Monday, July 19, 2010
Politics Is Wamp's Attack Too Late to Stop Haslam?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 6:24 AM
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Zach Wamp finally attacked Bill Haslam in a TV ad, and Haslam has responded with his own spot. In it, as Crissy looks on in bemusement, Haslam promises to continue his "campaign of ideas," as if he ever has taken any positions at all in his relentlessly vapid quest for the governor's office. This stick-to-the-issues ad had only just hit the air when Haslam's campaign put out a press release slapping the schmuck who had the audacity to pose as the good ol' boy in Wamp's ad. It turns out this guy is some kind of commie rat who builds hippie villages.
Haslam also feigned outrage at Wamp's ad, which merely repeats what Wamp's been saying all over the state for the past 18 months. By political ad standards, what Wamp asserts is close enough to the truth (although the bit about Haslam's wanting to take away our guns is a stretch and Haslam quibbles about a lot more). See Andy Sher's fact check.
The question is whether it's too late for Wamp to overtake Haslam. Wamp should have started hitting Haslam a month ago. To many voters, an 11th-hour attack like this one comes across as an act of desperation and politics as usual, so even legitimate criticisms are discounted sometimes. Wamp's ad may be the political equivalent of lying on the railroad tracks to stop the freight train.
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