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Oops: GOP Senator's Ad Showed French Fighter Jet
Now here's a funny campaign blooper. As spotted the other day by the Senate Guru blog, GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign had to go back and re-edit a campaign ad a few weeks ago, after it turned out that a shot of a fighter plane wasn't an American aircraft.
It turned out that the Republican ad was displaying -- the horror! -- a French plane!
Here's the original, with the French Super Etendard plane:
The edited version, subbing in a U.S. Air Force plan, is after the jump.
Dole's campaign press secretary confirmed the authenticity of the report, saying their media consultant had used the incorrect stock footage.
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Comments (15)
i belive that rather than 'the horror,' the correct comment is "quelle horreur!"
July 15, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Slow news day?
July 15, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
flip-flop
July 15, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha! I got yer Freedom Fries right heah!
July 15, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I get sad every time the idea that France is America's nemesis get pushed, including through jokey stories like this. It feels kind of like the New Yorker cover: you're perpetuating the meme. Joe Redstate can think whatever he wants of us, I don't mind, but that "OMG FRENCH" stuff got old long ago coming from people who know better.
July 15, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Super Etendard? Couldn't they find an older, uglier pile of scrap in the stock footage cabinet? They don't exactly scream out 21st century.
July 15, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
She brought home pork for tobacco farmers who grow a poisonous though legal product that kills people young and costs the federal government even more billions in healthcare costs. She kept outdated unneeded AF bases open at taxpayer expense to protect NC from what? Al Qaeda's impending armored assault landing on Cape Hatteras?
The world's going to hell in a handbasket and she's fighting a rear action for the 20th century bragging about keeping tobacco farmers in the black and fighter bases open. As John McCain might say that's not change we can believe in.
Thanks Lizzy! Way to show what a great steward of the people's money you are!
July 15, 2008 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
this crap happens all the time. The post office ran a series of "Navy" stamps and while the stamps were all of US ships, the kiosks had large photos of Japanese diesel submarines on them. It's not that big of a deal, it just shows that the people making the add didn't give enough of a shit to ask where that plane came from. Some senators do this "pandering thing" right: find a piece of hardware that is built in your state and get your stock footage from that.
Dole could have picked anything used by the USMC as Camp Lejune is right there. But the campaign staff is lazy and got busted for it. This is not nearly as funny as the "american gun rights" ad (during the hillary bitter fiasco) featuring an antique german rifle with the image reversed (presenting the appearance of a gun that didn't exist) when they intended to lampoon their opponent's ignorance of american hunting traditions. That was lulzy.
July 15, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
So Dole is proud to be the Pork Barrel Queen of the deep south?
How French of her.
July 15, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a meaningless mistake, other than the fact that if a Democrat had done this, the GOP would go nuts.
July 15, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Move along now, nothing to see here...
July 15, 2008 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
And that jet they replaced the Entarde with? It's on screen for such a short time but it looks like a Navy F-14 Tomcat from the colors not an Air Force F-15. They still got it wrong.
July 15, 2008 10:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm gonna disagree and say that it's an F-15. It has an odd, gray paint scheme but it's no F-14. If it were a Tomcat it would be ironic since they are no longer in service and most are being shredded to prevent parts from ending up in Iranian hands.
July 15, 2008 11:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nixon did the same thing in 1972 in a famous commercial in which McGovern was effectively accused of planning to cut to cut the Swedish Air Force. They meant the American Air Force, of course, but the model planes on the table being swept away by The Hand were Saab Viggens. The USAF never owned or operated any Viggens or any other Swedish plane (other than perhaps as loaners for tests).
We had a good aircraft industry in those days, and only occasionally borrowed designs like the Harrier and Canberra.
Far from being mocked, the commercial was highly praised. Stills from it up still turn up now and then in discussions of campaign advertising.
July 16, 2008 8:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Liddy is almost as old as McBush. She took a lot of flack early on in her reelection campaign because she rarely went back to NC to mingle with actual voters. She preferred the elitist digs of her condo at the Watergate in DC to spending weekends in NC. Now she is amping up her campaign once the polls showed her almost losing.
July 16, 2008 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink