Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 | 8:15 p.m.
Yes, that's what happened today. Hoping to capitalize on the phantom congressional districts in stimulus reporting story (first discovered by yours truly two weeks ago), GOP Senate contender Tarkanian announced a web ad today attacking Harry Reid. The semi-clever ad uses an X-Files motif to lampoon Reid for the phantom districts and jobs (the districts were erroneous, the jobs were real, as the AP reported today). Problem was the narrator says Ne-vah-duh in the ads -- not an out-of-state narrator! Someone must have realized this immediately because the ad was pulled down. Indeed, reporters who tried to click on the link the campaign provided found no video. Whoops.
The spot was re-edited and a new release went out an hour and 15 minutes later. An apology, but no explanation. Now you have one.
Nice idea (the X-Files motif) despite the silliness of blaming Reid for the erroneous reporting and the ad being wrong about the jobs not existing. Abysmal execution.
I have posted the comical original ad at right (yes, I got a copy somehow).
So so far, the GOP frontrunners against Reid have engaged in an embarrassing yukfest about a car bomb (Sue Lowden) and put up a web ad that had to be pulled because the state's name was mispronounced (Danny Tarkanian). Not an auspicious start for Snow White and Little Tark.
It's early, but fair warning: The Reid machine eats these kinds of amateurs for breakfast.
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