Right-Wing 527 Ad Blitz Coming: Be Prepared

Get ready to hear a whole lot about Ashley's story.

Apparently this has been circulating in right-wing corners of the Internet for a while, but I first found out about it via their banner ad on the front page of the NYT Web site.  At a campaign rally in Ohio last May, Bush got the photo-op of a lifetime: with the cameras rolling, he hugged 16 year old Ashley Faulkner, whose mother died on 9/11.  This is now being turned into a 30-second ad by a 527 group, the Progress for America Voter Fund, which states its goal as "to promote President Bush's record on key issues and expose the real John Kerry's ultra-liberal agenda, as well as the record of other liberal candidates".  They are spending $14.2 million on this ad buy, which makes it the biggest single ad buy of the campaign by any group, including the campaigns and party committees.  In addition to the TV ad, the blitz includes e-mails, automated phone calls, 2.3 million voter brochures, and a Web site.  

Article from USA Today here and their analysis of the ad here.  I'm not going to help their Google rankings by linking, but if you want to watch this piece of manipulative tripe, you can click on the NY Times ad, which takes you to the web site.

So how do we counter?  The general outlines, I think, are pretty obvious.  The ad is written to make the Faulkners immune to attack.  This was clearly a prearranged photo op -- they were at a CAMPAIGN RALLY, for fuck's sake.  But you don't attack people who recently lost their wife or their mother.  You just don't.  Instead, we need to make the point that the Bush administration has refused to take action that would actually make the Ashley Faulkners of the America safer -- 9/11 commission stonewall, misdirection of resources to Iraq, where's Osama, etc.

I don't think we've fully utilized Kristen Breitweiser as a weapon.  She is very photogenic, very articulate, and her criticism of President Bush's response to 9/11 is devastating.  She's already on the campaign trail with Kerry.  And now that the other side is politicizing 9/11 windows, we're immune to the charge.  If we don't see her in a DNC or (more likely) 527 ad soon, someone's dropped the ball.  

Update [2004-10-19 11:59:47 by Buck Fush]: Well, whaddya know. The Kerry campaign released an ad with Kristen Breitweiser today, and it kicks ass. Kudos to the Kerry campaign media people for anticipating this and being on the ball.