Politics doesn’t get much nastier than this. Amidst the flurry of eleventh-hour attack ads and final pleas, there’s one ad (actually, at 25 minutes in length, you might call it more of a dis-infomercial) that claims the mantle of “Worst Smear of Election 2010.” Called “Breaking Point,” it’s the handiwork of the National Republican Trust PAC, which is headed by far right-winger Scott Wheeler. It has run on TV network affiliates in a smattering of states, including Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Florida, Alaska, and North Carolina.
Below are parts 1, 2, and 3 of the ad:
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As others like ThinkProgress have noted, the 25-minute film is a mash-up of anti-Obama conspiracy theories and outright distortions. The ad name-checks Hamas, the New Black Panthers, and Mao Tse-tung, and draws on video clips from conservative outlets such as Townhall.com, WorldNetDaily, and—of course—Fox News. As ThinkProgress noted:
In addition to the false attacks on Obama advisers Van Jones and John Holdren, the propaganda film also repeats smears against Obama staff Anita Dunn, Kevin Jennings, Carol Browner, and Cass Sunstein. It makes the flat-out false claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “caused the entire home mortgage industry crisis,” that health care reform would allow the “government to take over one-fifth of the U.S. economy,” and that there is a “growing number of scientific scandals” that are “further discrediting manmade global warming claims.” When not playing inflammatory clips of angry black people, the ad also comes to defense of the billionaire Koch brothers who fund the Americans for Prosperity, claiming “Obama has repeatedly attacked a group of private citizens simply because they wanted their voices heard.”
The video explicitly encourages citizens to vote against the Democratic Party. “As if to validate the very need for a citizens revolt, the establishment responded by alienating, undermining, and attacking their own voters,” the paid program electioneers, also mentioning the “midterm elections” and people “going to vote on November 2nd” in the context of defeating Democrats.
The National Republican Trust PAC’s last-ditch sleaze attack is hardly a new tactic. In the final days before the 2008 presidential election, the group cut an ad, backdropped by an image of 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta, claiming Obama wanted to “give illegals Social Security” and had a “plan” to give illegal immigrants driver’s license. Factcheck.org called the ad “a pile of false claims” and “one of the sleaziest false ads of the campaign.”
