Sunday, May 24, 2009

If Tory Ads Aren't Working, Why Does Ignatieff Keep Talking About Them?

Liberal's, and their friends in the MSM continue to dismiss the Tory ads as ineffective, not working, etc. So then why does Ignatieff keep talking about them?

"Speaking in Gander, N.L. Saturday, Ignatieff said the prime minister must learn, "If you mess with me, I will mess with you until I'm done."
"Don't trifle with me. Don't try this rough stuff with me," he added Sunday.
The Conservatives have launched an Internet and television ad campaign attacking Ignatieff for his lengthy time out of the country, and attempt to portray Ignatieff as an out-of-touch elitist.
The ads point out his 34 years spent teaching and writing in the U.S. and Britain and say he will go back to Harvard University if he doesn't become prime minister.
Ignatieff has responded with an Internet ad saying that Harper is smearing all new Canadians with the attack ads. "

It seems wherever Iggy goes, he talks tough about those non-effective ads. I wouldn't be surprised if he complained to the cabana boy while in Bermuda that the PM better not mess with him. And Iggy isn't scaring anyone with his Rambo imitation. In fact, judging by comments I've seen, he is embarrassing himself.

Maybe Iggy should just get it over with. Jump in the Bimmer with Biff and head back to Harvard now.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

It is a very good point. The Liberal media doesn't want us to define Iggy before they have a chance too.

I find it interesting that National Newswatch, which used to be a non-partisan news aggregator, has been ass kissing Liberals for the past six months and even went so far today as to link to a thread in internet forums that is critical of Harper and supportive of Iggy. Internet forums?!? He considers that "news"?

paulsstuff said...

National Newswatch went pro-Liberal at the same time Kinsella came back to the party. Kinsella used to dismiss Bourque because he made up his own headlines for articles linked to.

Kinsella is eerily silent now that National Newswatch does the same.

Anonymous said...

"If you mess with me, I will mess with you until I'm done."

I had to chuckle when I read that quote from a speech Ignatieff made on Saturday. I figured that it must have been an off-the-cuff remark and that his staff would point out the obvious nerdiness or, dare I say it, gayness of the remark.
What's he going to "mess"? His hair?
Ironically, my first thought when I read the quote was of the recent Adam Sandler movie "Don't Mess With The Zohan".

But then today, the very next day, he comes out with:
"Don't trifle with me."

I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I initially read that quote but then I started thinking that either Iggy still hadn't talked with his staff or that he had talked with them and they stood behind his statements.
As a Conservative supporter I preferred to believe that his staff stood behind his quotes, and may even have written them, as that would be a serious blunder on their part and suport the notion that they largely incompetent.

Then I read that he had also said "Don't try this rough stuff with me" and that just confirmed it all to me. His staff is largely incompetent and Iggy is the world's biggest wuss.

What does he mean by 'rough stuff'?
Would that be hockey-style rough stuff, bar-room brawl type rough stuff, good friends horsing around rough stuff or Liberal Party infighting rough stuff?
Has he ever strapped on skates or caught a football? Has he ever slid into second or been in a non-political scrum? Was he perhaps a team manager?
A waterboy?

Iggy is a thinker so while the games were being played he might have been deep in thought sitting on the lawn of the library and that's well and good but I don't want a 'thinker' as my Prime Minister.
I want someone that I can relate to. Someone who walks in my shoes. Someone who has their finger on the pulse of the average Canadian.
That's why I like Stephen Harper.
NeilD

wilson said...

"Don't trifle with me. Don't try this rough stuff with me,"

....or what?

or I'll huff and puff and blow your house down,
comes to mind.

Sounds like more of the same old "Harper is a meanie",
for the same old reason,
they can't turn the truth into a lie when the truth is on video.

I'll confess to feeling bad for Dion with the not a leader ads, still do.
Dion is a decent guy, nutbar, but a sincere not a leader.
And Iffy treated him like last week's trash (after he supported him 100%)

But Iffy, no quams about these ads at all. No sympathy, not one bit.
Just the air about him, makes yah want to slap him down a peg or two.

LOL, CTV station on in the other room, and the Iffy truth ad is running...

Ted Betts said...

"If Tory Ads Aren't Working, Why Does Ignatieff Keep Talking About Them?"Because, in fact, they ARE working... at moving support to the Liberals. Still ahead nationally and now ahead of the Bloc, with the Conservative ads (the Quebec ones to try to help the separatists were the first ones attacking another federalist party's federalism) pushing the Conservatives down to 4th place. Well done.

I have really come to love these attack ads on Ignatieff's patriotism. They work on so many levels:
- increasing Liberal fundraising numbers
- increasing Liberal voter support
- increasing Liberal membership numbers
- getting Canadians to ask 'how long do Conservatives think I have to live here before they consider me Canadian?' or 'if I study or work abroad, do the Conservatives think I'm less Canadian too?'
- dividing Conservative support
- ironically, helping Liberals define the Conservatives as not having a plan or a good set of priorities

Can't wait for the next attempt at character assassination.

Michael Harkov said...

Nice spin Ted. Too bad it doesn't fly. And you Liberals sure like to talk alot about ads that don't do the job.

When are you Liberals going to get it? That he worked abroad isn't the issue. That he lived abroad isn't either. It is that he identified himself as being something other than a citizen of the country he wants to lead. "Its your country as much as it is MINE". What country was that, Ted? Was it Canada? Hmmm, lets see........nope he was talking about the USA. Remember when the Liberals used to slag Harper and the Tories for being too American in their thinking and in the way they did politics? Well, by Iggy's own admission, that is what he IS.

Why, Ted, did nothing else other than the idea of leading this country entice him to come back after being gone for almost FOUR decades? As such, don't you find it somewhat interesting that Iggy had a hope to go back to Harvard if he didn't get elected? Does NOTHING else compel this visitor to want to be here?

These ads can't be countered because they don't ask people to infer something like Liberal attack ads have done. In fact, these can't even be characterized as attacks, because they don't twist words, they speak the truth IN IGNATIEFF'S VERY OWN WORDS. Spare us the "character assassination" blather. The Liberals have done that and worse along those lines during their time in power.

And as for the way the polls are going, they don't concern me in the least. In fact, with the way the economy is right now, I'm surprised that support isn't lower than what it is. And with the Liberals unable to trigger an election because the other two parties aren't interested in an election right now, the economy will have time to recover. And then what, Ted.

And how many hills has Iggy had to climb down from, Ted, in regards to election threats? The EI issue is only the latest. Now he can't even do his own flip-flopping; he sends out Ralph Goodale to do his caving for him.

Anonymous said...

As for the media panning these ads and their effectiveness, well, I seem to remember that they did the same exact thing about the ads with Dion. Then they had to eventully and grudgingly admit the impact of those ads when they did their jobs.

And wasn't Dion up in the polls as well after his election to the Liberal leaderhip? How did THAT turn out Ted?

Yes, we realize that Iggy isn't Dion. But he sure as hell isn't Trudeau, either.

So Tories will leave the minding of polls and the MSM to the Liberals while the party we support is busy governing the nation in this long running minority government(with dozens of instances of Liberal support by they way, thank you) and in these tough economic times.

paulsstuff said...

Ted, Ive already admitted I don't have Harvard math, but if Conservative's lost every seat in Quebec that would leave them at 134. Assuming Libs could pick up all those seats, unlikely, that would leave them with 87. Liberals would still need to pick up 24 seats elsewhere to lead the Tories by one seat. And that's only if those 24 seats were all held by Tories.

It's nice to see you gloat over polls Ted, but keep in mind my beloved Blue Jays were on top of the world just a week ago. Today, uh, let's not go there.

Nice to see you and Kinsella think we should just forego the election campaign and crown Iggy king, but that only happens in the Liberal party. Here in real Canada we actually vote for our leader.

paulsstuff said...

Should read 133

Ted Betts said...

Paul:

I'm not making any comment about the election or the polls or anything but responding directly to your question.

You asked why Liberals keep talking about the ads? We keep talking about the ads because they are working for us, they are helping our cause. That's why. Fundraising numbers skyrocket. Membership up. Polling up. More Canadians thinking the Conservatives are pretty arrogant to define who is and who is not Canadian enough. More Canadians thinking the Conservatives have their priorities mixed up if they are spending so much time and so very much money on personal assassination ads trying to save their own jobs instead of on the economy and trying to help everyone else with theirs.

Not unlike the use of the coalition by the Conservatives until it was killed once and for all (and replaced by the CPC-NDP-BQ "coalition") to raise oodles of money and support up to 50% in polls.

So thank you for this gift of thes personal negative attack ads challenging Ignatieff's patriotism. They are working wonders for us.

Can't wait for the next negative ad blitz from the Cons.

paulsstuff said...

"Not unlike the use of the coalition by the Conservatives until it was killed once and for all (and replaced by the CPC-NDP-BQ "coalition") to raise oodles of money and support up to 50% in polls."

Sorry Ted, I must have missed that confidence vote where the Liberal's voted against and the Bloc and the NDP supported the government. Was it the budget? Nope, Liberal's supported that. Please fill me in.

As for the increase in Liberal fundraising, it's ironic you attribute it all to Iggy. That is, after the Liberal's explaining away their pitiful fundraising for the past few years as a result of leadership and convention costs.

Hey, what ever happened to that Stephane dude,anyway?

It's great to see your numbers in Quebec Ted. I'll support any federalist party there, if it means doing away with the Bloc. But don't forget, come the campaign, Duceppe needs only campaign in Quebec, while Harper and Ignatieff have to criss-cross the country. Duceppe will do the same thing to Ignatieff he did to Harper last election, slam him daily in the Quebec press, say how bad he is for Quebec, bring up some of those awful quotes Iggy made in the past about Quebec and the french spoken there.

Not to mention Iggy is only one more Kinsella ethnic slur away from blowing up.

Ted Betts said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ted Betts said...

"I must have missed that confidence vote where the Liberal's voted against and the Bloc and the NDP supported the government. Was it the budget? Nope, Liberal's supported that. Please fill me in."Hey, it is the Conservatives and Bloc who have voted together more times than the Liberals and Bloc, my friend, including the Bloc support for the Conservatives' pre-recession budgets.

Without the support of the Bloc, the Conservatives would have been defeated a long time ago.

"It's great to see your numbers in Quebec Ted. I'll support any federalist party there, if it means doing away with the Bloc."You should send a note to Harper then. He seems to think the Bloc is better than the Liberals: no other federalist leader has attacked another federalist leader for his federalism until Harper's attack ads against Ignatieff. Thank goodness they have served to rally federalists to Ignatieff at least.

paulsstuff said...

"no other federalist leader has attacked another federalist leader for his federalism until Harper's attack ads against Ignatieff. Thank goodness they have served to rally federalists to Ignatieff at least."

Really Ted, you might want to rethink that. You see, the guns in the cities ad continued to be run in quebec even after it was deemed a disaster in english.

"A separate ad which alluded to the military plans, among other things, continued to be played in French amid the growing anger over the English ad. This spot was not done in the same style as the English series, but instead simply listed various items the Conservatives were for and against, such as military presence in cities, which, the Liberals believed, would turn off Quebec voters"

Ted Betts said...

How were those ill-thought ads an attack on Harper's federalism? They were a stupid attack on him and deliberately misconstrued a real policy of Harper's, true, but they did not attack Harper's "regionalist" federalism or go after him for "firewalls" or anything else that was directly associated with the nationalist role and function of a Prime Minister. The Liberals did not even make use of Harper's anti-Quebec blunders of the past and in the last election.

These ads, however, do, at least the ones airing around the clock in Quebec.

Fortunately, they appear to be backfiring.

Anonymous said...

HAVE YOU SEEN THE POLLS? THE ADS ARE FAILING AND LIBRRALS HOPE THEY KEEP RUNNING.

ha ha ha Your nastiness backfired.