Conservatives Clock the Count
The Conservative Party took a different tack against Michael Ignatieff than Stéphane Dion.With Dion, they attacked right away, not giving him a chance to get comfortable in his job and in the process, defined him before he could define himself.
With Michael Ignatieff, they seemed to be holding back, let Ignatieff define himself. When they finally released some negative ads yesterday, some of the Tory faithful said, at last. But the original strategy was, in my opinion, effective. The more Canadians see Ignatieff, the less they will like him. Let the Canadian people begin to have their doubts, save your response until an election, then release it all at once: a little shock and awe politics. That’s what I thought they were doing, and that’s what I thought would be effective.
Then yesterday, the Conservatives released this ad:
Know what I got out of this ad: Tory Times are Tough Times. Who approved an ad that had the central message from The Liberals negative ads running right through the middle of it? And who puts out a negative attack ad accusing the other guy of using negative attack ads?
But even after those blunders, what is the main theme of this ad? Ignatieff wasn’t in Canada all those years. For some people, me included, that could be construed as a positive. A little international man about town would be a nice change from the base provincialism that’s grinding the gears off so much in this country. And it sure beats the professional politicians that are running the country into the ground now.
There’s a fair amount to dislike about Michael Ignatieff, very little substance to his politics among them. There was not one of those reasons on display for this ad, and that’s why it’s simply not good enough.
h/t Gerry
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