Act the First: “Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” Trump said. “You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good.” “You know, the dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away...
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Great Moments in Campaign Advertising: Confessions of a Republican
Often overshadowed by LBJ’s infamous “Daisy” ad, “Confessions of a Republican” is great mostly because it’s so weird. It’s also really long—four minutes and change. I haven’t been able to figure out when exactly it aired, or how really, because four-minute ad breaks aren’t particularly common even now (and TV commercial breaks have stretched drastically in recent years). In the ad, an actor (although the ad doesn’t say as much) talks about how he’s always been a Republican, but the party’s candidate that year, Sen. Goldwater, is too extreme for his comfort. Sure, this is mostly an artifact of the era during which party...
Continue reading...Your Official V+V Sunday Super Tuesday Super Bowl Election Caucus Forum Trumphgasm Cocktails
Hooray. Today is Super fucking Tuesday or whatever. Truth is, calling a date during which state parties in 11 states vote “Super Tuesday” is like calling the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs the “Super Bowl(s?).” Whatever. I mean, at this point, this whole fucking 2016 cycle is pictured below: Or, more eloquently: If you’re anything like the V+V fam, you’re probably going to want to have some drinks as results come in from these primary elections and caucuses. Like, probably a whole lot of drinks. Ted Cruz is going to be saying words on national...
Continue reading...Hell Bent for Election
So this is friggin’ cool. Above is an animated film directed by Chuck Jones that was basically a union-sponsored campaign ad for FDR. From the YouTube description: Hell-Bent For Election was a 1944 two-reel (thirteen minute) animated cartoon short subject now in the public domain. The short was one of the first major films from United Productions of America (then known as “Industrial Films”), which would go on to become the most influential animation studio of the 1950s. As UPA did not have a full staff or a studio location until the late-1940s, this film was made...
Continue reading...Parks and Rec creator says smart thing about government in random interview
I definitely don’t want it to fly by when somebody says something randomly that is very smart about government. Mike Schur, man behind some of the best sitcoms of all time, one of which is Parks and Recreation, was asked about the era that led to the creation of a show about local government: And then there were a couple of other things, the biggest of which I think obviously is that at the time Greg and I were developing the show around the summer of 2008, the world economy was collapsing around us, the McCain/Obama campaign...
Continue reading...So what’s next?
This morning, we went over the preordained Republican takeover of the Senate. So, other than having to hear “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says” over and over, what will the next two years look like? For the most part, you’d be correct in assuming that it’d look a lot like the last four years: With Democrat Barack Obama still the president, and a Republican-controlled House and Senate, it’s going to be a loud not much. Yet even with that caveat, we can still look into what a unified legislature is going to at least try, and perhaps...
Continue reading...Voters decide the government is doing too much to help them
A hearty number of column inches (so anachronistic!) are being devoted today to explaining various reasons Democrats lost yesterday and Republicans won. It’s the long-running day-after tradition, and it’s rarely illuminating. But, you got to fill the papers, they say. Truth is, we all knew this was going to happen two years ago. Hell, we were all pretty sure even six years ago, when this class of senators was elected. Without a presidential election to buoy them, these unlikely Democratic faces representing deeply conservative states would not be long in their seats. The reason why is not surprising....
Continue reading...Little girl is super sad that George Washington is not our current president
Sick of campaign ads? Disgusted by the DC insiders and/or Tea Party outsiders running for office? This four-year-old girl, who just finished learning about early American history and became very enamored of our first president, feels your pain.
Continue reading...The Yale Community Apparently Doesn’t Know What the Word “Refute” Means
“Indeed members of the Yale community who know Dach personally refute any possibility that he could have been involved in the scandal. According to 32 sources interviewed, Dach’s character is best represented by the way he interacts with others on a regular basis.” –Amid scandal, University community defends Dach “Refute” implies that these sources knew something about the “scandal” Dach is accused of– to wit, hiring a prostitute in Cartagena, a place where prostitution is legal, while working as a volunteer for the Obama campaign. Only one of the sources quoted even mentions ‘women’s issues,’ describing Dach...
Continue reading...Michigan Senate candidate hits other Senate candidate with ties to loan Sharknado or something
In this weird and kind-of awful ad, Michigan Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land accuses Democratic Senate candidate Gary Peters for having ties to a loan shark. With Sharknado, because that’s not over.
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