Today, several postings by Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo demonstrated how good ideas are born, in this case culminating in a telling video that deserves attention since it models a particularly potent way to respond to the McCain/Palin campaign lies. Note how cleverly it capitalizes on the lipstick on a pig meme:
Humor can kill, truth can kill. Put ’em together and watch out!
This video is the ultimate expression of Marshall’s disgust at the sleazy campaign that McCain/Palin are running. In an post early today he observed that:
… what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let’s stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We’ve got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They’ve both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses.
The second step in the development of this video came from Marshall’s reaction to the lipstick on a pig brouhaha. His real insight was that we should not bother to dispute or discuss the charges, just embrace the image in the spirit it was meant by Obama–and capitalize on the publicity that McCain has engendered by making it into a logo. An attack logo, perhaps?.
To this end, Marshall has created a graphic that I really wish I had on a bumper sticker or car magnet. I can’t figure out how to copy it here, so you will have to look at on Marshall’s site here. You will recognize there the piggy from the video which I suspect we will see again in TPM videos if not elsewhere.