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Dole's "Godless" attack ad

PitPat

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PitPat
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Nothing terribly shocking about this, I guess (especially since we're talking NC), but I thought it was interesting enough for a post.


http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/29/north-carolina-senate-candidates-battle-godless-ad/

North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign is refusing to take down an ad that accuses her Democratic rival, Kay Hagan, of accepting money from "godless Americans," after Hagan demanded that the Republican incumbent "cease and desist."

The two campaigns are in a nasty dispute over the commercial, which began running statewide in North Carolina Tuesday.

Hagan sent Dole a letter Wednesday demanding she take down the ad, and held a press conference in the morning at which, according to prepared remarks, she called it an attack on her "Christian faith." The ad accuses Hagan of attending a "secret fundraiser" hosted by the Godless Americans PAC last month.

"Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money," the narrator says. "What did Kay Hagan promise in return?"
The ad then plays a clip of a female voice saying, "There is no God."
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Funniest part is this notion of "godless money". What does it mean? One would think that merely by virtue of being American, every greenback was pre-blessed. I wonder through what mechanism Dole's staff ensures their contributions are godful.

You can see the ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuS342L22QI
 
Well godless money would have to be money without a god. I suppose there may be versions of polythiesm with gods of money. So should they be only accepting donations from hindus or something?
 
Another republican who doesn"t respect the separation of church and state. Ted Haggard is so moral and a real believer just like Pat Robertson and Larry Craig.
 
And here I thought that the words "In God We Trust" ensured that no U.S. currency could be godless.
 
Unfortunately, Hagan hasn't exactly covered herself in glory here, either. Her attorneys just called the accusation "libellous," which means not only that it's false, but that it is defamatory.
 
Dunstan said:
Unfortunately, Hagan hasn't exactly covered herself in glory here, either. Her attorneys just called the accusation "libellous," which means not only that it's false, but that it is defamatory.
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She has standing within the relgious community in her area. I don't think the damage has to be universal.
 
geni said:
She has standing within the relgious community in her area. I don't think the damage has to be universal.
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I read somewhere else (sorry, don't have the source offhand) that her husband is or was a pastor. Legalities aside, that fact may reinforce the sleaze factor of the ad, if enough undecideds are aware of it (which granted is probably unlikely).

From what I've read, it's a pretty tight race with Hagan slightly ahead, so everything's gonna matter this coming week. Not sure if focusing on this one issue would help or hurt Hagan (I'm not a NC politics expert).
 
geni said:
She has standing within the relgious community in her area. I don't think the damage has to be universal.
Click to expand...

I'm not commenting on the legal sufficiency. Realistically, this is never going to result in a lawsuit anyway, because the election is less than a week away anyway, and it's incredibly unlikely that a court is going to grant a preliminary injunction prohibiting a political candidate from exercising political speech. So the letter from Hagan's lawyer is purely a political tactic, which is why it was made public to begin with.

I'm just saying that it's disappointing that the reaction of the Hagan camp is not "well, no, as a matter of fact I'm not an atheist, so perhaps we could talk about the issues instead" but rather "EWWWW!!! How dare you call me an icky, icky atheist!" I understand she has to deal with political realities, but it shows that there's a long way to go.
 
Oh Noes! Those mean, mean atheists want to take "in God we trust" off the money!

Then our country won't be rapture ready!

The meanness and cynicism of this ad is incredible. Will it work? It smacks of desperation. I guess atheists are a politically safe group to demogogue.
 
RandFan said:
Disgusting.

Cambell Brown takes it appart quite nicely.

Huffington also does a reasonable job.
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Wow. It's not even remotely true, is it?

God, I hope this backfires.

Did I just appeal to a deity? I guess so.

I'm afraid that the correct political response is not to stand up to this demogoguery by saying "It's not true, but so what even if it were true." But rather to call it a vicious slander and point out what a pious Christian Hagan is. Maybe even quote bible verse:

How about "Thou shalt not bear false witness Liddy Dole!"
Fight fire with fire!
 
Dunstan said:
Unfortunately, Hagan hasn't exactly covered herself in glory here, either. Her attorneys just called the accusation "libellous," which means not only that it's false, but that it is defamatory.
Click to expand...

The Huffington Article included this quote of Hagan's rebuttal that disturbed me quite a bit. (bolding mine)
* At their core, Americans aren't Democrat or Republican, red or blue - they're Americans, plain and simple. We ALL love our country, and we all value the role of faith in American life.
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Not on this Forum we don't

Yeah, I am very dissapointed that she has to defend her religious creds rather than challenge the assumption that Atheism = Bad.

In all fairness , her religious creds at least seem genuine. She seems to be a woman who has participated in her church long before going into politics and does so because she percieves non-political benefits from doing so.

I just wish she didn't feel the need to legitimize the claim that Atheism = Bad and make the equally rediculous claim that all Americans value the role of faith in American life.

A Pox on both of your houses I say to them.
 
moon1969 said:
Another republican who doesn"t respect the separation of church and state.
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With all due respect, that applies to the government's operations, not to the worldviews of the candidates or voters.
 
I can't find the link, but I just watched a disgusting little bit on this where the 4 pundits and the interviewer had a nice discussion about how there are some crazy people that don't believe in god - one black lady went on about how crazy this is as there is ALL kinds of evidence for the existence of god. The only thing that they saw wrong with this add was that apparently Hagan IS a xian. and not one of THOSE crazy atheist's
 
Hagan strikes back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76tRXq0ZC0&eurl

Good for her. I agree that it's sad to see that the legitimacy of atheists' political opinions has to be defended, but I am glad to see her fighting the political slimeballing.

I'm curious how many centuries it will be before political attacks are run along the lines of: "Sure, Candidate Jane claims she's an atheist, but why has she been seen in a church on five separate occasions in the last two years? Candidate Jane. Wrong for rational thinkers. Wrong for America." [Cue crucifix.]
 
There's a "Godless Americans PAC" ?

Where can we contribute?
 
"Godless Americans"?

I don't like the name. It's too in-your-face.

Flanders: "I move to reconsider our club name. Make it something a little less blasphemous."
Moe: "How about the Christ Punchers?"
 
It looks like Senator Dole is determined to go out with as little class as possible, if the voters in NC don't want to give her a second term.

What's interesting to me is that if she made a similar ad attacking her opponent for having the most tenuous connection with gay Americans, or Jewish Americans, or Japanese Americans, one can well imagine the uproar that would come of it. But it's still respectable to insinuate that non-religious Americans are not fit to be in the same room as a senatorial candidate.
 
Wow... Just wow... First there was the "Gay-illegal-fiesta" ad in 2006 and now this. I love my home state but things like this makes me glad I left.
 
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