing to ignore these distortions if they aid his campaign.

It is past time for David Boswell to admit that this advertisement was wrong and inaccurate and be a stand up guy and tell the DCCC to pull it immediately.

The residents of Bowling Green don't know how lucky they are to have an alternative to the lockstep liberalism of the Courier-Journal. Can you imagine the C-J condemning the DSCC, for example, for its smear of Mitch McConnell?

NYT Hates McConnell Ad

Any day a conservative makes the New York Times mad -- now that's a good day. The Old Grey Lady loathes Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's internet ad (discussed below). The ad criticizes DSCC Chair Chuck Schumer for his far left positions on every conceivable issue. Schumer, of course, hand-picked Bruce Lunsford to run against McConnell, a point the Times ignores.

The so-called Paper of Record, bizarrely, accuses McConnell of being anti-Semitic, because the ad shows Schumer's picture surrounded by dollar signs.

Here's a news flash for the Times: Schumer and the DSCC have raked in $45 million from investment bankers in the last two election cycles. Schumer took money from the Wall Street tycoons and is spending it to run ads against McConnell in Kentucky. That's the reason that dollar signs swim around Schumer's face; his religion is irrelevant.

Displaying the lack of humor that has caused its circulation to drop ten percent last quarter, the Times even complains that the narrator of McConnell's ad says "badda bing" in a New York accent. Pinch Sulzberger's is hurt and offended.

The Times has overplayed its hand. By ranting about the McConnell ad, the paper has given free publicity to an ad that hasn't even appeared on the air yet.

It is not clear if the ad — which is now making its way across the Internet — will be put up on television. Mr. McConnell may be counting on it spreading virally, and producing publicity as people start to react to it.

If the ad was not already viral, thanks to the Times it will be soon. That saves the McConnell campaign from spending money on advertising. Good job, Pinch.

Lunsford's Latest Lies

It took Bruce Lunsford a good ten days to decide whether he is for the bailout or against it. Then he noticed that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had voted for it and voila, Lunsford runs a new ad attacking the bailout and accusing McConnell of personally causing the credit crisis.

The problem is that even the leaders of Lunsford's parties -- Reid, Pelosi and Obama -- all supported the bailout. So did Sen. Chuck Schumer, the head of the DSCC who recruited Lunsford to run. In fact, Schumer says that the bailout was necessary to avoid another depression.

Perhaps Lunsford's most brazen lie is the portion of his new ad when he shows McConnell with President Bush and in the voice over complains about legislation that modernized the banking and commodities industries -- legislation that was signed by Bill Clinton, not Bush. Either Lunsford cannot distinguish between the likenesses and policies of Clinton and Bush, or Lunsford is just flat out lying.

Lunsford also complains that the bailout lets CEOs line their pockets. To the contrary, McConnell made sure that the bailout includes strict limits on executive compensation to prevent abuses on the taxpayers' dime. In any event, Lunsford is projecting when he gripes about CEO fat cats who enrich themselves on Wall Street. Lunsford's financial disclosure form makes clear that he's exactly the sort of "high net worth" individual whose portfolio includes hedge funds unavailable to the rest of us plebians in our 401 (k)s. Perhaps Lunsford's real problem with the bailout is that McConnell's strict limits on executive compensation hit too close to home for Lunsford.