Tom Barrett's campaign, Democrats, and their mouthpieces in the liberal media have pounced on Scott Walker's new ad, "Fighter."
A Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor has begun running ads in which he dons boxing gloves and vows to "go the distance" against the likely Democratic nominee, who was viciously beaten outside a fairground last year and left with serious injuries.
Scott Walker's campaign said Tuesday that it didn't intend to make reference to the August 2009 attack outside the Wisconsin State Fair that left Tom Barrett, Milwaukee's mayor, with injuries to his head, mouth, face and hand. Barrett tried to help a screaming woman struggling to protect her 1-year-old granddaughter from being taken by her drunk, belligerent father.
The attacker, who was sentenced in July to 12 years in prison, beat Barrett with a metal object. The mayor has had three surgeries on his hand, which doctors say may never fully recover.
In the ad, which began running statewide on Sunday and which the campaign doesn't intend to pull, Walker faces the camera, refers to negative campaign ads Barrett has run in the past month and accuses Barrett of "throwing punches at me." At the end, Walker dons red boxing gloves and says he took on the political machine as Milwaukee County executive and he's "ready to go the distance as your next governor."
Walker's campaign sent the ad around in a fundraising e-mail Monday under the subject line "Fighter." The text of the e-mail says Walker is using his latest ad to "fight back" against Barrett's accusations.
"I think he looks ridiculous and I think it really is tasteless," said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate. "Walker does seem to be mocking the fact that the mayor, frankly, almost gave his life to intervene in a domestic violence situation."
Walker spokeswoman Jill Bader defended the approach, saying the ad was in response to three negative spots Barrett has run in recent weeks against Walker. When asked if Walker's ad was in bad taste given Barrett's real-life attack, Bader said, "That was not at all what we're talking about."
She declined to say how much the ad buy was.
Barrett, asked about the ad in Milwaukee, said people can judge for themselves whether it is in bad taste or not.
Here's the ad:
It's not in bad taste. When I first saw it, I didn't think of Barrett's beating after he left State Fair last summer.
I'm very aware of Barrett's hand injury as a result of the incident. Walker's "throwing punches" line doesn't make reference to that at all.
Such hypersensitivity on the part of Barrett's team is so silly. It's wimpy. Barrett and his supporters can't seriously find the boxing gloves offensive. Good grief, it's not as if the ad is a reenactment of the attack that injured Barrett. There's no connection. Walker wasn't mocking the crime against Barrett.
Why would he do that? To what benefit?
In the ad, Walker doesn't talk about punching out Barrett.
In fact, in the last seconds of the ad when Walker is shown donning the gloves, he doesn't mention Barrett at all.
Transcript
SCOTT WALKER: You know, Tom Barrett can't sell his record, so he's throwing punches at me. I believe that government employees should have to pay for their fair share when it comes to their pensions. Tom Barrett? He'll raise your taxes so they don't have to. Like Governor Doyle, Barrett supports radical environmental laws that will cost us thousands of jobs. I want to get government out of the way so employers can create more good paying jobs right here in Wisconsin.
(Boxing gloves visible)
I'm Scott Walker, and I took on the political machine in Milwaukee. And I'm ready to go the distance as your next governor.
Walker isn't ridiculing Barrett's intervention in the domestic dispute. That's crazy.
The Dems' outrage over the spot is really lame. Of course, it's not surprising, but it is very lame. The whining is very wimpy.
5 comments:
Yea, the old: "I'm a victim" "I'm a victim" presentation. Not like you'd know anything about how to play that game.
I'll copy the comment I made over at WPRI:
"See, you kind of prove the point. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that Walker was intentionally belittling Barrett’s attack. Most liberals do not consider Walker, or conservatives in general, that big of monsters. It is that the ad demonstrates Walker’s oblivion that it might be construed as condescending. How could this script make it through a gauntlet of writers, producers, directors, advisers — all the way to the prop person who bought the gloves — without anyone realizing it might be considered a wee bit offensive. And your failure to recognize that shows your insensitivity as well. Yeah, I know. Now you say in a mocking whiny voice “we’re not sensitive enough. Oh nooooo.” But you know what? It does matter to a lot of people, and Walker just lost those votes. For the people that didn’t recognize the slight? They were already in the Walker bag."
I think I called your reaction pretty accurately.
I think you and your comrades are overreacting.
If Barrett thinks it was an offensive ad, HE should say so.
It's cowardly of him to allow his minions to make an issue out of it unless he declares the ad to be an inappropriate shot at him regarding the State Fair incident.
(Maybe a Barrett fundraising e-mail is in the works. Never let an imaginary slight go to waste?)
Walker didn't lose any votes over this incredible silliness. That's wishful thinking on your part.
See, there you go again. Did you realize you just called him cowardly? Seriously? The man put his physical well being on the line to help others.
Of course I realized I called him cowardly.
Barrett's failure to comment on the ad is cowardly. Seriously.
What he did last summer, confronting Anthony Peters, was brave.
Do you realize I called Barrett brave?
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