in new Bush ad he compares himself to Hitler -- inoculation !?!?!?

[rivertext]

http://www.georgewbush.com/

Before Bush/Cheney 2004 come to their senses and remove this ad from the front page of their web site check it out. It features a film of Hitler screaming from the podium (shown with subtitles that mimick a Bush speech) and twice it cross dissolves an image of Hitler into Bush, compares Hitler's war crimes of 1945 to Bush's foreign policy of 2003 and all this surrounded by the most well know faces of the Democratic party expressing an outrage at Bush that you didn't think they were capable of.

Is that finally is there only defense, that the truth about what they have done cannot be spoken without a sense of outrage, but "this is not a time for pessism and rage..."

http://www.georgewbush.com/

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. OMG, this is one of the best Democratic ads I've seen!!!!

Beautiful!!! MKJ

[billbuckhead]

2. They've reduced compassion to a button on a homepage

Let them let Al Gore nail them at the top of his lungs. Gore complains that Bush has reduced our image worldwide to that of buttfreepingtorturers who break little girls bones in front of their brothers. That's not something Hitler espoused. Rove thinks that people don't listen to the sound during commercials and what they see is what they believe. That could be why they hate and fear Farenheit 911 so much. It's their kind of media weapon refined a bit and thrown back in Rove's lap.

[deek]

3. not anymore

must have been a great hack

on edit: oopsie...I had clicked on "Pessimism" video.

Clicked on this link to get to the right video: http://www.georgewbush.com/Default.aspx

[mzmolly]

4. Golly gee wiz, I thought George was a *uniter*

:shrug:

Guess that's as true as the WMD claim?

George, sometimes WE HAVE A F-ING RIGHT TO BE ANGRY! This is one of those times. :hi:

Good analysis of the video btw.

Perhaps we should pretend to be stupid freeps and write letters making the same assumption you suggest?

ie.

Dear Georgebush.com

I am ofendid by the outrajus ad you have on our good prezident. You are comparin him to hitler and i dont think thats realy fare! sure hitler was a strong principled leader but our comander and chef wil shurly win the war on iraq. hitler lawst the war, rimember? and i rezent yer comparisen becuze george buhs is no lozer, hes a weiner!

bubba wideload - amerikun an proud. :P

[mom cat]

5. Evidently Dicky didn't hear about this policy before yelling fuck.

Now Dicky, "This is not the time for pessimism and rage!"
I just love it when they lose it. It was much worse than the Dean Scream. Bet you a plug nickel that the corporate press doesn't smear him like Dean.

[codegreen]

6. this is the weirdest fucking ad i have ever seen. i mean, what the hell?

what kind of campaign strategy was this?

it's getting more like the twilight zone everyday...

[Ducklord]

7. I get what they're TRYING to do...

...but sweet merciful Rao is that a botched piece of work.

They're TRYING to portray us Democrats as a bunch of frothing at the mouth loonies, dragging the national discourse down with the "over-the-top" behavior of our spokepeople. As ad themes go, it's a perfectly valid approach.

Unfortunately, the ad trips up on a number of fronts:

-- Kerry himself doesn't seem all that "wild-eyed" in the ad. In fact, his clip is the most sedate one of the bunch, which may lead some people to think that he's kind of mellow compared to the rest of the Democrats in the ad. That doesn't help Bush.

-- The other clips (Moore, Gephardt, Gore, and Dean), while confrontational and (in Gore's case) boisterous, don't really feature anything all that beyond the pale. Certainly nothing "hateful," as Bush's ardent supporters are wont to whine. Worst of all, it exposes Bush supporters to images of people calling Bush a "miserable failure" who got us into a war for "fictitious reasons," dragging us into "Saddam's torture chambers." That can't be good for Bush, either.

-- Finally, there's the Hitler stuff. This was (I think) exclusively taken from that entry in the MoveOn.Org ad competition, although I wouldn't be surprised if they dredged some additional material from some other outlandish sites on the web. This is legitimately embarassing material, but it's presented in such a way that the casual viewer of the ad has no idea why it's there. Indeed, the second block of material fades in in such a way that it looks like the Bush campaign is attempting to compare the *Democrats'* rhetoric to that of the nazis, topped off by an unfortunate crossfade between Hitler and Bush. That REALLY can't help Bush.

-- And then there's the message of the ad. It's converyed in one or two sentences, without audio, in a very tiny font. After thinking about it, the message is clear: Unlike his opponents, George Bush doesn't have to shout like a diseased maniac; let's all simmer down now. But the message is lost in all the screaming and weird-ass nazi stuff.

Taken as a whole, this would seem to be the typical experience of someone watching this ad:

-- "Coalition of the what?"
-- "Gore's preacher voice sure is funny."
-- "Was that Hitler?"
-- "Why does he want his country back?"
-- "Is this an ad for Michael Moore's new movie?"
-- "Are they comparing Democrats to Hitler?"
-- "Hey, that Hitler pose kinda looks like Bush!"
-- "Gore's preacher voice is still pretty funny."
-- "I don't know what Kerry's talking about, but he said ass. That's cool."
-- "Wait, this was a *Bush* ad? I'm confused."

Flabbergasted,
Mike.

[rivertext]

9. great point about Kerry

"-- Kerry himself doesn't seem all that "wild-eyed" in the ad. In fact, his clip is the most sedate one of the bunch,"

This is one of Kerry's greatest strengths -- he's so woodenly presidential that when he gets fired up, he doesn't get wild-eyed -- he just gets interesting, comes alive.

He can get away with stating the horrible accurate truth much better than Gore -- let's hope he gets around to doing it.

[choie]

10. re: Don't you guys see what they're doing?????

My first post, hi!

"Indeed, the second block of material fades in in such a way that it looks like the Bush campaign is attempting to compare the *Democrats'* rhetoric to that of the nazis, topped off by an unfortunate crossfade between Hitler and Bush. That REALLY can't help Bush."

Of COURSE this is what they're trying to do! I'm flabbergasted that the others in this thread seem to be so blase about this. Bush is comparing the understandable anger and passion that we're feeling to Hitler. For God's sake, he's invoked Godwin's law all on his own!

This makes Bush I's Willie Horton ad look like a positive endorsement for Dukakis. It's worse than the Cleland/bin Laden ad. Is the media gonna do anything about THIS?

For that matter, where is OUR outrage? Randi Rhodes today was positively FUMING about this on her show. Why are you guys so passive? Sneering isn't what's called for ... sending this link to every freakin' media outlet IS.

Sorry to delurk while frothing, LOL. :)

-- kira

[rivertext]

11. Welcome to DU, Kira

You are right about Godwin's law -- anyone who invokes Hitler in an argument automatically forfeits the argument -- is there a corollary about falsing accusing your opponent of having invoked Hitler?

I think we're still too stunned and incredulous to get angry.

[choie]

23. Thanks for the welcome!

I know what you mean about being shocked. I was listening warily at first and then, when that audio of "SEIL HEIL!!!" started underplaying Gore's words, my mouth literally dropped open with disgust. Then when they showed the Hitler rally ... ugh, it's just too staggeringly malicious to contemplate.

Now I'm off to see Fahrenheit9/11, so now I get to be even more angry! LOL.

-- kira

[Ducklord]

18. Why We Snicker...

Hi, Kira. Welcome aboard.

One reason I'm not climbing onto a particularly high horse about the Hitler material is because I'm pretty darned sure the Hitler stuff *originally* came from our side of the fence. Yeah, it was from a rapidly-discarded entry in the MoveOn.org ad competetion (or some other over-the-top website), but it is fair game, in a grasping-for-whatever-ammo-we-can-get-our-hands-on kind of way.

What makes it funny is that the Bush campaign can't even *use* the lame-ass ammo our genuinely loony brothers have handed them in a compelling fashion without tripping over themselves. The message they wanted to send was "Kerry's loony democrats even compared Bush to Hitler," but instead it cme out looking like "Kerry's loony Democrats *sound* like Hitler"... with a weird Hitler-to-Bush transition in the middle. In attempting to point out a "violation" of Godwin's Law, they ended up looking like they were "violating" it themselves.

And that's damn funny.

Realizes the Godwin's Law isn't violated, only confirmed,
Mike.

[choie]

24. I know the moveon contestant used it, but ...

Thanks for welcoming me, ducklord. :) You're right about the fact that the contestant entry at MoveOn used the Hitler/Nazi tactic, but I honestly don't think that's even in the same ballpark, and we can't let them use that as an excuse. My reasoning:

1) Your average person won't remember (or, more likely, even KNOW) that it's allegedly a response to the MoveOn ad. Does the video include a direct reference to it? I mean, I'm a relatively savvy chick who knew about the MoveOn contest entry, but it didn't even enter my mind that this was related to it until I read this thread here on DU.

2) Keeping that in mind, for those seeing the video for the first time (like me), the obvious implication is that Kerry, Gore, Gephardt et al. are Hitlerian style demagogues whose over-the-top rage will lead to a Fourth Reich.

3) The MoveOn thing was a runner-up contest entry that never got national play except for a few news stories, and was widely considered an inappropriate tactic (I'm sure Kerry or someone in his campaign must've commented against it...?) THIS video, OTOH, is an official ChimpCo production. They can't disavow their relationship to it, the way so many candidates do when some nameless satellite organization creates a vicious hate-ad against their opponent.

Again, I knew about the MoveOn entry, and it never even crossed my mind that this was some kind of "response" to it. If they clearly label the segment as "Democratic Campaign Ad" (which is a lie in itself that must be exposed), that's SLIGHTLY mitigating ... except that the audio "SEIG HEIL!!!" rally chants are played under Gore's speech, and they can't possibly have labelled it appropriately. I mean -- sweet jeebus, they're trying to give the impression that the "SEIG HEIL" chants were the audience's response to Gore's words!!! How contemptible can you GET?

Whew. Sorry, as you can see I'm still damn pissed off. Thanks again for saying "hi" and welcoming me. :)

[StopThief]

27. The Hitler clips are taken directly. . . .

from the Moveon.org ad.

[Ducklord]

28. After sleeping on it...

...I'm starting to wonder if the Bush campaign's smarter than we've given them credit for. Allow me to elaborate...

1) As evidenced elsewhere, the inclusion of those (rapidly-repudiated) MoveOn entries in the Bush ad is confusing, even to political dweebs like us who were acutely aware of the political damage they inflicted a few months ago. To the casual eye, Bush's ad could easily appear as though it was comparing the "frothing" Democrats to the rants of Hitler (even though that makes no sense in the context of the ad's alleged message).

2) As it lacks a "I'm George W. Bush, and I approved this ad" tag, I'm not entirely sure this ad is meant for televised consumption. If so, the only people who are likely to see it are GOP web-donors, Democratic political dweebs like ourselves, and talking head shows on TV. This last group is important, because... wait for it...

I think this ad is a trap; a trap designed to get big-name Republicans complaining about the Bush campaign's deplorable use of Hitler, only to have the tables turned on them on the Sunday morning television shows.

"I'm shocked they're juxtaposing images of Hitler with Democrats!"
"Hey, it's one of YOUR ads, Dumb-o-crat!"
"<sputter>"

It should be noted that a Kerry spokesman seems to have already fallen for this bait, much to the glee of several Freepers.

Bush/Cheney: Stupid Like a Fox,
Mike.

[newyawker99]

21. Hi choie!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[choie]

25. Thanks!

From one New Yorker to another, thanks for the welcome! :D

[newyawker99]

20. Hi Ducklord!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Scoopie]

8. What gets me is how John Kerry's picture

is all over the top of George W. Bush's website.
Doesn't his staff remember public relations/advertising 101? You don't put your opponent at the top of your literature!
What morons...
Oh.. excuse me, what morAns.

[wjsander]

12. A summary of the ad...

Kerry and the Dems are attacking our President!
They're like the Nazi's and John Kerry is their Hitler!
Vote for President Bush, the canidate ABOVE attack-ads.

kerry's a pussy

[tritsofme]

13. This ad is irrelevant

It won't be shown on television, and only the people who troll around the candidates websites will see it.

[rivertext]

14. as Kira says, let's make it relevant.

Bush/Cheney is not going to pay to put it on TV, but, if it becomes enough of an internet buzz, some news outlets will discuss it and then it likely will get shown on TV.

I agree with Kira, spread the new, make it relevant to the campaign.

[rivertext]

15. Does anyone have the ability to save the ad to disk?

I'd appreciate it if someone with some technical skill can capture this video so that we have it after Bush/Cheney pulls it.

[tritsofme]

17. View it in quicktime and it will save to your hardrive

nt

[Hippo_Tron]

16. HAHAHA Kerry will go up 5 points after they air that one

I thought it was a joke for a minute.

[randr]

19. Maybe * sees himself as Hitler reincarnate.

After all the Rev. Moon has said he has brought Hitler to Jesus.
Explains why the justice dept has not been too excited about all those fright wing militant nazi wackos.

[StopThief]

22. Ummmm. . . .

Those clips are from an anti-Bush ad that was placed on the Moveon.org website.

[Beetwasher]

26. When Are They Putting This On TV?!

I can't wait!

[JI7]

29. he appealing to his base

it's an attempt to strengthen his base.

[Protected]

30. Was that for real?!

Uhh... The fact that this is on an official re-election site for a US President is really scary to me.

[StopThief]

31. Ummmm. . . .

I'm pretty sure that most candidates these days have an official website for their elections.

[Protected]

32. Most official campaign websites don't feature video of Hitler...

...or insinuate that those who express their freedom to speak out against our elected officials are like the Nazis.

I thought the user-submitted MoveOn ad that featured Hitler was of bad taste and could understand the outrage over it. This is even more disgusting because it's on an official campaign website and, as it says on the ad, paid for by the re-election campaign.

[quam]

33. Direct Link to the Ad (Windows Media)

Currently found here.