Worst Ad Campaign... Ever

Among the TV shows that I'm working on for my internship, there is one about the history of presidental campaigns. I was doing research for this show last week and I was watching Bush and Kerry political ads online. The biggest tradegy of my not blogging last week is that I didn't get to include a link to one of the Bush ads, because it amazed me. Unfortunately, georgewbush.com has taken it down since then, which doesn't surprise me, but I'd like to give a description of this 60 second ad as best I can remember it. It begins with John Kerry and other democrats talking about how bad a president he is. Ok, I think, he's setting this up for a rebuttal. So Kerry and company go on about his poor diplomacy skills, his misjudgements about counterterrorism before 9/11, how he misled the American people into a war with Iraq, etc. About 45 to 50 seconds in, this is still going on and now Michael Moore has joined in the fun. So now I'm starting to wonder if I'm on the right web site or that maybe someone has hacked into the site and replaced the ad. But then finally the tone changes and a smiling image of Bush appears. Ok, this is it. I'm by means a fan of Bush, but I have to hand it to his campaign team, they've piled most of the major criticisms of his administration together into one package and now they're going to refute it all in less than 10 seconds. That can be no easy task. They must have something great lined up to be so confident in their abilities. Perhaps something that can even make me reconsider and think maybe he's not quite as bad a president as I thought, just someone who's doing his best in a very difficult position. Then here comes the voiceover... "George W. Bush doesn't believe in such pessimism in his campaign. Vote Bush, the optimistic candidate!" .... ? .... ! .... ?.... Is that it? Heapfuls of testimonials basically calling him one of the worst presidents this country has ever had, and that's your response? He may be a terriblely undiplomatic speaker whose lack of foresight resulted in the death of thousands of innocent Americans, a plummit in the economy, and a seemingly unnecessary war with an unrelated country, but damn it, he can still start the day with a smile! I'm guessing this is why it was taken off the web site and replaced by another one, again with the optimism message, but less damaging to his own campaign.

This has inspired me to post Two Minutes Fifty Seconds Silence for America by Matt Rogalsky. This track is simply a recording of George W. Bush announcing to the world that he was giving Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq before US forces would invade. Rogalsky then used editing software to remove any point where Bush was speaking and then raised the volume of the recording. The result is a thunderous sound as Bush's words reverberate in the White House. According to Rogalsky, many people have likened the sound to something like "drums of war" and it definitely adds a new dimension and commentary to that speech.

Matt Rogalsky & George W. Bush - Two Minutes Fifty Seconds Silence for America

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