Yes Huck, We Know You Are A Christian, But ...
... it does not behoove you to continue to show Christian images in your ads. It may gin up your supporters, but sensible people in the GOP base see it differently:
For the second time in the past two weeks, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has aired a commercial in which a Christian symbol appears in the background.
In the campaign ad, Huckabee is addressing members of the Iowa Christian Alliance, an organization whose symbol is the ichthys which appears on a banner that is shown prominently at the open and close of the 30 second spot. The ICA is an influential social conservative organization in Iowa, and Huckabee can be seen speaking about his opposition to abortion before the group.
The ichthys, which resembles a fish, is well-known in evangelical circles as the symbol used by early Christians to secretly identify one another without attracting persecution.
The Huckabee campaign unveiled this ad as well as another on its campaign Web site Monday afternoon, hours after the former Arkansas governor reversed course and decided against airing a negative campaign commercial targeting rival Mitt Romney.“Our Values” is currently airing in Iowa, while "Tax Cuts Matter" is airing in New Hampshire, according to a campaign spokeswoman.
"The purpose of these ads is to highlight the things that truly matter - while underscoring my conservative record of leadership and my vision for America moving forward," Huckabee said in a news release Tuesday announcing the ads. "As we enter the closing days of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, there are a lot of things being said on television and sent to mailboxes across the Hawkeye state. I urge Iowans to look beyond the rhetoric and seek the truth about my record and optimistic plans for our nation's future.”
First allow me to address the new ad. Unlike the media, which tends to get rather breathless when any sort of religion gets put on display (except for the "religion of peace," because they are scared to death of them) I will not go that direction. As Catholics, our faith reflects a great deal in our lives, but we do not consistently remind others of that. If we are asked, we will tell people.
But primary voters across the country tend to get turned off by those who wear their faith on their sleeve. Mike Huckabee was slapped around from the "Christian leader" ad. And yes, many people made a hullabaloo over the Christmas ad with the bookcase-turned-cross in the background. (We did not as we know it was a trick of light and shadow, and doubt that it was deliberate.) But this simply has to stop.
Nobody cares whether or not he was a minister. Nobody cares that he believes in God. What we care about is his record as governor because it serves as his credentials in this race. It is his record, his history which will get people to vote for him or not. In our case, too much has come out about his record that guarantees our vote will go elsewhere. He will not get it, and it is due to his record alone, not whether he is a Christian.
The next thing I would like to address is the second-to-last paragraph where CNN brings up the ad he pulled, but showed to the media. We knew it when he showed it, and I even predicted what the media's reaction would be. They ran it for him, which gave him the free air time, and the media is still talking about it. He received precisely what he hoped he would get -- an ad on the air, on everyone's lips, and all he had to pay for was the ad itself.
Speaking of that ad, Jim Geraghty has some questions regarding the timing. The Huckabee camp says that the decision to pull the ad was "last minute." But some digging has shown that may not be true, after all. The Huckabee press conference was slated to begin at noon, and Mike Huckabee told reporters that he decided an hour beforehand to pull it, which would put the decision around 11 am. As Mr. Geraghty reports, that has been confirmed through Ed Rollins, Mike Huckasbee's senior campaign chairman.
But KCRG-TV9 received the ad at around 6 am, and was told to yank it at 10 am, which means that the decision was not as "last minute" as the Huckabee camp claims. No one at the station knows who called, but they do confirm it was someone in the Huckabee campaign.
Marcie
For the second time in the past two weeks, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has aired a commercial in which a Christian symbol appears in the background.
In the campaign ad, Huckabee is addressing members of the Iowa Christian Alliance, an organization whose symbol is the ichthys which appears on a banner that is shown prominently at the open and close of the 30 second spot. The ICA is an influential social conservative organization in Iowa, and Huckabee can be seen speaking about his opposition to abortion before the group.
The ichthys, which resembles a fish, is well-known in evangelical circles as the symbol used by early Christians to secretly identify one another without attracting persecution.
The Huckabee campaign unveiled this ad as well as another on its campaign Web site Monday afternoon, hours after the former Arkansas governor reversed course and decided against airing a negative campaign commercial targeting rival Mitt Romney.“Our Values” is currently airing in Iowa, while "Tax Cuts Matter" is airing in New Hampshire, according to a campaign spokeswoman.
"The purpose of these ads is to highlight the things that truly matter - while underscoring my conservative record of leadership and my vision for America moving forward," Huckabee said in a news release Tuesday announcing the ads. "As we enter the closing days of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, there are a lot of things being said on television and sent to mailboxes across the Hawkeye state. I urge Iowans to look beyond the rhetoric and seek the truth about my record and optimistic plans for our nation's future.”
First allow me to address the new ad. Unlike the media, which tends to get rather breathless when any sort of religion gets put on display (except for the "religion of peace," because they are scared to death of them) I will not go that direction. As Catholics, our faith reflects a great deal in our lives, but we do not consistently remind others of that. If we are asked, we will tell people.
But primary voters across the country tend to get turned off by those who wear their faith on their sleeve. Mike Huckabee was slapped around from the "Christian leader" ad. And yes, many people made a hullabaloo over the Christmas ad with the bookcase-turned-cross in the background. (We did not as we know it was a trick of light and shadow, and doubt that it was deliberate.) But this simply has to stop.
Nobody cares whether or not he was a minister. Nobody cares that he believes in God. What we care about is his record as governor because it serves as his credentials in this race. It is his record, his history which will get people to vote for him or not. In our case, too much has come out about his record that guarantees our vote will go elsewhere. He will not get it, and it is due to his record alone, not whether he is a Christian.
The next thing I would like to address is the second-to-last paragraph where CNN brings up the ad he pulled, but showed to the media. We knew it when he showed it, and I even predicted what the media's reaction would be. They ran it for him, which gave him the free air time, and the media is still talking about it. He received precisely what he hoped he would get -- an ad on the air, on everyone's lips, and all he had to pay for was the ad itself.
Speaking of that ad, Jim Geraghty has some questions regarding the timing. The Huckabee camp says that the decision to pull the ad was "last minute." But some digging has shown that may not be true, after all. The Huckabee press conference was slated to begin at noon, and Mike Huckabee told reporters that he decided an hour beforehand to pull it, which would put the decision around 11 am. As Mr. Geraghty reports, that has been confirmed through Ed Rollins, Mike Huckasbee's senior campaign chairman.
But KCRG-TV9 received the ad at around 6 am, and was told to yank it at 10 am, which means that the decision was not as "last minute" as the Huckabee camp claims. No one at the station knows who called, but they do confirm it was someone in the Huckabee campaign.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 3:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home