Pawlenty’s ad contains its own subliminal review at 0:58.

Having lived in MN all my life, I watch Pawlenty’s impending candidacy with amusement.  I especially like how he said that, “...settling the West wasn’t easy…”  No, it wasn’t.  Because it was opposed by the people who lived there at the time, who were killed in large numbers or confined to reservations.  That is not an achievement to be proud of, like going to the moon.  My two cents.

It kinda reminds me of the “What Do You Mean, It’s Not Awesome?” trope from TVTropes. What do you mean, Pawlenty’s not Presidential?

But yeah, the teabaggers will eat that shit up. The only bright side will be if all of them decide they have to one-up each other on action-movie campaign ads, which may break even the teabaggers’ abilities to ignore ridiculousness…

The scariest thing was the the TPM interview with campaign consultants saying the ads are genius.

This video says, “Are you obtuse?  Completely out of touch?  Unable to understand even the most primitive of jokes?  Completely devoid of any appreciation for irony? Then vote for Tim Pawlenty.”

You get this so right. It is the funniest post I’ve read on this blog and on any blog for a long time. Kudos.

Why aren’t there any brown people in Pawlenty’s ad?

Wow, Pawlenty’s ad is one of the most unintentionally funny things I’ve seen in a long time. 

schwag @ 6:  Yeah, there’s few token African-Americans in the first 10 seconds (MLK and some olympic athletes), but after than everyone seemed to be white—- certainly everyone in the closeups was.  I really don’t see how the GOP is going to survive long term given how they appeal only to a demographic group that’s a shrinking portion of the population, but hey that’s their problem.

I don’t think it’s a lack of irony, but rather that he knows perfectly well that his audience relies almost entirely on emotional appeal and that movie trailers are good at emotional appeal.

He wants his audience to feel like the bold and powerful characters in action movies who find simple solutions to complex problems and implement them through sheer force of bold and powerful will.  You’ll note that there’s not a single actual issue mentioned, not a single hint at a solution to anything.  The ad is 100% emotional appeal, and for that reason I think it will work on his target audience.

The fact that his target audience is mostly older, less technologically active, people who probably doesn’t hurt, but I think it’ll work just fine with the Young Republicans, or the College Conservatives, and the younger conservative audience in general. 

Because it isn’t supposed to present solutions, it isn’t supposed to even make a case for Pawlenty.  It’s there to say “you want to feel cool, voting for Pawlenty will help you feel cool!”

OT of your main point by related to minor ones:
I actually know several people who I feel have every right to have 911 memorial tatoos.  They are all members of the PANYNJ or retired from some part of the PANYNJ.  They lost friends, family and co-workers, and in many cases, spent literally months on the site.  If they want a 911 tatoo, they can have one, no restrictions, IMO.  As far as I know, none of the ones I know does though.

@helen: yes, people who were directly connected to the tragedy of course are welcome to deal with their memories in any vaguely sane fashion.  But we’re talking about people from rural Nebraska who would rather cuddle a goat than even go to NYC.

Why does the governor of *Minnesota* show the skyline of my beloved Chicago?

Is he trying to steal it from Obama?  Because he’d get his ass kicked here—hard.

Even better than the crying eagle sticker, are the stickers of a bald eagle’s head, where the white part is the stars and stripes, and it’s trailing flames like a eagle fireball of America.

I think it’s pretty funny at about 54-55 seconds, it says “dismal” in the background.  I’m guessing they didn’t proof this very carefully.

@helen w. h.: The people that could probably get away with a 9/11 tattoo due to actually being present at 9/11 aren’t usually the ones that have 9/11 tattoos. The people that have 9/11 tattoos usually didn’t even know someone that lived in the state of NY at the time. Hell I’d go so far as to say most of them have probably never been out of their home state and couldn’t have told you what state the WTC was in before 9/11. They think they’re displaying a symbol of their patriotism. Ironically enough, they usually think the same thing about their Confederate flag tattoos.

Anyone want to guess if they truly have the rights to all the archival footage they used?

Why is it important to read The Onion when life in these modern times so frequently out-Onions (if that’s a verb) itself? Obama’s going to press a “centrist agenda” tonight (after escalating the war in Afghanistan and earning the Nobel Peace Prize) and a Utah senator said that if we DO tone down our rhetoric, Jared Loughner “wins”, and the Pentagon is insisting that Martin Luther King Jr. would have embraced American pre-emptive strikes. Satire is losing steam because reality is outmatching it at almost every turn.

If Pawlenty thinks his voters are brain-dead, humor-challenged, authority-worshipping nimrods, I say he’s probably correct.  That’s an ad for people who just want to have a raging hard-on for ‘Merica, with no other thought than just how unique and exceptional we are. 

Details?  Policy?  Proposals?  Leave those things to the Democrats.  Republicans are all about image over substance.  As long as their father-figure-POTUS looks the part and says the right things, it doesn’t matter whether he makes things better or drives the federal bus off the cliff. 

And I say “he”, ‘cause let’s face it: Women will never be accepted at the top of the Republican presidential ticket.  Token VP?  Sure.  Actual president?  Unlikely…

” I really don’t see how the GOP is going to survive long term given how they appeal only to a demographic group that’s a shrinking portion of the population, but hey that’s their problem.”

They’re going to stick with the white base until doesn’t work any longer.  Take one election at a time, never look ahead at the demographic trends, live for today and screw tomorrow…

Visually, I kind of liked the Pawlenty ad - it looked a lot like the current MSNBC “Lean Forward” ad campaign spots. But I found myself rolling my eyes at yet another member of the Grand Old Party trying to claim the victories of the Civil Rights Movement as their own.

Particularly jarring was the image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the two African-American runners who became famous for their black power salute on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. It’s hard to fathom any members of the GOP Establishment in 1968 looking upon that iconic moment as a triumphant moment for America. IOC President Avery Brundage, the only American to ever hold that position, responded to Smith and Carlos’ courageous political statement by immediately kicking them out of the Olympic Village. They were ostracized by many here for raising their fists in pride, and it’s pretty ridiculous to claim that it was the conservatives of that era who were praising or even defending the salute.

This GOP revisionist silliness belongs in the same pile as “Oh yeah, Martin Luther King was a lifelong Republican!!”

The commercial would have been campy and ridiculous no matter what politician it was promoting, but it would have made a lot more sense contextually if it was promoting a centrist Democrat like Barack Obama rather than any member of the Republican Party. I suppose it could work for Arnold Schwarzenegger, too. It would still be silly, but it would make more sense to have what looks like an action movie trailer featuring a former action movie star (I refuse to call him an “actor”, even though I love the original Terminator).

This is the party that gave us Reagan and Schwarzenegger.  They seem to like cool tough guy characters, so Pawlenty might be onto something with this.

Good to know that FDR and JFK were republicans…

This ad is just amazing. But I think it’s not even for teabaggers in general. It’s for the Fighting 101st Keyboarders. Because there’s no punchline. There’s nothing you’re supposed to do, not even get out on some specific date to a rally, or write the editor of your local paper, or anything. You’re just supposed to feel fierce.

The ad is brilliant and will be effective.  Advertisers say “sell the sizzle, not the steak.”  That’s what Pawlenty is doing.  Not only is he appealing to emotions, he’s also framing himself as a hero in his own action movie.  Reagan was all sizzle and very little steak, and he’s one of the most popular presidents in recent memory. It’s not an accident that he was an actor.

The lack of content is a feature, not a bug.  Concrete proposals ask the viewer to think and evaluate, not feel.  The narrative of the ad frames Pawlenty as a man on a heroic quest and invites the viewer to join, to be a part of something great, to lift themselves out of the miseries and mundanities of their daily lives and take up the crusade.  Concrete proposals would shatter the narrative, break the emotional bond, force the viewer to grapple with the realities of law, policy, and politics.

Pawlenty may not win, but this is the future of political advertizing.  Being smart and being right won’t get you elected.  Making people feel like you are leading them on a noble quest will.  There’s a reason Obama went with “Hope” as a political theme, why his book was called “The Audacity of Hope,” and politicians talk about The American Dream - it’s all emotional, all about the quest/crusade narrative.  Feelings come first, then policies.

I’m guessing this isn’t the case, but I’m wondering if that Pawlenty spot was created for the Super Bowl? It’s hard to imagine him having the dough to drop $2MM+ on 30 seconds of superpremium TV airtime, particularly considering 2/3 of the original commercial would have to be edited out. AFAIK, Barack Obama is the only presidential candidate in my lifetime to buy a Super Bowl ad, and he did it in the middle of the primaries during the election year, not the year prior, as would be the case if the Pawlenty ad did run during the SB in two weeks. They’re not cheap, considering two seconds costs as much as a house.

@10 &14;:
Exactly my point.  If any of them have such tatoos, they are personal and private momentoes to the point of not being shared with even close professional co-workers.  As one of these people took several of us who qualify as that on a tour or relics and elements from the WTC (while we were working in the building where they are stored), that would be very personal and private indeed.

This is the party that gave us Reagan and Schwarzenegger.  They seem to like cool tough guy characters, so Pawlenty might be onto something with this.

I’m certainly not a big fan of the former governator, but considering how batshit crazy most of GOP politicians have become even in just the last two years, I’d find the Republican Party as a whole far less fighteningly loathesome if Arnie represented the center of the GOP rather than its furthest left flank. It’s pretty frightening that someone like Schwarzenegger is probably hated even more by those on the right than he is by those on the left.

If there’s any upside, it’s that this “it’s morning again in America” crap won’t be viable for very long.  The 2012 Republican nomination process looks like it’s going to be a bare-knuckle street-brawl to the very end.  There is no clear winner they can all support, just a bunch of mediocre prima donnas with big egos and little accomplishment.  The contenders will have to “go negative” pretty early.

Depending on how long the process gets dragged out, we could see 9-months+ of the nastiest attack ads imaginable, with each candidate claiming they’re above the gutter politics and innuendo of their dirty-pool competitors.

It’ll be like watching a car wreck in slow (very slow) motion…

This is when I fear the next Bush will come back into the spotlight.  I’m not sure Jeb can take the nom with the teabagging loonies running the show in 2012.  I think it’ll be 2016 until the Repubs can fully co-opt the teabaggers, and then Jebby might cruise into the nom (as “a uniter and not a divider” or however the consultants will re-word it)...

Whatever happens, it’ll be a spectacle.  An interminable, nauseating, pointless spectacle…

Sometimes I want to go back to the cartoon elephant “I Like Ike” commercials.

Some of those mid-20th Century political ads are better done than political ads are now. I really, really wish Obama would do a version of this one from Lyndon Johnson’s campaign next time (no, It’s not the “Daisy” ad, it’s one that’s <I>very>/i> apropos given the state of the GOP):

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/confessions-of-a-republican

If you modernize it, it would be a perfect ad for late 2012.

I think the 2016 GOP nomination is going to be a battle primarily between Chris Christie and Marco Rubio (assuming Obama gets re-elected next year), and most of the 2012 Republican candidates won’t be running again 4 years later. Media speculation aside, I don’t think Christie’s going to run this time, because his own adamant statements saying that he won’t run will be used against him by the other GOP candidates. If Jeb Bush is ever going to run, it will be in 2016, not 2012 - he knows that even if he can survive the 2012 GOP primaries, his last name will still make him unelectable in the general election this soon after his brother’s failed presidency. The voters need four more years to be sufficiently dumbed down to have largely forgotton about what Dubya did to this country.

Why aren’t there any brown people in Pawlenty’s ad?

That’s settling the NORTH, dimwit.  It was settling the WEST that wasn’t easy, and, as gravitybear@2 points out, this was mainly due to the red people who sorta objected to the idea.

Pawlenty will probably be the nominee barring unforseen circumstances though, since he offends the least number of Republicans, just like McCain in ‘08.

My personal favorite is a :28, with a group of young people staring in what appears to be shocked dumbfoundedness, for no apparent reason. Were they watching this ad?

“In a world where people can make ads based on “in a world where” trailers—UNIRONICALLY.”

I’m guessing this isn’t the case, but I’m wondering if that Pawlenty spot was created for the Super Bowl?

Better yet, they can say they wanted to run it in the Super Bowl, but the mean old networks refused to show it, so here’s a link to it!

This is really no different from any of the other hyper-patriotic videos some of my retired work friends send me.

Ben D., thanks for that link.  I agree, it’s the kind of message I wish we saw more of today.  The closest I can think of to this spokesperson (actor) is Al Franken when he was talking to the crowd members at the Minnesota State Fair.

Tim Pawlenty, the Brawndo of politics.

My favorite detail is around 1:03—we get a split second of the Miracle on Ice, as though a thirty-year-old Olympic hockey game against a nation that hasn’t existed in twenty years is a resonant and ideologically sacrosanct element of contemporary discourse.

But of course, to some, it is. Which is just astonishing.

Zeno@1 & Mireille@13:  Yeah, WTF is “DISMAL” doing there??  Did Mark Mothersbaugh or Jerry Casale have anything to do with this?

roscoe3680@23:  Citizens United.

Maybe he’s going to play this in theatres?

Yes, but more importantly, how does Pawlenty propose to triumph against the evil aliens when they attack? Is he working on a solution with Jeff Goldblum and Randy Quaid?

@Brendon

Glenn Beck says the greatest contemporary threat to America is the Communist Party. Yes, he actually said “Communist Party”.

It’s pretty frightening that someone like Schwarzenegger is probably hated even more by those on the right than he is by those on the left.

My point wasn’t to critique any specific person.  In fact, I don’t think Schwarzenneger is all that bad.  But he wasn’t elected because of his politics; he was elected because of his cool, tough guy persona.  Image is valued over substance, and it’s just coincidence when one of them turns out to not be too bad.

This looks like an ad for Amway.  “You too can be FREE” by voting for Pawlenty / buying soap products.  “Free” = “so wealthy that you can tell everyone to kiss your ass”.  Both interpretation are lies, of course.

One of the things that always confuses me is when republicans rail against those post modern academics they accuse of moral relativism because they say shit like in modernity reality is dissapearing and what we are starting to live in is a kind of hyper reality where words don’t refer to objects anymore but to simulated events that might have once mimiced reality but have no need of it anymore and have gone on to infanalise what remains of reality because the republicans live that shit through and through. There is no generational poverty in fox world, they have that over in huffpo land. i hope Lynne Cheney sees this shit

Tim is right that all those things aren’t easy, but ironically it’s BECAUSE of people like him who make it harder.  These things SHOULD be made easier.  We should remember that when we battle conservatives ideologically.

My questions: He keeps saying it won’t be easy. WHAT won’t be easy? What is he planning to do?

Also, to whom is that National Press Club backdrop dogwhistling? Which faction of the republican primary voters will see the repeated scenes of Tim Pawlenty standing in front of the NPC backdrop and think: “Yep, he’s the one we need. He can talk in front of some fancy Press Club.”

“ I really don’t see how the GOP is going to survive long term given how they appeal only to a demographic group that’s a shrinking portion of the population, but hey that’s their problem.”

No, it’s not just their problem.  They’ve already started putting their plans into action:
1.) Disenfranchise large numbers of brown people by putting them in jail for minor crimes which white people regularly commit and get away with, primarily through the war on some people who use some types of drugs.
2.) Voter suppression (ex. require ID at the poles; fuck up motor-voter so people who registered through the DMV show up at the polls and find that they aren’t registered; send out flyers telling people the election is actually on Wednessday)

Ugh, just noticed the juxtaposition of him shaking the hand of a guy in a wheelchair and saying, “just putting our heads down and gettin’ it done.”  Meaning of course that if you’re disabled you just work harder rather than wimping out and asking for help like curb cuts and stuff.

I’m looking forward to the t-shirt with “If you think the Academy makes a mistake every time Michael Bay doesn’t get all the Oscars, then vote Pawlenty.”

It’s official. It has become impossible to make parodies about Republicans because they’re actually worse than a parody of themselves.

This looks like an ad for Amway.  “You too can be FREE” by voting for Pawlenty / buying soap products.  “Free” = “so wealthy that you can tell everyone to kiss your ass”.  Both interpretation are lies, of course.

Well, the Republican Party is pretty much a ponzi scheme, no? You vote for them instead of buying useless crap from your distributor, but it’s still all a matter of making the people above you on the ladder rich to your detriment.

But Amway (probably) kills less people than mainstream U.S. foreign policy.

Oops. I meant pyramid scheme.

I’m pretty sure a Ponzi scheme is a specific type of pyramid scheme involving investments.

I thought that was a trailer for “Transformers III” or whatever the next thing Michael Bay is unleashing on America.

In the list of things that “wasn’t easy” is settling the west.

Always worth remembering that the reason it “wasn’t easy” because the west was already settled.

helen h. w.,  a Ponzi scheme is where you pretend to accept people’s money and have a high rate of return in whatever the ‘investment’ is (back of the envelope calculations demonstrate that Ponzi’s original idea of using “Postal coupons” couldn’t work), which are paid by recruiting more suckers into the scheme. 

By contrast, a pyramid scheme is quite open in the desire to make money, but it preys on people’s ignorance of the math behind it that ultimately dooms most investors in a pyramid scheme, a few folks at the top do make money, but they’re usually the ones behind the scheme in the first place.