Schumer's In Their Heads

No one loves a good political attack ad more than me. I love seeing a good commercial or mail piece rip an opponent apart. And today, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is up with a funny and original new attack ad I wanted to highlight for its humor and inventiveness, as well as for its ultimate ineffectiveness.

The ad, which is posted at this link, attacks Chuck Schumer for the DSCC's negative ads against Mitch McConnell, and it claims that Schumer is trying to pick Kentucky's next Senator. The ad implies that Schumer is trying to unduly influence Kentucky with New York values. The narrator has a great nasal accent, and he uses a heaping helping of New York phrases like "fuggedaboutit" and "bada bing, bada boom." It's a funny commercial, and very clever. Unfortunately for McConnell, it's mostly worthless a big waste of money.

This ad comes on the heels of a new Survey-USA poll released today which finds McConnell tied for the first time with his opponent, 46-46. Other polls have also showed a tightening race, and McConnell is clearly in a major fight to hold his seat. So, McConnell's need to resort to attacks is both obvious and logical. He has just taken the wrong tact here.

I have never understood it when politicians or parties craft attack ads designed to link their opponents to figures who are completely unknown in the targeted district/city/state. While McConnell is right to imply that Chuck Schumer wields huge influence both in 2008 Senate campaigns and in the United States Senate, that doesn't mean anything in Kentucky. People in Kentucky have absolutely no idea who he is. None. Trying to link Schumer to the race is about as useful as linking Marvin the Martian or Bugs Bunny here -- it's a waste of time. Maybe trying to say that McConnell's opponent would bring liberal views to the Senate is one thing, but using Schumer as a vehicle to do this is foolish.

Obviously, Chuck Schumer is in the heads of Republicans. When you are in the head of your opponent, you have already won. This happens in sports all the time. Intimidation is a big part of competition, and political combat is no exception.

Earlier this summer we highlighted two YouTube clips (I can't find the second one) where a spooked Ted Stevens invoked and attacked Schumer not once, but twice when discussing his re-election fight, and who was behind attacks on him.

Here again we see a prominent Republican attacking Schumer in a non-strategic way. McConnell loathes Schumer for creating problems for him, but he's letting that hatred get the best of him. An ad like this is a waste of his time and money. Why on earth would McConnell's constituents care about Schumer when many of them have turned on McConnell over the economic crisis and the bailout?

Remember my post from this morning advising the GOP to find someone to make Schumer's life more difficult in 2010? I think this is more proof that they should follow it.