Wednesday, May 06, 2009

DNC Survivor Ad Mocks Republicans As Hapless Castaways

by.Sam Stein

Taking advantage of the latest internal squabbling and insecurity of the GOP, the Democratic National Committee put out a new web ad Tuesday evening comparing the lot of prospective leaders in the Republican Party to a theoretical cast of the hit show Survivor.

Entitled "Survivor: GOP," the clip makes its point in images rather than words.

Starting with a worried quote about the state of the party from Sen. Olympia Snowe (the "Last of the Moderates," to continue with the tribal theme), the ad goes through 16 Republican tribe members vying "for the heart and soul of the GOP."

Mitt Romney, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Mark Sanford, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Bobby Jindal, John Cornyn, Mike Huckabee, Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell, Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, and Rush Limbaugh all make brief cameos.

Replete with a mock Survivor emblem -- "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Survivor: GOP Edition" -- the ad represents a new crest of DNC mockery about the search for leadership and message in the Republican Party. Instead of official titles, each figure is referred to simply by their first name (or in Cornyn's case, "Big John"). At one point, the shot turns to a helpless little elephant running through the mud.

Certainly, the DNC hasn't lacked useful material. This past week Romney clashed with Palin's camp, Limbaugh ridiculed the Cantor-led rebranding effort, Steele remained seemingly on thin ice (save with Gingrich), the party lost a Senator to the Democrats, and a poll showed only 21 percent of the public identifies with the GOP.

Asked if they would keep hitting on the Survivor theme in weeks to come, a DNC official said they were "exploring the idea."

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