With a Redskins helmet and a picture of his football coach father in the background, embattled Republican George Allen spoke to the people of Virginia tonight in a 2 minute ad that he purchased in four markets across the state. Nothing new in his comments, although he did acknowledge that he brought some of this stuff on himself, alluding, I assume to the Breaks incident.
I doubt if anybody was swayed by this ad. No touchdown here, not even a field goal.
I expect someone will be posting a video of this soon. Once it’s up, I’ll link to it.
UPDATE: Watch the ad here
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I was distracted by Susan. I thought she would say SOMETHING. She is probably his greatest asset in this campaign and she played second fiddle to the football helmet.
Wow! Wow! Wow! That ad was fabulous. It’s great to have our Senator back on message. Terrific ad.
Well first, thanks for not being snarky like some of the other bloggers out there.
Was this a knock ’em out of the park kind of ad? No, but I don’t think it was intended to be. Still it was solid, it was on message, and it showed the real George Allen.
As for Susan not saying anything, she will when she needs to (and she has). But this was about George tonight.
I thought it was excellent for the dollar value. But of course I’m biased.
Your mileage may vary.
Visually not terribly impressive. Allen might be more comfortable with a podium in front of him or something because I’m not sure what he’s doing with his hands. In the good old days, movie actors would prefer to smoke on camera because movie actors were usually not as well-schooled as stage actors, and they didn’t know what to do with their hands. Too bad for Allen that we don’t live in a day and age when smoking on camera is acceptable for a politician–unless you’re Kinky Friedman.
I suppose he prefers snuff anyway.
The background is subdued enough that it doesn’t overshadow the subject but it’s still so artificial that it destracts from the subject. The other blogs that are focusing on the content of the speech have missed the mark, but the average viewer is going to wonder who that woman to the right was and what is she wearing?
TV is a visual medium, not a rhetorical medium, and while the sorts of people will pay attention to the content of the speech, the average voter is only going to remember what they saw, not what they heard. In this sense, I feel that Allen may have missed the mark with a plastic, contrived visual; it goes along with the plastic, contrived personality he’s assumed in the Commonwealth of Virginia for more than a decade. The question on everyone’s mind at the beginning of the week was “who is the real George Allen?” and I suspect that ultimately most people will feel like they still don’t know the answer to that question by Friday.
Badrose – I think it was her Nancy Reagan imitation. It certainly was strange.
Ward – don’t mix baseball metaphors in with my football ones 🙂
YEAH!! An ad that wasn’t an attack ad!! Regardless of the msg within the infomercial, I thought, “DAMN! About time somebody said something that wasn’t a direct attack on his opponant.”
If his goal was to sway me to vote for him, I’d say the msg didn’t do it (there are simply too many OTHER issues that I’d like to hear about) but if the msg was, “We don’t HAVE to be messy. Let’s play well with each other,” then I’m more inclined to NOT fast forward the TIVO when I see a George Allen commercial. Come on! Step up to the plate and let’s see if YOU can get me to not fast forward through YOUR ads!
Folks, I think that is what this was about. TIVO has GOT to be telling the RNCC and the DNCC that we are not even WATCHING their hate filled attacks. At least now I am more likely to not use the 30 second skip button when I see Allen’s face. Maybe!
edit: Come on JIM WEBB! Step up to the plate and let’s see if YOU can get me to not fast forward through YOUR ads!