| Mr. Olbermann took the ex-Governor of Alaska and unemployed blogger (hey like the Dog!) to task on the huge number of inaccuracies and flat out lies in her book last night. He used parts of one segment and the entire #3 segment of his show to do a great job of making it clear she is a pathological liar who cannot keep her stories straight.
Then it happened, not once but twice while Keith was in full swing there were commercials for Newsmax. That would have been odd in and of itself, but what was the Far Right news magazine hawking? You guessed it! Sara Palin's book! For those who don't know, part of why La Palin's book is on the New York Times bestseller list is the Wingnut welfare tactic of conservative groups buying huge numbers of them and giving them away as perks or premiums.
Newsmax is using "Going Rogue" as a teaser to get folks to sign up for their rag of conservative thought (strike through) writing. For a mere $4 you get that book which retails for $28, the commercial tells you. You also get four months of fetid fever swamp reporting (okay, the Dog is paraphrasing a little). The commercial is all red, white and blue in its tone and ends with an authoritarian voice saying "Call Today! CALL TODAY!!!"
The Dog knows Mr. Olbermann has nothing to do with the commercials which run during his program (for more on that an Mr. Olbermann's explanation of it see this post), but the folks who do advertise have some say as to when their ads run, and it is clear the folks at Newsmax specifically chose to have their commercial run during his show. This is very confusing to the Dog. Sure, you want to get as many folks as possible trying a subscription to your magazine, but does the Newsmax advertising department really think that anyone watching Countdown is going want to subscribe to one of the lunatic fringe Far Right magazines?
Normally the magazine, which advertises on Countdown, is the liberal The Nation magazine. This makes a little more sense, and their commercial is really pitched to the regular viewers. It even brags of "liberal bias" in its commercials. The tone in the commercial is one of wry wit not the authoritarian ordering of the Newsmax commercial. Where Newsmax orders you to call, The Nation is more of "all the cool liberals are reading it, why are you missing out?"
While this is nothing earth shaking to the Dog it is just another example of how the Right from top to bottom has lost track of the fact they are not in power nor are they or their ideas popular. This is the cognitive dissonance, which is killing the Republican Party. Their reliance on the echo chamber for all their information, their reliance on Republicans and Conservative pollsters for data and their sureness they are good guys and the good guys always win has blinded them to the fact that much of the nation hold their ideas and tactics in varying degrees of disgust and horror. The folks at Newsmax seem to assume that if we godless liberal commie fascist, tree hugging, latte swilling elites just get exposed to their ideas the scales will fall from our eyes and the second coming of Ronald Regan will be at hand.
The reality is they wasted a lot of money on a commercial to an audience who is least likely to want to have their magazine show up on their doorstep, like a flaming bag of dog crap, for four months. Sure there might be a couple of folks who are willing to shell out the four dollars and throw the magazine away for the dubious pleasure of getting to read ex-Gov. Palin's pile of lies, but there is no chance there are enough who would do so to make up the cost of two prime time ads, even at cable network rates.
If this is what passes as strategy in the Conservative movement then the biggest thing we have to fear in the 2010 elections is a protest vote, since it is damned sure they will not be able to beat us with tactics.
The floor is yours.
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