Minnesota’s DFL party is beside itself at the runaway popularity of Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. (In recent polling, Pawlenty scored 68% favorability, with even most Democrats approving of his performance.) So they’ve decided to go on the attack, even though Pawlenty isn’t up for re-election for three years.
The DFL has just released a 30-second attack ad which tries to blame Pawlenty for the release from prison of sexual predators. The ad is so lame that this column by the Star Tribune’s Doug Grow, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, is titled: “Is DFL losing grip on reality?”.
As described by Grow, the Democrats’ ad features “a closeup of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s eyes watching as Minnesota streets are filled with sexual predators.” Grow writes:
Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the ad sends a powerful message. The message?
“The DFL is seriously lacking in strategic intelligence,” Jacobs said. “This is Exhibit G.”
Here’s how self-defeating the ad is: Ron Eibensteiner, the chairman of the Republican Party, isn’t really upset by it.
“I had two reactions to it,” said Einbensteiner. “One, I chuckled and said to myself, ‘How stupid.’ My second reaction was that it was incredibly bad manners.”
But mostly, Eibensteiner is smiling. Many more DFL ads like this, and his party won’t have to buy ads at all.
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