Katie called it "one of the most disgusting political
ads" she's ever seen.
She's not alone.
In case you're unfamiliar with this disgraceful piece of garbage, a left-wing group called 'Latino Victory' released a television spot in the Virginia gubernatorial race that depicts a pickup truck with "don't tread on me" license plates and an Ed Gillespie bumper sticker (subtle!) trying to literally mow down (even subtler!) children of color.
The 'Republican-rednecks-want-to-murder-brown-children' commercial was so appalling that a number of media figures and Democratic operatives expressed disgust over it.
Even the Washington Post's editorial board, which desperately wants Northam to win, chided the Democrat over his silence on the spot, over which a spokesman very tepidly and very belatedly expressed mild qualms:
The minute-long spot from the Latino Victory Fund
depicted a pickup truck being driven by a sinister-looking white man, flying a
Confederate flag and sporting a Gillespie bumper sticker as it chased down a
group of terrified brown-skinned children.
Titled “American Nightmare,” the ad
ended with the children waking up from a nightmare and adults watching
television footage of August’s torch-bearing white-nationalist march in
Charlottesville.
“Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the
‘American Dream?’ ” asked the narrator.
The Latino Victory Fund ad was vile.
Among other faults, it glossed over the fact that Mr. Gillespie condemned the
white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville far more directly than did
President Trump.
“Ralph Northam would not have run this ad and believes
Virginians deserve civility, not escalation,” a spokesman for Mr. Northam
emailed us.
That was before the Latino Victory Fund announced Tuesday night
that it was pulling the ad, issuing a statement that cited “recent events.”
Maybe that was a reference to Tuesday night’s truck attack in Manhattan.
It
is sad that it took such a tragedy for the group to realize how out of bounds
its ad was. It’s also sad that someone who promises to be a governor for all
Virginians didn’t call them out right away.
After grandstanding and
evincing fake outrage against "fear-mongering" for weeks, Northam
could have had a 'Sister Souljah' moment by harshly and publicly repudiating
the Latino Victory smear job.
He quite conspicuously did not.
The
penultimate sentence of that excerpt refers to a "tragedy" that
precipitated the left-wing organization's decision to yank down their
despicable ad.
What was that tragedy?
Oh, it was someone
deliberately plowing into innocents and slamming into a school bus, trying to
kill and main as many people as possible with...a pickup truck?
Was the
perpetrator a Tea Party-lovin', Confederate flag-flyin' Ed Gillespie supporter?
A group this vile deserves timing this unlucky.
So good work, Latino
Victory.
What do you have to say for yourselves?
________________
Latino Victory Fund
Statement:
______________
In truth, the only party they "help up a mirror to" was themselves,
and the reflected image was quite ugly indeed.
I'll leave you with a smart piece explaining why the polling of the
Virginia governor race has been so disparate.
Northam has a modest but
stable-looking lead in the polling average, but outliers abound, including a
few showing Gillespie ahead.
What's going on?
Hint: It's all about
what electorate decides to show up on Tuesday.
Your move, Virginians.
