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When Gun Gaffe Panders Backfire
As is traditional in primaries, Hillary has now fired off her last minute nasty-gram. This time, she's out to paint herself as a fearless defender of our American right to own the all shootin implements necessary to protect our nation from those mauraudering deer and similar garden-destroyin' pests and portray Obama as an orange juice sipping, gucci wearin' elitist liberal who's out of touch with Indiana values.
Problem is, being an orange juice sipping, gucci wearing elitist liberal herself, and employing nothing but gucci wearing latte sippers in her campaign, all she ended up doing was making a dang fool of herself in the eyes of every actual gun nut who received one of her mailers. Long story short--she used a photo of what any serious shooting sportsman would recognize as a 2,200 dollar high end German import--not exactly likely to be on your average Bubba's gun rack--and, to make matters worse, reversed the photo so that the bolt action rifle looked like a non-existent left-handed model of said rifle.
Read all the hilarious details on Ben Smith's blog at Politico. Take it away, Ben Smith.
The wages of sin may be death, but the wages of hypocricy is making a complete ass out of yourself.
Comments (48)
Look its common knowledge the Tuzla Tigress personally disarmed that sniper in Bosnia. Now we have a picture of the evidence! Take that all you liberal pansies! Elitists! We don't need no stinkin' facts.
I am Hillary "The Tuzla Tigress" Clinton and I am approved this message.
/snark
May 4, 2008 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
That gun is also popular with snipers.
I believe it's mentioned in the Ben Smith link.
May 5, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's very funny. However, I doubt that many folks will pick up on it.
May 4, 2008 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The folks she's pandering to would and that is all that matters. What makes this funny for me is that when I first saw the ad yesterday, I was talking to and aunt. I described the ad to my aunt and she said, "Watch it be some fancy-pants gun from Europe or Russia that no one in America would have. Her campaign is that stupid. Trust." I'll have to call my aunt tomorrow to let her know about this, she'd be tickled.
May 4, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a shooting enthusiast, it hit me immediately that the rifle was all wrong. When I see a rifle in an ad like that, I look at the details, wondering what kind they used for the pic. The left-handed bolt stuck out like a sore thumb as left-handed bolt action rifles are very rare. Also it has a double-set trigger that is rarer still. An Indiana deer hunter would be tickled to have a new Remington Model 700 for about $750, not a Mauser with a double-set trigger.
It is not working with it's intended audience:
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2837748
May 4, 2008 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
What tipped my aunt off was the double trigger. Most of the men in my family are hunters and she takes care of my uncle's rifles and shotguns. She said that out of his 14 guns, the only one with a double trigger she saw was one he inherited from my grandfather which was a gift from a local politician. He (my uncle) never uses it and it's on display in the house.
May 5, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Believe me, if they're gun enthusiasts, they'll pick up on it. I know a few, and they're constantly guffawing over the gun gaffes all the TV shows make all the time.
May 5, 2008 1:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you kidding me? Do you know any actual gun lovers? These guys read books, subscribe to magazines and frequent Internet sites dedicated to nothing except, e.g. whether the superior reliability of the H&K rolling block mechanism used in all of its automatic and semi-automatic military weapons is really all that given its greater recoil and propensity to chew up the cartridges. Of course they'll notice. And, even if they don't, they know someone who will with whom they'll share a good laugh on the discussion boards.
May 5, 2008 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
they even study the different types of wasp's nests, for jebus' sake*
*my uncle is a black powder enthusiast, and he likes to use the nests of "paper wasps" for wadding, cuz it doesn't damage the barrel as much as modern wadding paper does, so I collect "paper wasp's nests for him
May 5, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Priceless.
May 4, 2008 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Ben Smith item has been picked up by Drudge, so that means it's on cable news' "to read" list.
What I don't know about guns could fill a large armory (and I'm rather proud of that). Would the average recipient of these mailers notice the inconguity immediately?
PS: What bothers me about the ad is different -- scary violent subtext with Barack's head superimposed on gun.
May 4, 2008 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the people she's most trying to convince, the gun enthusiasts, will notice. Especially once Druge points it out to them.
May 4, 2008 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least she didn't use the first draft of the mailer, Mark Penn brandishing the weapon while wearing an orange hunting hat with those floppy ears.
May 4, 2008 9:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/
May 4, 2008 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
OOPS! Screwed the pooch on that one.
http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Elmer_Fudd/ltef_007.mp3
May 4, 2008 11:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. I was, although not at first. But once you think of that connection it's not a good thing to put his image in that position with a gun.
I don't like to dwell too much on what happened all those years ago, but having lived through the assassinations, a distinct chill went up my spine.
May 5, 2008 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well here's the problem...
May 4, 2008 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you want to bet the person who came up with this campaign typed "Clinton + sniper", search images.
May 4, 2008 10:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The average gun owner isn't an expert on all the different types and brands of guns. I hunt and all I could tell you is that's a picture of a gun I don't own and know nothing about. As to whether this ad is effective, who knows. Hillary doesn't have a great amount of cred with gun owners, few democrats do. But Obama definitely lost cred with his clinging to guns to explain frustrations remark.
May 4, 2008 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps true, but didn't the double trigger jump out at you immediately? I've only seen that on double-barrel shotguns.
What was more obvious for this Hoosier was using a picture of any rifle. You rarely see rifles like that in Indiana because we're a shotgun-only state for deer. If you have a rifle like that the only thing you can use it for is target practice and out-of-state hunts, both of which are typically out of reach for working-class hunters.
May 5, 2008 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shotguns? For deer? Yikes!
May 5, 2008 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why do you think they call it 'Buck Shot'. Shotguns are amongst the cheapest and most versitile of weapons. They are excelent for home defense because with he right amunition thye will not shoot through a wall and precise aim is not required (a real plus at 3am in the dark). They can be used to hunt anything from sauirles to birds to big game just by changing amo. For less than $100.00 you to can defend yourself, feed yourself and be prepared for the colapse of civilization.
May 5, 2008 9:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
And, when push comes to shove, help the collapse of the civilization along its merry way.
May 5, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
If that is your goal it should be the weapon of choice.
May 5, 2008 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rifled slugs.
May 5, 2008 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
One trigger sets the second in hair-trigger condition. Some black-powder rifles are that way.
Illinois is shotgun-only for deer, unless it is black powder.
May 5, 2008 9:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
All this will amount to is free publicity for Clinton's mailer. 99% of the population won't care about the mistake but her larger message will get out about it.
May 4, 2008 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure. That along with her popular fight with a blue collar coffee machine video on YouTube is sure to get her lots of free attention:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/friday-happy-hour-clinton-vs-coffee/
May 4, 2008 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a blatant lie. I shot a banded duck with that very left-handed bolt action rifle thingy.
May 4, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
EVERYONE DOWN! Hillary said "duck"!
May 5, 2008 12:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
All I can think of is Hillary and Cheney on a joint ticket... for hunting fellow hunters.
Thanks for the laugh
May 5, 2008 1:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
You sound upset. Here. Read this:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-04-obama_N.htm?csp=15
May 5, 2008 4:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm sounds like there may have been an Obamafile in that ad shop picking out the photo to use.
Imagine an ad that says Obama doesn't want you to get a break on filling up your tank and using a pic of a 1966 Bentley in it. Makes as much sense doesn't it?
NPR reports this am that these ads and the gas attack are backfiring on her. Huge percentage of Americans say she and McCain are pandering.
May 5, 2008 6:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I think it's backfiring (sorry, no pun intended) to keep linking herself to McCain. The more often she toes the Republican line, the more she'll be seen as a panderer. I think more and more Dems are starting to wonder if she's running for McCain's VP.
If she wants to distinguish herself from Obama on policy issues, she needs to move away from Obama and McCain - not just away from Obama towards McCain. Bill Clinton was able to win a plurality of votes on a triangulation strategy in '92 because it was a 3-way general election. But the "Goldilocks Strategy" doesn't work so well against someone in your own party, because you're not running for a plurality in a three-person race. You're running for a majority in a two-person race. And the middle-of-the-road just looks like spineless, manipulative politics. Not the way to win a nomination fight.
May 5, 2008 8:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's just silly. The voters have spoken, and they clearly want Senator McCain to be my Vice President, not vice-versa.
May 5, 2008 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was totally intentional when I did it.
May 5, 2008 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was totally intentional when we did it, just not in the way that I thought I intended it to be.
May 5, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Next she can try appealing to all the sports fans by saying she was so overjoyed when her favorite team the Hoosiers kicked the game winning touchdown in extra innings.
May 5, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
LOL...Like last year when Mitt Romney did that?
May 5, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I noticed in Obama's mailer he put the bowling ball holes on the wrong side, with two thumbholes for granny shots. Anyone got any lawyer jokes?
May 5, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
A sphere does not have sides.
May 5, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it's time the sphere announced its preference.
May 5, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
pi, Carolina Pale Ale, redheads.
May 5, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure they do.. inside and outside.
May 5, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
While Ralphie Parker, a true Hoosier, was having a very hard time persuading his parents to buy him a Red Ryder BB gun,
Back in Pennsylvania, Hillary Rodham was scaring off the bad guys with the weapon that her Paw gave her; her trusty Elitist Mauser 66. Next time Hillary put her Elitist Mauser 66 to good use was when she Obliterated a nest of snipers around Tuzla Airport in Bosnia.
May 5, 2008 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone else bothered the gun is pointed at his head? in that ad?
May 5, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. I was, although not at first. But once you think of that connection it's not a good thing to put his image in that position with a gun.
I don't like to dwell too much on what happened all those years ago, but having lived through the assassinations, a distinct chill went up my spine.
May 5, 2008 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm... isn't Barack Obama left-handed?
May 5, 2008 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
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