McConnell out with first re-election spots of the year
(CNN) - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is out with a new TV commercial that his team touts as its first major buy for the Kentucky Republican's 2014 re-election campaign.
McConnell's campaign says it's spending six figures over the next two weeks to run the positive ad statewide. The spot features a Kentucky resident named Robert Pierce, who says McConnell helped him recover from throat cancer.
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"These days, I don't have much of a voice. But I and so many Kentuckians have been helped by someone with a strong voice. Mitch McConnell," says Pierce in the commercial.
Pierce then describes how he got cancer after being exposed to high levels of radiation while working at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, before adding that "Mitch McConnell stepped in, and helped create cancer screening programs, and provide compensation for sick workers. He knocked down walls for us. He helped save peoples' lives."
The spot appears to be an effort by the McConnell campaign to raise the Senator's approval and favorable ratings in Kentucky, which are nothing to brag about.
The five-term Senator is facing a conservative primary challenge from businessman Matt Bevin, who enjoys some support from some tea party and grassroots activists. Wednesday Bevin added to those endorsements, as FreedomWorks, a national grassroots conservative group, backed him.
And McConnell's facing a Democratic challenge from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Grimes' campaign was quick to point out that McConnell used Pierce in a similar ad in his 2008 re-election campaign.
"It is no surprise Mitch McConnell has to recycle old TV ads given that he offers no new ideas. It is insulting to Kentuckians for McConnell to haul out this old, dishonest play every six years when he's on the ballot," said Grimes campaign spokeswoman Charly Norton, in a statement.
"Only the most partisan, embittered, dogmatically liberal activists would have the audacity to call a Paducah cancer survivor's story dishonest. It's a sad day when attack-dog politics trumps basic human decency," said McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore, in response.
While the new spot (both a 60 second and 30 second version) may be McConnell's first major ad buy, it's far from his first. His campaign went up with their first ad in his 2014 re-election campaign in March of 2013, which was extremely early in the election cycle.
When McConnell's counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, went up with commercials around a year before his November 2010 re-election, the move made political headlines.
The irony that radiates from the very Republican leading the charge against ACA whose re-election campaign commercials tout all the work he has done to set up medical screening programs for local Kentuckians is not lost on most of us..
Well, he just lost Freedomworks, who endorsed Bevin. I expect McConnell to be out with something in an attempt to prove his Teatroll bona fides soon enough. He'll probably latch onto the ridiculous tactic of trying to repeal the risk corridors provision in the ACA, which would cause premiums to increase very quickly, so it's something they are considering attempting in order to "bring the pain" and blame it on Obama. The provision expires by its own terms in 2016 anyway in anticipation of the markets having stabilized by that point, so it really just highlights how petty and ridiculous the GOP/Teatrolls are behaving that they would try to deliberately break a temporary provision that is designed to help stabilize the market, just so they can claim the ACA is broken..."yeah, so what if we're the ones who broken it...now that it's broken, we need to repeal it more."
Its great McConnel helped someone. Even considering how wide a reach politicians have, his helping hand helped one person. What's sad is that fact it's being reused. He needs to really help one person every year. That way he won't need to recycle the "helping hand" ad.
The spot features a Kentucky resident named Robert Pierce, who says McConnell helped him recover from throat cancer.
I'm not from Kentucky , yet McConnell cured me from tape worms !
Turtle man is going down. Americans are sick and tired of the republicans obstruction
Gee, I would have had him figured to be running on jobs and the economy.
Will there be an article about all of the Wendy Davis lies? IOIYAD
" so many Kentuckians have been helped by someone with a strong voice. Mitch McConnell," "
Yeah, helped...here's the kind of help McConnell's behavior would provide over the past 6 years;
helped to get denied health insurance
helped to go bankrupt from medical bills
helped bury a child with a pre-existing condition
helped to pick out a casket
helped to be left out of Medicaid expansion
helped to lose a pension
helped to pay oil companies and other giant industries subsidize their profits with your taxes
helped to earn a minimum wage insufficient to live on, feed and insure and educate a family or own property
helped to helped to watch your taxes be spent on special tax loopholes and deductions only available to the rich
helped to lose union representation
helped to watch your gov't come to a standstill and even shut down at the cost of billions
helped to watch the interests of gun manufacturers and retailers be placed over the rights of everyone else to be safe
helped to be furloughed
helped to lose hope
...and the list goes on and on....
He should use some of his money to buy a chin. No more obstructionists please. Let McConnell lose to the Tea Partier and then let the the Democrat beat the religious, nutjob, tea partier.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think of a turtle everytime they see mcconnell? I think I'm associating him with some cartoon character he reminds me of, because I always think 'Turtle' every time I see his ugly mug.
I like turtles (but, I cannot stand this individual).
Weird.
Rudy NYC
Gee, I would have had him figured to be running on jobs and the economy.
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...Or his opposition to Obamacare, or immigration reform. Let's not forget immigration reform Rudy.
Ol' Yeller
Is it just me, or does anyone else think of a turtle everytime they see mcconnell?
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Nope, it is not just you Ol' Yeller.
tom l
Will there be an article about all of the Wendy Davis lies? IOIYAD
_______________________
So you fell for that one. Wow! (She was separated at 19 but not divorced until 21!).
Really compared to Rubio's life story relaignment putting Castro in power before his parent left Cuba? Mr. Romney bravely suffering on the beeches of France during the Vietnam War? Ryan making great use of our nation's social safety net – the ones he would deny following generations? What about Christie, McConnell, Vitter, Palin and all the other GOP liars?
You are foolish to try to intervene on their behalf, or make lame word-game comparisons.
@tom l
"Will there be an article about all of the Wendy Davis lies? IOIYAD"
Uh, this isn't about Texas or Wendy Davis, but I see you have been watching FAUX news again (surpirse, surprise).
I saw where they have been viciously attacking her for saying she was divorced when she 19 when it was actually final when she was 21; they split up and she was on her own at 19. So she is a lying, socialist, pinko, commie Kenyan.
They also have a problem with her saying she lived in a trailer, because apparently a single mother living in a trailer for a couple of months is just not long enough for them to accept. She needed to live in the trailer longer, or else she cannot say she lived in a trailer. They are attacking her for not living in a trailer longer.
That's a pretty nice group you are hanging with there, tom I.
And, without a doubt, some of the most in depth tantalizing earth shattering breaking news on Wendy Davis. She can NEVER be Governor of Texas because she didn't live in a trailer long enough to suit you.
Shame on her for pulling herself up by the bootstraps. What kind of American is she anyway?!?!
Fail.
It's the turtle from that old Bugs Bunny cartoon....
No Ol Yeller, it's not just you. Turtle is the first thing that pops into my mind when I see that old crone.
If Mr. McConnell loses to Bevin, the GOP likely loses Kentucky, and the GOP sinks ever deeper into the swamp of petty radicalism. The truth is as noxious as McConnell is, as a nation we need him to win. If the GOP continues this out-of-control Rightward spin-out, it will shortly cease being able to put up viable candidates, and our nation loses the second political party that our current two-party system relies upon.
Sure, I'd never vote for a fraud like McConnell (the GOP long ago left my middle-of-the-road, eastern conservatism) given even a reasonable choice, but the cheap radicals of the Right are a dead certain never-vote-for catagory all their own. Our nation (and it's politics) are based upon choice. "Righter than McConnel", (or the crazies we suffer with in AZ) are no choice at all- they are the death of our nation, waiting in the wings.
Ol' Yeller
Is it just me, or does anyone else think of a turtle everytime they see mcconnell? I think I'm associating him with some cartoon character he reminds me of, because I always think 'Turtle' every time I see his ugly mug.
I like turtles (but, I cannot stand this individual).
Weird.
__________________________
It's that old "are you an undiscovered artist?" advertisement that used to lurk in the back of magazines for by-mail art lessons where you would draw the Pope-in-a-pirate-hat, or the turtle, and it would be judged by a panel of "experts" for potential.
I wouldn't get too excited libs... McConnell is going to win another term easily while many Democrats fall by the wayside thanks to their support of Obamacare.
Bye Bye Mitch. You will be beaten in November. Next.
Is this even a race? Ol` Mitch will cruise to victory come election time.
In other news........
1. The September 11, 2012 attack could have been prevented.
2. Secretary of State Clinton did not do an appropriate risk assessment for Ambassador Stevens and other outpost personnel.
3. Al Qaeda was directly involved in the detailed planing and execution of the attack.
4. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both knew it was a terrorist attack on the evening of September 11, 2012.
5. A lie was manufactured and perpetuated as they repeatedly blamed an anti-Islamic video as the impetus of the attack.
from a related site with better news....
tom l
Will there be an article about all of the Wendy Davis lies? IOIYAD
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yeah, right after the article about how anchor baby rubio lied about his parents' refugee status. Or is that okay with you?
Meanwhile, back on Reality Ranch....
Sounds more like the Delusional Ranch. A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary
Ol' Yeller
@tom l
"Will there be an article about all of the Wendy Davis lies? IOIYAD"
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Yesterday ... or the day before. I forget which. Feel free to go back and check out the article.