"Bitter" Makes Its First Mail Appearance

In a mail card for Republican congressional candidate Matt Shaner, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. John Peterson in Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District.

Voting for Shaner will "send a message" to Barack Obama. Shaner's message: "I'm a god-fearing, church-going, NRA member and I'm proud of it!" It'll be hard to tell whether the mail card is successful as there are so many variables that determine who wins primaries, but if more Republican strategists begin to use "bitter" in their materials, it's probably because the NRCC and Republican pollsters have polled and focused grouped the comments and found them provocative. GOP strategist John Brabender's company produced this particular piece.

Comments

I visited my girlfriend in State College a few weekends ago and this guy was running hilariously Tancredo-esque OMIGOD DA MEXICANS! ads on a pretty consistent basis. Classy GOP as always.

Posted by Craig | April 17, 2008 3:15 PM

Awesome post. I'm so glad to be informed by this.

By the way, Glenn Greenwald took you to the woodshed today for your hackery re: last night's "debate".

Good riddance Marc. I've seen enough.

Posted by Jake | April 17, 2008 3:16 PM

Polls show Republican primary voters don't respond well to a quote from Obama ? You don't say.

Posted by benjamin | April 17, 2008 3:20 PM

Speaking on behalf of Marc I can only say to Jake: You should stay and argue your points effectively in an effort to convince us that you are correct. You can only lose by failing to try.

Posted by sbj | April 17, 2008 3:24 PM

Btw does anyone doubt that if Hillary was the presumptive nominee, this same person would send a mailer saying "Send a message to Hillary Clinton" that I am going to fight against whatever outrage-of-the-day they would have drudged up ? Actually with her, send a message to Hillary would probably be enough to rile up those same Republican primary voters

Posted by benjamin | April 17, 2008 3:25 PM

I'm not sure how they can put quotes around the word "clinging" because Obama never used it as a verb in his discussion of the issue. He said cling.

That hilarious, very stupid GOP.

Posted by Joe Justice | April 17, 2008 3:43 PM

So, Marc, did the literature include yours and Hillary Clinton's endorsements of the Republican candidate?

Posted by Watched It | April 17, 2008 3:43 PM

This guy is a drunk driver.

‘‘I was in a condition where I shouldn’t have been driving my car.” — Matt Shaner
Republican Matt Shaner, who announced this week that he will seek to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. John Peterson, said in an interview Thursday he made a big mistake when he left the accident site without speaking to police.

Asked if he thought he was drunk at the time he ran off the road, Shaner told The Associated Press: ‘‘I had too much alcohol to be driving. I may have been.’‘

Posted by Cee | April 17, 2008 4:04 PM

This guy is a drunk driver.

‘‘I was in a condition where I shouldn’t have been driving my car.” — Matt Shaner
Republican Matt Shaner, who announced this week that he will seek to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. John Peterson, said in an interview Thursday he made a big mistake when he left the accident site without speaking to police.

Asked if he thought he was drunk at the time he ran off the road, Shaner told The Associated Press: ‘‘I had too much alcohol to be driving. I may have been.’‘

Posted by Cee | April 17, 2008 4:05 PM

As an Obama supporter, I don't think he's managed to do a very good job of explaining what he meant. His comments, even though they weren't phrased well, weren't that bad anyway. He'll have future opportunities to elaborate, but each day that he fails to do so is another day this meme gets deeper roots, and another day that people start to feel outraged because they're being told that they should be outraged.

It's odd; what could have been a very biting criticism of the way political discourse has played out in the past has actually become an incidiary remark that has been spun just a little in order to fuel the fire of the very type of politics it's trying to discredit.

Posted by socctty | April 17, 2008 4:09 PM

I think this is funny and particularly archaic.

Posted by Rainy | April 17, 2008 4:44 PM

What a turd.

Posted by tinisoli | April 17, 2008 4:56 PM

The value of this in the primary continues to elude me. As something for a Republican to try in the general, yes. But against the other Republican? Unless his opponent endorsed Obama, I'm not sure what one is to make of this as a Pennsylvanian registered to vote in next week's Republican primary.

Posted by Deborah | April 17, 2008 5:01 PM

It doesn't matter if Shaner is a drunk driver. His opponent, Derek Walker, was charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors. Check it out:

Stalking, burglary charges filed against Congressional candidate

Posted by Abe | April 17, 2008 5:11 PM

Ok, this guy first off just oozes 'tool'... second of all, how blatant can you pander? "I FEAR GOD! I OWN GUNS!"

Yeesh. Also, I love the subtle imagery... how the background surrounding Obama is so much darker and more ominous, but Shaner gets a lovely green. Would've worked better though if Shaner didn't look like he was thinking about little boys in the picture...

Posted by LnGrrrR | April 17, 2008 5:15 PM

I have always chuckled at the phrase GOD FEARING. The common Christian view of God is one of mercy and justice.

The only reason to FEAR that God would be because one feels that God might have something to hang a negative judgement on.

Posted by john m | April 17, 2008 5:20 PM

That's a lot of black on the Obama half of the card, isn't it?

Posted by Dan Ryan | April 17, 2008 5:34 PM

LnGrrrR is right, this Shaner dude looks like a perv.

Posted by JM | April 17, 2008 5:45 PM

Obama's picture is great, serious the other guy looks sneaky, cony smile, and "have no idea" look

Posted by Beth | April 17, 2008 6:45 PM

"I'm a cock-sucking, drunk-driving, lying piece of crap. But I fear God and love my guns. I'm Matt Shaner and I approve this message."

Posted by Elrod | April 17, 2008 9:47 PM

why do all GOPers have giant, balding heads with tiny beady eyes? its like they all come out of the same Replicant Production Machine.

patent pending.

Posted by rob! | April 17, 2008 10:59 PM

Good...the more Republicans run on this ridiculous issue, the more they will lose in the general election. Let the GOP fall into this trap and they will go down even harder in November.

The vast majority of voters will not buy into this joke.

And I agree with what others have noted: that the photo of Obama looks very complimentary, whereas the photo of Shaner looks very strange.

Just on visual imagery, Shaner loses with this ad.

And it is funny how this self professed devout church goer got caught drunk driving.

This is self parody; one could not plan a better joke on the GOP. So if Obama can bait them into putting out this trash, then I say the guy is a genius who will win in a landslide.

Posted by cm | April 17, 2008 11:02 PM

OMG SHANER STOLE OBAMA'S FONT!!!

Posted by Gothic | April 18, 2008 9:56 AM

this shit will backfire.

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Posted by Sarah Gimbler | April 18, 2008 12:33 PM

Shaner is a twerp, spending almost $1.3million of his own money for this primary campaign where there are nine candidates in his party. He just has to prove what a slick operator he is, fast-responding to some presidential campaign news that offends the people in his district. Just another rich kid playing in the wrong playground.

Posted by District5 | April 18, 2008 1:30 PM