Gepetto Politics: The Republicans' secret weapon
by digby
Ok, the lying is just pathological at this point:
Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday in which a frustrated former Obama supporter expresses her disappointment with the president. The only problem: The woman in the video is actually an RNC staffer.
The new ad features Republican National Committee Director of Hispanic Outreach Bettina Inclan, who in the ad purports to be an average woman voter who supported Obama in 2008. She describes her disillusionment with the president in the ad as a romantic relationship gone awry.
“You’re just not he person I thought you were,” Inclan says in the ad, addressing a cardboard cutout of Obama. Inclan lists out-of-control spending and Obama’s penchant for hanging out with Hollywood celebrities as reasons for the break-up. “It’s not me, it’s you. I think we should just be friends.”
[...]
The RNC says its ad, which first appeared on television Thursday is not dishonest.
“It’s a lighthearted ad to show how millions of Americans feel about President Obama — he’s not the person we thought he was and it’s time to break up with him,” an RNC official told TPM. “But let’s be clear, it is an ad.”
Inclan began her current RNC post in January 2012, and has worked in Republican politics since well before Obama’s 2008 election. She did Hispanic outreach for Rick Scott’s 2010 Florida gubernatorial race worked on Capitol Hill for Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and as national executive director of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly.
Even ads for consumer products that feature testimonials always give a disclaimer if the person is an actor. Doing otherwise is called "false advertising."
Surely they could have found another young Hispanic woman who wasn't an RNC staffer to do the spot. Why, it's almost as if they want to get caught lying.
We do know that one thing that really motivates the right wing troops is the idea that they are victims of the liberal media. So, maybe the "we won't let our campaign be dictated to by fact-checkers" line works well in focus groups. Never underestimate the wingnut persecution complex.
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