The Tillis campaign is trying to change the conversation in North Carolina again. This time, they’ve chosen foreign policy. The campaign released an ad today accusing Hagan of missing Armed Service Committee hearings while the Islamic State was taking over portions of Iraq and Syria.
Politico’s James Hohmann says the ad “really takes the gloves off.” Maybe so, but it also has the feel of desperation. The imagery, language and ominous music are quite clearly fear mongering. While a couple of polls showed foreign policy increasingly important to voters, it’s hard to see it as the driving force in the race.
We haven’t heard Tillis talk much about foreign policy so this has the feel of the topic du jour. He’s been throwing stuff at the wall hoping something will stick. Since the beginning of September, Tillis has been talking a new subject almost every week.
He started the month advocating over-the-counter birth control. Then, he tried to persuade voters that he and the legislature actually increased funding for education. More recently, he’s been touting his support of autism research and programs.
Each point falls flat, usually because Tillis or the GOP in general steps on his message. In the primary, Tillis defended the right of states to deny contraceptives and applauded the Hobby Lobby ruling, casting doubt on the sincerity of his birth control pitch. His argument that the legislature increased funding for education flew in the face of reality as families started school with notices of larger class sizes, fewer programs and fewer teaching assistants due to decreased state funding. Despite his support of the autism legislation, the bill he cites never passed. Besides, supporting autism research should be a given, not a bragging right.
Maybe the fear mongering is the message that will work. I’m skeptical, though, that people are going to buy it. If they are going to accuse Hagan of making us less safe, then they are going to eventually have to offer an alternative to bombing and drones. Nobody wants to invade the Middle East again.
Besides trying to scare people, the underlying message is that Hagan’s not doing her job. Tillis has his own problems there. Expect to see response ads highlighting Tillis fundraising in Washington while the legislature was negotiating the budget.
The GOP may hold onto foreign policy for the next five weeks, but the economy is still really driving people. In North Carolina, our unemployment rate is heading in the wrong direction and wages remain flat. Tillis and company promised a Carolina Comeback after steep cuts to taxes over four years. The only thing we’ve seen are the negative impact of the budget cuts that pay for those tax cuts. I think more people are concerned with the direction of our state and their own economic well-being than the threat of Islamic terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Tillis message is empty of any true meaning due to the over abundance of “Fear Mongering”. This type of grandiose I’m here to fix everything from NC education to ISIS by Tillis is and has hurt the Republican Party. The mid term elections will show us just how the voters feel. It will not be surprising to see if the Republicans get the short end of the stick in the midterm elections. The problem with telling the voters so many fictional problems is that it gets hard to remember all of them. The Voters will see thru all of the demeaning political Ads on television.
As I figured, as the countdown to election day continues, and the more the polls show Tillis unable to overcome that small but consistent lead of Hagan’s, the more insipid, nasty, prevaricating, and bare-knuckled Tillis’ ads will become. Yes, it’s desperation, indeed.
I’ll guess that, beyond being driven by outside interests that covet the US Senate going to a GOP majority, it could also stem from Tillis’ self-absorbed ego and related disbelief that he might actually lose — that his best-laid plans for his political trajectory might be sidelined. And the wide swings in the foci of his pitches (from education, to autism, to OTC birth control availability, to ISIS) suggest not only some hopelessness creeping into his mindset, but the reality that the man just doesn’t have a core motivation, vision or issue that he can channel to voters.
I am about as afraid of ISIS as I am a particularly rabid puppy. They are great at exploiting lawless areas and can, unlike the Taliban or Al Queda, run territory in a way that doesn’t involve looking like Republicans trying to run an area, but that doesn’t mean they can stand up to a REAL army.
But what IS hilarious is how DUMB america is based on the polls out this weekend 😀
“…The only thing we’ve seen are the negative impact of the budget cuts that pay for those tax cuts. I think more people are concerned with the direction of our state and their own economic well-being than the threat of Islamic terrorists in Syria and Iraq.”
What a great biographer you would have been. You paint an accurate portrait of Tillis that captures the whole man, the essence of his being and his character. Of course, I guess you could have likewise expressed those characteristics numerically as ‘zero’ and called it math.