January 21, 2012

Video: 6 Bizarro Ads From the Colbert Super-PAC

Last week Stephen Colbert announced that he was exploring a bid for “president of the United States of South Carolina” in advance of the state’s Republican primary on January 21. News organizations quickly pointed out that he’d missed the deadline to get on the ballot and that write-in votes were not permitted.

But that didn’t stop the pro-Colbert super-PAC Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (now headed by Jon Stewart) from getting into the action. It released an ad endorsing GOP dropout Herman Cain, who’s still on the South Carolina ballot.

Check out that ad and five others produced by the Colbert super-PAC as part of its surreal civics lesson.

Before endorsing Cain, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow enlisted John Lithgow (who played a serial killer on Dexter) to narrate an ad about “Mitt the Ripper” killing corporations (which, you’ll recall, he thinks are people).

 

After endorsing Cain, the Colbert super-PAC attacked Romney again, adding Newt Gingrich to the mix. “We’ll destroy both these guys and their super-PACs with a merciless ad torrent so fierce they’ll wish they’d never been incorporated, an orgy of pure distortion leaving nothing behind, with a clean campaign we all deserve,” the ad promises.

 

The super-PAC followed that up with a spot narrated by Samuel L. Jackson attacking Colbert. “Enough is enough! I have had it with these money-grubbing super-PACs messing with our Monday-to-Friday elections!” Jackson exclaims, a reference to his famous Snakes on a Plane line.

 

Back when Stephen Colbert still ran his super-PAC, and before releasing ads on the NBA lockout and Buddy Roemer talking about a unicorn, he aired two spots ahead of the Ames Straw Poll. The first warned of a “money storm” that was “gathering over Iowa” and encouraged voters to write-in Rick “Parry”—with an A. (The final straw poll tally didn’t mention how many votes Parry received.)

 

The second Cobert Super PAC ad in Iowa, also released before the straw poll, condemned pro-Perry super-PACs for promoting the Texas governor with images of “cheap cornography”. Don’t worry, the clip is SFW.

 Front page image: Comedy Central

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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