June 16, 2004

On the Reagan Ad

As I expected, Oliver Willis rips the Right on the Reagan ad.

In his first post, Oliver doesn't see the parallel between the Cold War and the Islamist War. To put it simply, they're both about direct threats to the U.S. The ad argues that since Sen. Kerry wasn't right about fighting communism why should we trust him fighting Islamists? It's a question Kerry will probably not answer nor see the need to answer. Oliver then blames Reagan for creating the embryo that would become al Qaeda. This is his version of blowback, a thin attempt at blaming the victims for Sep. 11.

In his second post, Oliver points out that the Club for Growth will postpone airing the Reagan ad for a week. He then can't help himself and rants that "Voters reject naked extremist right-wing ideology!" with regards to the Specter-Toomey race. The Club for Growth is so "extreme" as to follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan. Their advocacy of limited government and lower taxes is the same message The Gipper used to win two elections. Either large majorities of Americans have "extremist right-wing ideology" or Oliver let his knee-jerk anti-conservatism clouds his judgement.