Comments on: Ford Attack Ad Racist?

By: ben mcdonald

ben mcdonald — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 18:20:51 +0000

the reference to the platinum blond is there because he is accused of going to a playboy super bowl party

By: tanya

tanya — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 03:29:38 +0000

i think the add is hilarious. i don't see how anyone could even dream of taking this seriously. comparing a a congressman to a terrorist. pathetic. as far as the woman with bleached blonde hair goes... are we really supposed to believe she is walking around outside naked?! i get what the rnc is trying to do...play on both a racist thing and a morals thing, but really how desperate does one have to be to stoop this low?!

By: PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts

PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:21:40 +0000

Race, Ads, Ford and Horton...

The controversy over the anti-Harold Ford ad continues, including a big story in the NYT: Ad Seen as Playing to Racial Fears
The controversy erupted over one of the people featured: an attractive white woman, bare-shouldered, who declares that she met...

By: bithead

bithead — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:02:26 +0000

Nice little fantasy you've got worked up for yourself, there Anderson, on all points.

Are you so desperate for power that you've gotta make stuff up?

By: Anderson

Anderson — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:34:50 +0000

A TPM reader notes another race-baiting tactic:

This morning about 6:45 I'm getting ready for work and have the radio tuned to the local mega talk station. The hosts are talking about the heat that the Corker/RNC ads are picking up, but are pretty neutral on them themselves, suggesting that the ruckus--and the suggestions of racism--are overblown. They're going through some callers, when one says, "That's nothing. Have you heard the jungle drums on the radio ad?" So they play it, and, sure enough, the caller's right. Soaring music underneath the copy when discussing Corker's merits, jungle-like drumming when cutting to Ford's demerits. The hosts were stone-silent when it finished, until one whistled, and said, "Damn." They both agreed that the drumming -- and the intent -- was obvious.

Lovely political party y'all have there ... torture, racism, "preemptive" war ...

By: anjin-san

anjin-san — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:29:35 +0000

Slime & sleeze from the GOP? Damn, that's a first...

BTW Patrick. do you always use sissified words like "weenie" in your posts?

By: dennis kearney

dennis kearney — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:10:46 +0000

get over it! the ad refers to interracial sex? so what? it's sad that in a America we still have to refer to "interracial" sex. would we be talking about this if the woman were Hispanic or Asian? what about a black woman saying she met him at a playboy party? what if he were white-- what color should the woman be then? this ad may backfire-- more male voters may vote for the candidate who goes to playboy parties.

By: eleddo

eleddo — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:50:46 +0000

I looked at the add a few times and you really must have picked up something that I didn't, because I didn't see anything at all racist,, just found it humorous.
Seems you all are just trying to make something about nothing
Eleddo-))

By: Just Me

Just Me — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:31:01 +0000

Okay, I am thinking if you have to jump to interpretation of how an ad is racist, then it probably isn't racist. And the whole "plays on southern fears of white women and black men" doesn't really ring with me-I am from the South and I didn't see that. I think the ad was intended to be humorous, but falls short, so I can believe the "it isn't a good ad" complaint, but I am not seeing the racism.

By: Polimom Says » Sometimes, a floozy is just a floozy

Polimom Says » Sometimes, a floozy is just a floozy — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:25:58 +0000

[...] James Joyner is another thoughtful writer who took a serious look at the ad (and other analyses), and tried to understand things, but partially concluded: Two problems with that analysis, though. First, as noted above, the Ford-Playboy thing is a GOP talking point in this campaign. Second, the type of voter who still doesn’t know whether he supports Ford or Coker at this late stage of the game is what we in the business call a “moron.” These tend not to be people with a mastery of complex symbolism. [...]

By: bithead

bithead — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:45:44 +0000

I’m being only slightly snarky here, but it’s hard to call a black man criticising another black man racist, and there just aren’t that many blacks _in_ the GOP to begin with, so they kinda start out at a disadvantage… :-)

Yeah, well, in that situation they spend a lotta time convincing us all that the speaker they're against isn't really black. Witness. Justice Thomas, for example.

By: Will Franklin

Will Franklin — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:16:37 +0000

Not racist at all. One of the better ads of the '06 election season.

By: Bandit

Bandit — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:44:54 +0000

Good projection Ed! I always wonder why liberals spend so much time looking for racists when all they have to do is look in the mirror.

By: Patrick McGuire

Patrick McGuire — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:40:12 +0000

Y'all have missed the point. The bimbo has nothing to do with racist feelings but rather more generally broad moral values in the South. Tennessee is in the Bible Belt and most voters there place a high value on politicians with high moral values.

Ford ran an ad showing himself in a church, implying his religious values. This ad is meant to counter that image.

Only a liberal weenie would see racism in it.

By: Richard Gardner

Richard Gardner — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:04:05 +0000

I didn't think the ad was inappropriate until the second appearance of the bimbo at the end, "Harold, call me," a not so subtle closing. Since I looked it up on Youtube I also came across political ads from both candidates. Ford is painting Corker (the Republican running) as a fat cat with a 30-room mansion, and 6 SUVs. There are also ads attacking Ford's family, some of whom have criminal records (corruption, white collar stuff). Political attacks are normal, with lots of half-truths (here is a Ford one indirectly accusing Corker of hiring illegal immigrants), but this attack on Ford straddles the line. Not being from TN, I don't know if there are local issues hidden in the ads, but there likely are.