The American Debate: 8 views of political culture

I'm betting that by now you'd rather gargle galvanized nails than sit through another campaign ad.

You probably don't believe that TV ads influence your voting behavior, but clearly the national political ad makers think otherwise. Why else would they be on track to spend a record $3 billion in 2010? And I'm loath to dismiss their ephemeral offerings, because ads are often windows into the current political culture - which is why I've scanned the nation and assembled my own Zeitgeist Eight. Let's look, shall we?

Real men shoot paper. In a West Virginia TV ad, Democratic senatorial candidate Joe Manchin (the current governor) strolls into a field, and loads a bullet into his rifle in slow motion. As an acoustic guitarist strums on the soundtrack, he tells the viewer, "I'll take on Washington, and this administration, to get the federal government off our backs . . . and I'll take dead aim at the cap-and-trade bill." At the words dead aim, he puts a bull's-eye through a mounted copy of the cap-and-trade bill. It speaks volumes about the current Democratic predicament that a party candidate feels compelled to distance himself from President Obama's agenda by treating it as prey. No word yet on whether he tied the dead bill to his car roof.

The fine art of phony editing. In a Florida ad, Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson mocks his foe, Dan Webster, as "Taliban Dan." He does this by airing a video clip where Webster says, "Wives, submit yourself to your own husband," and "You should submit to me, that's in the Bible." But Webster actually said the opposite. Speaking recently to a religious audience, he said marital couples should look to the Bible for advice: "I have verses for my wife. Don't pick the ones that say, 'She should submit to me.' That's in the Bible, but pick the ones you're supposed to. So instead, that you'd love your wife . . . as opposed to 'Wives, submit yourself to your own husband.' " Grayson's lie unraveled because our world is so transparent; the full Webster video quickly surfaced online. But Grayson wasn't even embarrassed, because shamelessness is also de rigueur these days.

Lock the doors: Muslims equal terrorists. In a North Carolina ad, Republican House candidate Renee Ellmers features slasher-flick music, historical paintings of Muslim warriors, and a deep-timbered narrator intoning: "After the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, and Cordoba, and Constantinople, they built victory mosques - and now they want to build a mosque by ground zero! Where does [incumbent] Bob Etheridge stand? He won't say. Won't speak out. Won't take a stand." Cut to Ellmers: "The terrorists haven't won. And we should tell them in plain English, 'No. There will never be a mosque at ground zero.' " I see three messages here: All Muslims are terrorists; a proposed community center a few city blocks from ground zero is actually "by" ground zero and "at" ground zero; and members of Congress are supposed to "take a stand" on local zoning issues. Painting Muslims as bogeymen is a '10 staple - although, thankfully, the whole "mosque" phantasmagoria is so seven weeks ago.

A conspicuous omission. In Alaska, an ad touting the tea party Republican senatorial candidate begins: "Joe Miller for U.S. Senate. West Point graduate. Husband. Dad. He chose Alaska as his home. He was a tank commander. . . ." Funny how the ad skips the fact that Miller graduated from Yale Law School. Why do you suppose that is? Because, in today's tea party world, an Ivy League affiliation is deemed a negative. The last thing Miller wants is to be seen as a smarty-pants, because, as Sarah Palin has decreed, it's bad to have "some kind of elite Ivy League education and a fat resumé." Better that he airbrush himself and join in the march for mediocrity.

Oh, those craaazy college kids. In Kentucky, Democratic senatorial candidate Jack Conway has a TV ad hammering opponent Rand Paul for his behavior at Baylor University 30 years ago: "Why did Rand Paul once tie a woman up, tell her to bow down before a false idol, and say his god was 'Aqua Buddha'?" As GQ magazine reported in August, Paul and a pal did that very thing, at least according to the woman, who anonymously confirmed it. Which means that our political discourse has devolved to the point where even a stupid frat house-style prank three decades past is supposedly a relevant character clue. Unless college kid Paul had robbed a bank dressed as Aqua Buddha, I fail to see the relevance. But if college high jinks are to be considered fair game, I'd advise today's kids - the Senate candidates of 2040 - to keep their partying selves off Facebook.

A civic message that wouldn't pass muster with the League of Women Voters. In Nevada, a Republican front group called Latinos for Reform has produced a TV ad with a simple message for Latino citizens: "Don't vote this November." In the past, Republicans have favored more subtle (and well-documented) voter-suppression techniques, such as misinforming Latinos about polling hours and locations, and claiming that unpaid traffic tickets are grounds for ineligibility. Now they're taking a more frontal approach, since they know that the burgeoning Latino vote could make a big difference in key Senate races, such as Harry Reid's reelection bid in Nevada. Telling Latinos to stay home is not exactly a high-road pitch for democracy, but at least this time the GOP is being honest about it.

Obama, the sum of all fears. No Zeitgeist list would be complete without the latest cutting-edge demonization. A Colorado conservative group, stumping on behalf of a state ballot measure that would ban all abortions, has come up with an ad (online only) that shows a skeleton face in a Darth Vader hoodie as it morphs slowly into Obama, accompanied by text on screen: "Then the Angel of Death arrived and Hell followed with him." Later in the ad, Obama morphs into the homicidal Joker (Heath Ledger variety). For what it's worth, I assume that Obama would deny being the Angel of Death or the Joker. As the typical Republican always likes to say when he denies that Obama is foreign-born, "I take him at his word."

The artifice of the process, exposed. We finish where we started, in West Virginia - although this is actually something that happened in Philadelphia. The GOP's Washington strategists hired an ad agency to produce an anti-Manchin commercial. So the ad agency got some actors to portray average West Virginians grousing about Manchin. It was shot in a Philadelphia diner. The problem was that the ad agency told the casting agent to find actors with "a 'hicky' blue-collar look." As a result, West Virginians are now insulted that the GOP's ad team saw them as hicks. But here's the real takeaway from Hickygate: It outs the political ad-making process as cynical showbiz.

So are we not grateful for the advent of TiVo?

Chat live with Dick Polman at 1 p.m. Tuesday at www.philly.com

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