A Policy Wonk's Christmas

The candidates are rolling out their Christmas ads with the intent of keeping their names in front of the voters while at the same time not pummeling them with politics during the Christmas holiday. Pity the poor folks in Iowa and New Hampshire which probably get a political ad with every other commercial.

You've already seen Huck's ad and the ensuing controversy on this site, and Howard Kurtz describes some of the others:

Sen. Barack Obama has his two daughters wish viewers happy holidays. Rudolph W. Giuliani shares a seat with Santa Claus. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton arranges presents for the country under her tree. And an ad for Mitt Romney recounts his role in helping a colleague find his missing daughter.

The Obama ad is cute and Rudy's ad is a little forced in its humor. I haven't seen the Romney ad.

Kurtz describes the one ad only the wonkiest of policy wonks could love - Hillary Clinton's:

Clinton, who has been running commercials featuring her mother and daughter, took a similar approach. With music from "Carol of the Bells," an ad shows the New York Democrat placing cards on gifts under her tree, labeled "Universal Health Care," "Alternative Energy," "Bring the Troops Home" and so on. The punch line, such as it is: "Where did I put universal pre-K?"

Even in a Christmas ad the Clinton message machine has to try and get her pet policy projects on screen, and I don't think that will play well with the voters. It just seems a little cold and sterile, and friends, Hillary is no actress. If she wants an Oscar she's going to have to create wacky liberal movie like Al Gore did. You can see her ad here.

Clinton, who has been forced to run a bio campaign to try and humanize herself two weeks before the election has been hitting the airwaves with hard-hitting endorsements...from her mother. I'm really surprised her ad didn't include a sound bite from Santa claiming he'd never put her on the "naughty" list.