Fuddled-Up Beyond All Recognition

On Facebook I once joked that if I ever went into politics, I'd make sure to have many pictures taken of myself, in a wide variety of poses. That way the oppositions attack ads wouldn't have to keep using the same tiresome image over and over, as Conservative attack ads against Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff did.

Of course, I realize that the reason the Tory ads always used the same picture was not a lack of choice. They were repeating the same image to make sure that was the picture you had of the Liberal leader. In each case it was a photo carefully chosen to suggest your worst suspicions of the given leader. The awkward intellectual Dion was shown shrugging his shoulders with a look of confusion. The accomplished academic Ignatieff giving a stiff royal wave with a smug look on his face.  Those ads were highly successful.  Sometimes I hear people say they weren't that effective, because they were weak leaders to begin with.  Think about that, the campaign to make you think they are weak leaders wasn't necessary, because you think they are weak leaders.

So now they're going after Justin Trudeau, and they've apparently decided that the Achilles heel of his public face is a clip of him in a T-shirt on the runway at a light-hearted charity event. It may not hit home just because it's so unusual and outside the political realm that it won't connect to his political persona. That is, I don't think that voters are going to see him speaking in a suit, and subconsciously associate it with a guy in a bachelor auction. Though admittedly, the Tories are going to have some trouble with Trudeau to begin with, since he already is an emotional choice for voters to begin with.  That is, his reputation is already based on the public's desires and hopes, rather than being a less-known blank slate.

But what's really interesting is the selection of quotes they're using to tarnish him.  The "deficits take care of themselves" quote is pretty quick and out-of-context, even by the standards of attack ads.  But what's really interesting are the other two.  The quote where he muses about the origins of terrorists is only going to be damning to people who are already pretty paranoid about terrorism.  And then the legalizing pot statement is actually liable to win over a few voters for the Liberals.  It's not going to scare many people away from Trudeau, outside of people who would not consider voting Liberal to begin with.  So assuming that the Conservatives haven't totally miscalculated, this round of ads is more about shoring up Conservative support.