For a New Day, Vote Joe

David Weigel | August 31, 2006

Yes, it's hilarious that Joe Lieberman's high-powered campaign team meant to portray "a rising sun" in their new TV ad and instead used footage of a sun setting in California. But I'm amazed no one has spotted the Bob Roberts connection. If you recall, in his 1992 film about a hollow, venal right-wing Senate candidate played by director Tim Robbins, there's a scene where the candidate's aides are screening a new TV ad. It's a mishmash of pretty images - flowers unfolding, the sun shining, grass blowing gently in the wind. After 30 seconds of this the message comes onscreen: "For a new day, vote Bob." It runs like a slightly less maudlin version of the film Edward G. Robinson watches in the suicide room in Soylent Green. The ad's a failure, and Bob doesn't start moving in the polls until he runs brutal attack ads against the incumbent Democrat, played by Gore Vidal.

Yes, Lieberman's team is cribbing plays from a fictional U.S. Senate campaign. I wonder, why do liberals have such low opinions of Democratic consultants?