Bradley Jay: 'When Did Being Cool Become Uncool?'
Click on the audio player to hear a clip from the Jay Talking radio show on the subject of President Obama's "coolness."
Podcast
Anti-Obama forces have shot themselves in the foot. Not with a BB gun or a .22, but with a Howitzer.
Karl Rove's super PAC, American Crossroads, has released an ad that attempts to make President Obama's "coolness" a campaign issue. They have spent heaps of money on an ad that accuses President Obama of being cool? They thought they could turn coolness from an asset to a liability. Really? Talk about "too cute by half."
This could be the single biggest mistake ever made by any political interest group ever. It takes the concept of "gaffe" to new and un-dreamed of heights. What planet are these people from? Don't they know that coolness is the single most revered quality in America?
In an act of political Judo, Obama supporters quickly remixed the ad into a pro-Obama piece that is sure to get massive free exposure.
The icing on the cake is that Swiss band Yello may fight the ad makers for using their signature "ohhh yeaaahhh, which was made famous in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
How could American Crossroads not know that Americans love celebrity? Don't they know that America is packed with people who are famous merely for being famous? This ad makes it disturbingly clear that the people trying to get Mitt Romney elected have no clue what makes Americans tick. Hey Mitt, with friends like this, who needs enemies? And President Obama, with enemies like this, who needs friends.
The scariest part of this goof is not simply that it is a crippling self-inflicted wound, but that persons and groups that we assume must be savvy could be so wrong in such a high-stakes game. If these so-called "experts" can make poor decisions, whom else can't we trust?
The takeaway here is that we cannot doze off and trust the folks driving the bus to keep us on the road. They won't. If you close your eyes, they WILL drive us into a ditch.
Stay vigilant.
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