Increasingly strange but relatively decent
The saga of the MoveOn ads just keeps getting stranger. The first ad, “Dumping Billions” did contain some inaccuracies, in our opinion (as well as that of Channel 13). The second act “Caught Red-Handed” was tough (and perhaps melodramatic) but truthful and fair. Here’s where things start to get strange. You may recall that the Kuhl campaign claimed that Channel 13 pulled the “Dumping Billions” commercial — a claim both Channel 13 and MoveOn.org deny. Now, Kuhl is claiming that all the local stations have pulled the second (and much less controversial ad) as well:
“We have contacted all the (television) media outlets in the district and told them the ads were false,” Kuhl said. “The ads are no longer running.”
MoveOn begs to differ:
“None of the ads have been pulled,” Braiman said. “They have not been taken off the air.”
Then they go back and forth a bit on Kuhl’s record. Kuhl, while he is most likely wrong about the ads being pulled (I don’t want to call it a “lie” — let’s cut him some slack, he’s on pain medication from his hip replacement surgery) does refrain from trying to link Massa to the ads:
Asked if he thought his Democratic opponent, Eric Massa of Corning, was complicit in the attack ads, Kuhl said he has no information that the Massa campaign is linked to MoveOn.org.
Update: Maybe Kuhl is just talking about the first ad (”Dumping Billions”) — that only ran for a couple days as far as I know.
Well said.
I’m probably the only one to say this at this point, but I’m already tired of the MoveOn ads. And the Kuhl ad in response to the MoveOn ads is excellent.
The escalation into negativity isn’t going to help Massa.
I tend to think that the Kuhl campaign’s strange reaction to the ads will hurt them. Why are they running around saying they’ve been pulled when they haven’t? Coming on the heels of his talking about Iraqi farmers peacefully tending to their water buffalo while generals were talking about a descent into civil war, it doesn’t look good. It looks like a pattern of being out-to-lunch.
I think if he had reacted differently to tha ads, he the whole thing might have ended up helping him.