These left-wing, liberal, Al Franken bloggers are as goofy a bunch as I’ve ever seen. They’ve spent the entire morning concocting a conspiracy theory, wasting valuable bandwidth on the Internet. The Senator and his wife were both in the kitchen of their home where the commercial was filmed.
Ooh, “left-wing” and “liberal,” I’m flattered. Fact of the matter is that I’ve talked to tons of people and they all had the same reaction as me; even ones with years of video editing experience. The reflections aren’t there, the perspective seems wrong, the proportions are off, Laurie’s placement seems out of place, but, as I said yesterday, this is probably all the result of some odd camera angle and fancy lighting. Still, questions, I think, were to be expected.
While I don’t mean to keep this going any longer (okay, maybe I do), is anyone else struck by the statement’s language? “The Senator and his wife were both in the kitchen of their home.” Not to be a stickler, but that doesn’t really answer the question. The question is whether they were both there, together.
Look, this is easy, let’s see some outtakes. I think it would be fun in general, maybe even endearing. A nice shot of Laurie and Norm laughing with each other when she flubs her line. Is that too much to ask? (probably)
And here for your viewing pleasure once more, is the now infamous commerical (pause at 16 seconds and tell me I’m “goofy”):
When she says, “Hey Norm,” and asks him to take out the trash, so only kind of half turns towards him and doesn’t even look at him. This is a very odd ad. It’s very good actually if my mind wasn’t so consumed by it’s oddities.
She is an actress right? Why would she need the aid of a green screen? This doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult of an ad to film conventionally.
Similar point to that I made here — releasing raw high-resolution footage from the shoot would be a perfect way to put this to bed so we can start discussing the content of the ad — namely, the Colemans’ relationship and what it means to Norm’s political values.
Worst. Commercial. Ever.
That was as bas as Obama’s ad is good.
Ha.
Edit: Thanks for putting the ‘edit’ function back in!
This campaign has the potential to be the ugliest in state history. Even though I’m concerned about Franken as a candidate, I appreciate knowing that he isn’t going to curl-up and take the GOP hits.
There are limits to hearsay, but there’s plenty intrigue associated with Norm’s alleged baggage. The evolution of blogs since 2004 will really be tested this election year. The massive exchange of information without journalistic standards in the next few months will likely make some people think twice before running for national office.
I find the new culture interesting, but I don’t know if I’m comfortable with it. I’ve heard the rumors about how McCain treats his wives, Obama’s patriotism, religion, and what is wife says, of course Franken’s jokes, and some interesting stories about Coleman- but I’m not sure if circulating them on a public forum without confirmation is ethically sound.
AK: I share some of your reservations and, frankly, I don’t yet know how to feel about many of them. My current theory is that it’s going to take a little time to adjust because we’re used to seeing things in print that we can believe, to an extent, right of the bat. This new frontier requires people to develop a strong filter, but once people get used to that, I think it’s a good thing. It requires people to be discerning about their data, to think about what is plausible or not and discard the rest. Plus, I just always fall on the side of more information is better when there’s only a choice between more and less.
But, sincerely, I share your concerns and I think about them every time I post something.
I don’t really care if it was green screened or not. Honestly, does it really matter? Coleman has got enough baggage from being a crappy U.S. Senator/Bush lapdog. Discussions about stuff like this seem to be a needless distraction and come across as a bit silly.
This wouldn’t be the first time Norm Coleman resorted to photographic trickery to deceive viewers. When he was running for governor, Coleman sent out a direct-mail piece touting his accomplishments in St. Paul. The mailer featured a photo of the skyline of downtown St. Paul shot from Mound Park. But to make Norm’s Saintly City look even saintlier, he had airbrushed (or Photoshopped) every billboard from the city skyline, every corporate name from the tops of buildings (both unsightly trends that flourished under Coleman’s reign), and the dumbest move: airbrushed the big red “1” atop the First National Bank building.
Norm Coleman: Phony then. Phony now. A hollow man.
That statement does nothing to disprove the claims. And I don’t believe any of it. My main hope is that they keep playing the commercial over and over for all MN people to see.
Matt-
I wasn’t alluding to your posts, rather some of the other blogs that focus on sensationalism. I do feel for the families that get hurt with this type of coverage, especially one in particular that is included in the gossip surrounding one of the candidates.
You are right about people needing to develop filters in regards to new sources of information. Unfortunately, I know a lot of educated people that have yet to figure this out. I applaud you for pointing out that no one is taking credit for the Draft Ciresi site, although in the long run a lot of us think he would have been a better candidate.
I suspect that it will only get worse as we move closer to fall. This Senate race might rival St. Paul holding the GOP Convention in national coverage. It’s going to be expensive and nasty. Ron Carey won’t get a job managing a dog catcher campaign if Obama carries MN, Franken wins, and the DFL gains another House Seat. His career is on the line and he’s going to be toxic. This sense of urgency in the state GOP was enough for me to go with Franken over JNP even though he was more baggage. Neither candidate will escape undamaged.
Yes, please play this ad as often as possible. Spend money showing Normy as just a regular henpecked husband with little to no senatorial panache while portraying Minnesota as a frozen wasteland even in June.
As for the press release, didn’t we see a bunch of Republican Administration press releases about WMDs in Iraq… I could swear those turned out to be lies… just like this one is.
Families are off limits unless the candidate makes them part of his campaign. When Coleman’s wife appears in an ad with him (if not actually in the same room as him) and the camera focuses in on her wedding ring, their marriage becomes fair game. I don’t know that it is necessarily a good idea to go after their marriage, but Coleman can no longer claim that its off limits.
They’ve lied about everything else, why would anyone believe them about this? Oh, and it matters. I mean if they can’t bring the two of them together for something as simple as this, well, what kind of “family values” can they really have? Their meme, not mine.
Also, if you parse the statement, it doesn’t even rule out that they were both in different kitchens in different houses. So long as they were both in kitchens of houses that they both own (say one in MN and one in CA), then the statement is technically accurate. Very slippery.
I saw this on TV and had it muted, so didn’t get the “dialog.” From that vantage point, it seemed obvious she was super-imposed. Good pick-up.