I read this article in Slate (via Obsidian Wings) about the Bush TV ad, "Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-Eyed." 

And after watching the ad, I have to add my voice to those who are asking, "What in the world are the Bush people thinking?" Of course, as an acknowledged but reluctant Kerry supporter, I watch it with some bias. Still, the ad is so over the top, so frankly laughable, that it is a wonder it got beyond the snort-your-coffee-up-your-nose test.

The ad begins by stating that these statement are those made by some Kerry supporters, and then has several clips of passionate statements by Democratic politicians like Gore and Dean. The doubled-over-with-laughter point comes with a clip of Hitler, making a subliminal association between Democratic luminaries and Hitler himself, as though Hitler would vote for Kerry were he alive today.

Of course, if you read the fine print, that's not precisely what the ad is saying. The Hitler video is attributed to a moveon.org commercial, even though that organization did not produce the commercial and has expressly repudiated it (the Hitler ad was one of about 1,500 submitted in a contest moveon.org sponsored for anti-Bush ads). So the ad is technically saying that some people who currently support Kerry once compared Hitler to Bush. But that's not really true, either, since as far as I know the people who actually made the Hitler ad haven't publicly announced their support for Kerry, and moveon.org, which does support Kerry, doesn't endorse that ad.

Anyway, I'm waiting for the counter-ad from the Kerry campaign, the one which begins "This is an actual ad the Bush campaign ran against John Kerry" followed by the entire Bush ad. I think Bush running this ad will be much more effective in winning support for Kerry than Bush, and if I was running Kerry's campaign, I might just be willing to pay the Bush campaign to run it more.

Here's a democratic response to Bush's "Coalition of the Wild-Eyed" ad. At about the same level of maturity and sophistication, too. Actually, I think Ann Coulter is pretty hot. Did she have those fangs whitened? And the cute little horns are just so perky.

So what would it look like if the Kerry campaign ran a similar ad? Well, I've taken the liberty of putting something together which approximates the level of discourse and sophisticated political argument seen in the Bush ad. Click on the image for a larger version.

(as an aside, I post this image knowing full well that there's the chance someone else will take it out of context in an attempt to smear the Democrats. Whatever.)