Gubernatorial candidate and former Congressman Jay Inslee released a quite positive introductory ad a couple of weeks ago:
The ad does a great job introducing him and his past service. It’s one of those ads that can build name recognition. That’s all good.
Now compare it to this latest ad that takes a quite different approach:
I like this ad in that it covers some of McKenna’s weaknesses that I have been highlighting recently—namely, his paranoid, vengeful bunker mentality with the press (and here and here) as well as his contemptuous attitude toward others (and here).
At least as a public figure, McKenna is not a very nice person, and this ad begins to needle at that chink in his armor.
The ad also picks up on another theme: McKenna’s statements of being unprepared in a couple of circumstances. This is probably excellent politics, but it isn’t a serious argument against McKenna. From what I can tell, McKenna does take his work seriously and is nearly always prepared.
So, why does a normally prepared candidate have to resort to saying he is unprepared? Quite simply, it allows him to dodge a troublesome question. He doesn’t have to lay out his position on health care reform or on gun control without first carefully constructing an answer designed to minimize any damage from unpopular beliefs he holds.
But, hell, if he is going to use “unprepared” as an excuse for dodging answers, it’s fair game to turn around and hit him for admitting he is unprepared!
I liked the ad.
It’s tough running in a state where the only way you can get elected is by hiding what you are. Just ask Suzy Hutchie.
Go Inslee. Can’t wait to see the next round of polling.
“now is not the time to raise taxes…..”
lol
McKenna’s current ad looks like it was produced by a high school class (with apologies to high school producers everywhere). I also saw that McKenna has a fine set of man boobs when he is running in one frame. How does a guy that skinny get boobs?
his boobs probably look better than gov skeletors..
What does Florida Governor Rick Scott have to do with this?
Any attorney, much less a state Attorney General, who says he never considered the consequences of losing a case, much less a case before the US Supreme Court on a national issue like health care, is either a liar or a candidate for a room in a locked “Memory Care” unit.
@8 Heh, I like that.
I like the ad – it shouldn’t be hard to make Cupcake McKenna look shrill and prickly and evasive – he does most of the work for you.
If he’s painted as unlikeable and evasive (a la Romney – which if that’s in voters’ minds already makes Inslee’s job that much easier), has a hidden agenda, is not the moderate nerdy technocrat he has portrayed himself as….well then, makes peeling off his Obama crossovers rather easy, esp. in the Puget Sound region.
If Inslee does that, he wins.