David Frum: The Ad That Worked

The only downside is that we're going to have to hear twenty fucking years of whining over this, just like with Willie Horton.

But the upside to that is that they only whine when they lose.

Update: One of those increasingly-popular "Connections" charts shows the secret links between President Bush, Max Cleland, and the KKK. (The connection is made through Senator/Kleagle Robert Byrd, natch.)

Thanks to Nick, again.

Update: MyPetJawa calls this "freaking brilliant analysis." I haven't read it yet -- I'm posting right before I read it -- but if Prof. Rusty Shackleford says it's brilliant, I have to think it's pretty good.

Rusty goes on to question whether all the people claiming to have "seen or heard about" the SwiftVets ad really have. I think he's wrong. I take his point that a lot of those who've "seen or heard about" the ad haven't seen the whole thing, or have just seen parts of it shown on newscasts with the best parts edited out (sanitized for Kerry's protection).

But some ads, some books, some reports, etc., do cut through the clatter and make an impact, even if people aren't very strong on the details. The dirty little secret about elections is that 90% of the public is relatively uninformed; they make gut level judgments on sketchy knowledge. I expect that's the same with the SwiftVets ad, but to be fair, a lot of the people now doubting Kerry were previously inclined to vote for him based on an incomplete and erroneous understanding of his record, his ideology, and his actual Vietnam record.

Correction: Harlan Pepper points out the NRO chart didn't link the SwiftVets to the KKK, as I wrote. I have corrected.