crying out for attention, because how else is he going to get any traction?
Hm.
I’m having trouble unscrambling the components of this ad. So, Democratic prospect Estakio Beltran shoots at an elephant shaped pinata, as “what happens to an elephant who stand around doing nothing for too long”, and then he rides off on a donkey to Washington DC.
It’s labeled here as throwing “a hail Mary“. Maybe that’s the word we may as well use for advertisements whose main purpose is to get national publicity for low funded candidacies.
As in… what does this ad even signify?
(1). He’s asserting his gun rights bonafides against the national Democratic Party’s agenda for his rural Central Washington district.
(2). There’s something maybe gleefully politically incorrect about using the pinata as an icon… maybe?
Trying to get to that whole Herman Cain attempt at a racial “I’m playing the part of some of your racial stereotypes just for the Hell of it” thing… See the National Review commentary.
An hispanic man shooting a piñata. That made me laugh. A lot.
And riding a burro donkey. All that’s missing is a bottle of tequila.
See therefor, almsot getting at one issue the NR might go to if Beltran were actually successful with this ad: While the media’s reaction to the offensive video is predictable, there’s little doubt that if a Republican candidate made a similar ad they’d be accused of promoting violence against Democrats. Interestingly, they don’t make the case on cultural and racial lines.
Because…
(3). Huh. This inane Capitol-cowboy equation of political struggle with armed conflict puts Beltran not in the company of compassionate statesmen, but in the company of Sarah “Reload” Palin, a Georgia anti-Obama redneck with a cannon, this Alabama Republican dude with his gun BBQ smoker, and the lady who brags about how well she can de-nut a pig.
On the Palin ad I always half wanted to defend it from the insinuation associating it with the Gabrielle Giffords shooter anyways, so…
Ugh.