Your Thoughts Exactly

Watching CNN today, Terry Holt from the Bush-Cheney campaign and Michael Meehan from the Kerry-Cheney campaign were fielding questions from Wolf Blitzer and debating with each other. After Holt said something absurd, Meehan responded by saying something along the lines of “that is ridiculous. This is a campaign that used images of Hitler in an ad and blah blah blah we’ve heard this before etc etc etc. (If you haven’t heard of this ad, you can see it and read the text - the Hitler parts are labeled "unintelligible chanting" - on the Bush-Cheney website, or read about it at Slate). But something funny happened while he was talking. Here’s what it was like – and let me preface by saying that this is not a perfect quote of Mr. Meehan. The text in brackets is from the mouth of Bush-man Terry Holt.

“That is ridiculous. This is a campaign that used images of Hitler[johnkerry] in an ad and blah blah blah we’ve heard this before etc. etc. etc.”

Now, the ad was inexcusable and an obvious attempt at more of Bush’s “subliminable” tactics. Could it be that the campaign is trying any way they can to subliminally link Hitler and Kerry? Should I put more space between those two names to avoid helping them achieve this? I mean, he just blurted “johnkerry” practically before Meehan was finished saying “Hitler.” Are the Bush campaign staffers this well trained? Are they brainwashed themselves, after being used as guinea pigs in testing various ads to see how well they linked Kerry and that German guy? Or maybe he has some form of tourettes, and his specific affliction is randomly saying “johnkerry.”

postscript. Furthering my suspicions of foul play, when they came back from commercial break they discussed the anti-gay-marriage amendment. Meehan pointed out that Kerry’s position is identical to what Cheney said during the 2000 campaign, that marriage has always been defined by the states and should continue to be done so. Holt said Meehan is incorrect and that Cheney supports an amendment. Wolf cut in and said, like Kerry, Cheney said in 2000 that his position is that it should be left to the states, but now says he supports the President, as all vice-presidents will do despite their personal beliefs. Do your cheeks burn, Mr. Holt? Moving right on, Wolf started to ask Mr. Holt why Bush declined the invitation from the NAACP to speak at their annual convention, but before he could finish the question, Holt’s camera feed was lost. Coincidence? Probably. Chance that Mr. Holt pulled the plug with his foot while smiling at the camera? Definitely.