“RATS!”… Bush caught again in G.O.P. Ad

 WASHINGTON (LPH) — At first glance, Bush’s television commercial on
 prescription drugs looks like one of his standard attack advertisements. The
 announcer starts by praising George W. Bush's proposal for dealing with
 prescription drugs, and criticizes the plan being offered by Vice President
 Al Gore. It has all the charm of a wino with Tourette’s Syndrome and is, as
 usual, more slanted than Pythagorus’s erection.

 Fragments of the phrase "bureaucrats decide" — deriding Mr. Gore's
 proposal — dance around the screen in one section of the ad. Then, if the
 viewer watches very closely, something else happens. The word "RATS," a
 fragment of the word "bureaucrats”, pops up in one frame. And though the
 image lasts only one-thirtieth of a second, it is in huge white capital letters,
 five times the size of any other word on the commercial. The advertisement
 then declares, "The Gore prescription plan: bureaucrats decide."

 But as one might be expect in a tightly contested presidential race, the Democrats
 have given the 30-second advertisement more than a quick glance.

 After being alerted by an eagle-eyed member of the Democrat “Smirk-Watch ”
 committee in Seattle, aides to Mr. Gore examined the advertisement frame by
 frame, spotted the suspicious word and gave a copy of a slowed-down version
 to The New York Times.

 Alex Castellanos, who produced the commercial for the Republican National
 Committee, insisted that the use of the word was "purely accidental," saying,
 “It was probably the same guy who made those phone calls saying that McCain
 was a liar. Governor Bush’s campaign has been plagued by rogue campaign
 workers who sometimes take things a bit too far.”

 Asked when he had first noticed the word in the commercial, Mr. Castellanos said,
 "Hey, I never even SAW the darned thing. I’m paid to make the ads, not watch them.”

 Several Republican and Democratic advertising consultants who were told of the
 commercial, as well as many independent academics, said they were startled that
 such a word would appear and said it appeared to be a subliminal attempt to
 discredit Mr. Gore. But Mr. Bush said today that the suggestion that the ad was
 meant to be subliminal was "bizarre and weird."

 "I am convinced this is not intentional," Mr. Bush told reporters in Orlando, Fla.,
 where he is campaigning. "You don't need to play, you know, cute politics.
 Someone obviously misunderstood my directions or something. I said to flash the
 word “STAR” in there over Gore’s picture.. ..and perhaps one of the crew was
 feeling a little dyslexic or something. I, myself, have even struggled with bouts of
 dyslexia over the years.. ..really.. ..Swear to Dog."

 "Besides, one frame out of 900 hardly in my judgment makes a conspiracy,"
 Mr. Bush continued. " I don't think we need to be subliminal about prescription drugs.
 It’s an important issue and I think we should be very PRO-liminal about the whole thing."
 Mr. Bush's chief media consultant, Mark McKinnon, said he had not noticed the word
 "rats" when he reviewed the advertisement before it was broadcast.
 “I mean, you can’t even see it unless you happen to be looking at the TV
 screen at just the right moment.”

 After being told of the word, Mr. McKinnon said the commercial should be
 corrected because it "certainly might give reporters or anybody else who
 looked at it" a reason to stir up attention.
 "However, `Rats' is not a message," McKinnon said. " `Bad Plan' or `Seniors
 Lose' might be. But `rats?' We're just not that clever. I just watched it
 five times in a row. Hard as I looked, couldn't see `rats.' Well, not for
 more than a fraction of a second, anyway.”

 Almost every advertising professional interviewed said that, given the
 technology by which commercials are assembled frame by frame, it was
 virtually impossible for a producer not to know the word was there.

 Ronald C. Goodstein, a marketing professor at Georgetown University's
 business school who has studied subliminal advertising, said the word "rats"
 could have the effect of "making some people feel more negative toward
 Gore," although he said that Gore’s approval rating among snakes “could
 probably see a small rise.”

 One Republican consultant who defended Mr. Castellanos was Sal Russo. "I'm
 not as conspiracy minded as everyone else is," he said. "I can't imagine
 that that's deliberate. I've got to think it's inadvertent.. ..a mistake –
 just like Governor Bush said. Dyslexia may be something YOU wish to make
 light of, but I’d rather not. Not unless Mr. Castellanos tells me to, anyway."

 Bush concluded, “This was just an honest mistake on somebody’s part. I
 promise the American people that, from now on, any problems like this that
 arise in the future will also not be my fault. It a painful experience to be
 exposed.. ..I mean, persecuted.. ..as a back-stabbing liar and a
 potty-mouth. My comment last week to Dick Chaney was misunderstood too. Few
 know that Dick and I both speak Swahili and when I called Clymer a ‘Rojam
 Elohssa’.. ..well, I guess my dyslexia was acting up without my knowing it
 and it came out as ‘Major Asshole’. Everyone who speaks Swahili knows that
 ‘Rojam Elohssa’ means ‘he’s a good kid’.. ..So, see?... ..I really like the
 dick.. ..I mean - KID. Ahhhgh! Damn this ugly disease!”

 I’m just sayin’…

 Lo Phat Ham – Rogue Reporter
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Lo Phat!

We missed you.
 

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