Last weekend a Monmouth University Poll revealed some surprising slippage for the celebrated Trump numbers. Both that poll and a CNN-ORC survey put Trump behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas by double
digits.
So perhaps rebounding in the Iowa polls was his impetus, rather than a worry for our country’s future. Regardless, Donald J. Trump chose Monday, Dec. 7, (famously known as
“the day that will live in infamy” after the attack on Pearl Harbor) to announce his own attack.
While speaking from the ship the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, S.C., he
called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims attempting to enter the United States.
And as we know by now, that radical declaration resulted in a total and
complete shutdown of news coverage — except for overheated discussions of Trump’s inflammatory proposal — for the next 48 hours or so. With this ever-escalated bit of
wrestlo/grandiosio/neo-trashtalktainment, Candidate Trump achieved a stranglehold on the news cycle that was unprecedented, even for him.
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Meanwhile, the Trump plan to ban Muslims generally
horrified both Republicans and Democrats alike, while eliciting an outpouring of Hitler memes on Twitter, and sparking a peoples' petition in Great Britain to ban him from entering their
country.
Undeterred,Trump proudly compared his policy to President Franklin Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese Americans in domestic camps during World War II. (Sunrise at
Trumpobello?) Never mind that the internment is now seen as a human rights abuse that is thoroughly reviled. The FDR link certainly brought the Donald’s Dec. 7–attack-concept full
circle.
So it was unfortunate that Dec. 7 was also the date that Jeb Bush’s Super PAC, Right to Rise, chose to unleash its most aggressive “attack” ad yet.
The Bush
campaign and its Super PAC have been advertising like it’s 1998 since shortly after he declared his candidacy. Trump, of course, has spent next to nothing, as his genius for attracting
free media has obviated the need for old-school advertising.
By contrast, the Bush campaign and Super PAC have spent $32.8 million in TV and radio advertisements so far this election
season — almost more than the rest of the current Republican field combined, according to ad-buying data from SMG Delta.
That is hardly an endorsement of the ads, as Jeb’s
candidacy is still flailing in the single digits. His campaign seems to be treating this latest ad, called “Desk” as a make-or-break entry, part of what will be his last stand in New
Hampshire.
But as with the muted, disappointing performances of the candidate himself, the power of the attack is weakened by lumping Trump in with Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
As such, “Desk” never connects because it’s trying to cover too many bases.
The spot opens with a shot of the Oval Office, as our eye is directed to the President’s
iconic desk. An announcer says, "When the attacks come here, the person behind this desk will have to protect your family.’”
We see a ghostly white empty cutout propped up at the
desk, suggesting the creepy chalk figures that police draw of dead people on sidewalks. Each cutout then gets filled in with a photo, successively, of Trump, Cruz, and Rubio. (Props to the producers,
who could have been far crueler and more gratuitous about the photo selection. All the portraits are decent, except for Rubio’s, who looks wan and in need of some water.)
But back to the
show, for which the announcer, fresh off talking about “protecting your family,” asks “Will he be impulsive and reckless like Donald Trump?” when the guy in trademark red tie
materializes.
“Will he have voted to dramatically weaken counterterrorism surveillance like Ted Cruz?” (This requires some explanation that is not forthcoming.)
“Will
he have skipped crucial national security hearings and votes just to campaign, like Marco Rubio?" Bush brought this very issue up to Rubio’s face during the last Republican debate, but
then caved immediately to Rubio’s response, which made him look tentative and weak.
Also, I’m not sure it’s a smart idea to show these three in situ in the Presidential chair
— it somehow registers subconsciously that any one of the three could actually end up in that seat. Whereas Jeb is never shown taking command of the big desk.
There’s also a major
downside to the focus on the Oval Office: It reminds us of the George W. Bush administration, which, by invading Iraq, got us mired in a war that ended up destabilizing the region enough to allow it
to become a terrorist hotbed, the cradle for the growth of ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other groups who are our enemies now.
The spot ends with the announcer saying "27 generals and admirals support
Bush. …Jeb has the experience and knowledge to protect your family."
While admirable as a collection, “27 generals and admirals” is a little vague. I would have liked to
have heard more about these generals.
I hate to pile on, but Jeb’s campaign seems to have had an intense case of the Mondays lately. His tag line, “Jeb can fix it,” was
pilloried in social media and seems to have disappeared.
Bush’s website, Jeb2016.com, requires Googling to find; for unknown reasons, the campaign failed to lock down JebBush.com as a
domain name, and on Monday it was discovered that the JebBush.com site redirected voters to Trump’s campaign website. (That has since been shut down.)
So it doesn’t look like
“Desk” is going to be Jeb’s lifeline.
It’s early days, of course, but classic political ads, along the lines of “Daisy” or “Morning Again in
America” have not been part of the national political conversation this time around at all. Announcing plans for Jeb’s Super PAC to “blanket the airwaves” seems so beside
the point. Only Jeb can save his candidacy, by showing some passion that connects.
In that way, “Desk” is an accurate reflection of Jeb’s troubles. It’s an
attack ad that is curiously subdued. Playing it safe, it is at once too complicated but also pulls its punches.
“Desk” was positioned as being the most aggressive spot yet, the one
that allows the “gloves to come off.”
But so far, no one can lay a glove on Trump, least of all Jeb, whom Trump long ago dismissed with the lethal judgment of “low
energy.”
As he survives, and goes on to offer each new outrageous pronouncement, the Donald is like Monty Python’s Black Knight -- except in Trump's case, the limbs regenerate.
It’s evening again in America: Welcome to our new political breakdown.