Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is using a new TV ad to stress that she’s no witch, but her latest attempt to get past a decade-ago comment is providing fresh fodder for the chattering classes.
Case in point: Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said O’Donnell “looks like she might be a witch,” referring to her appearance in the ad where she stares directly at the camera and proclaims: “I’m not a witch.”
“The lighting, the pale skin and the dark background. She looks like the question is in doubt,” Robinson said Tuesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “She looks like she might be a witch. And anytime you have to start a new ad and say, ‘I’m not a witch,’ that is not a good day.”
The tea party favorite has been dogged by the witch label for weeks, after a 1999 video clip surfaced of her appearance on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect." In the clip, she says: "I dabbled into witchcraft but never joined a coven,” and that “one of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar.”
O’Donnell, who upset Rep. Mike Castle in the GOP primary and faces Democrat Chris Coons in November, released her first general election television ad Monday in which she tries to put the rumors to rest..
“I’m not a witch,” she says. “I’m nothing you’ve heard of. I’m you.”
Later in the ad, she again tries to connect with voters.
“None of us are perfect, but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us. Politicians who think spending, trading favors and backroom deals are the ways to stay in office,” she says. “I’ll go to Washington and do what you’d do. I’m you.”
Produced by veteran GOP ad man Fred Davis, the 30-second campaign spot set the blogosphere abuzz.
Several Beltway media personalities drew a comparison with President Richard Nixon’s infamous line: “I am not a crook.” The Nation’s Greg Mitchell tweeted: “Now that Christine O'Donnell is channeling Nixon with 'I am not a witch,' … she has to say we won't have her to kick around any more.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza tweeted at The Fix: “Christine O'Donnell ‘witch’ ad has allowed Monty Python's glorious return,” a nod to the cult classic film in which peasants comically dress up a girl like a witch, then accuse her of being a witch. “I’m not a witch,” the girl says.
David C. Wilson, a University of Delaware political science professor, questioned the logic behind the ad.
After dismissing the witch label, “the rest of the commercial, including O'Donnell's appearance, the background music and the setting all fail to get the ‘witch’ thing out of our minds,” he wrote on The Huffington Post. “Please, for the campaign's own good, do not put out a response to the masturbation statements.”
The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder offered an opposite view, saying the ad might work to put the witch issue to bed. “O'Donnell's concession in the ad defuses some of the tension about her witchcraft experimentation, and it might help inoculate her against some of the more valid charges, like her propensity to fudge her resume, or maybe even her opposition to masturbation,” he wrote.
Poster Comment:
O'Donnell's down 19 points as of today.
