Play all audios:
Does Monty Python produce attack ads? Because this slickly produced ad attacking GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman sure looks like a joke. The ad accuses Huntsman of (1) worrying about
excessive partisanship; (2) wanting to put a price on carbon emissions; (3) describing health care as a “right”; (4) promising to “put people first”; (5) supporting John McCain for
president; and (6) drawing political support from Democrats and independents. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple
perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly
to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. No, seriously, that’s what it says. And in case you
are wondering, yes, those points are all meant as derogatory accusations. If you’re not a Republican, you may have to watch two or three times to understand how any of this could be seen as
bad. But notice the visual cues: For instance, a shot of _The New York Times_ building as Huntsman’s voice talks about reaching out to Democrats and independents. (_NYT_ = lamestream media
= bad.) What’s next? Black-and-white ads in which gravelly voiced narrators sneer, “What do we know about Congressman Jenkins? He says he was climbing the tree only to steal apples. But our
video cameras clearly show him rescuing a frightened kitten!” In a normal universe, being for cooperation, against pollution, for health care, for people, for your party’s presidential
nominee, and winning lots of votes would be admirable positives, not critical deficiencies. But since 2008, the Republican Party seems to have stepped into some dimension outside space and
time, in which the rules of political physics have all been inverted. We do not have to accede to the Democratic partisans and the talk radio shock-jocks who jointly defame and misrepresent
Republicans as angry, irrational, frightened extremists. A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com And how did other Republicans
respond? Perhaps suspecting that the ad was produced by the Tim Pawlenty team, they hit back — hard. Using the same intro footage and the same mock-campaign ad music, someone compiled video
clips of Pawlenty (1) endorsing the climate work of the National Academy of Sciences; (2) promising to enroll all citizens of Minnesota in a health plan of some sort; (3) candidly
acknowledging that his state faced large budget deficits as a result of the recession; and (4) promising to spend federal stimulus funds “quickly and effectively.” Again, non-Republicans may
blink and say, “Where’s the attack?” But notice the picture of Pawlenty in a tuxedo shaking hands with President Obama at a state dinner. Not only did Gov. Pawlenty once think that everyone
should have health coverage — he has actually been present in the same room as the president without physically assaulting him! What a RINO! Granted, there’s a lot of insider baseball in
these ads. They are made by professionals for other professionals. These attacks are intended more as brushback pitches than as serious hardballs. Both Huntsman and Pawlenty remain deep in
the second tier — Pawlenty with the support of 6% of Republicans (behind Herman Cain), according to Gallup, and Huntsman with the support of only 2% (behind Michele Bachmann). The audience
for these ads is less the Republican primary voter, much more fellow campaign professionals. And yet, perversely, it is precisely this insider quality that makes these ads so disturbing.
They drop the veil on what Republican professionals inwardly believe their Republican audiences want to hear. It's not a very complimentary estimate, and I am convinced it is a wrong
estimate. As individuals, Republicans are responsible, reasonable people who raise families and care for their communities. Why do we refuse to think of ourselves that way in the aggregate?
Republicans do not reject the authority of science. They do not deride health coverage for all. They do not relish conflict for its own sake. They do not think governors should refuse when
offered federal dollars to avert immediate and catastrophic cuts in services. They do not think it is impossible to spend public money "quickly and effectively." They do not think
it is a betrayal of principle to seek votes outside the hard Republican base. Most important: Republicans have the power to debunk the unflattering self-appraisal presented in the dueling
Pawlenty-Huntsman ads. We do not have to accede to the Democratic partisans and the talk radio shock-jocks who jointly defame and misrepresent Republicans as angry, irrational, frightened
extremists. The things Pawlenty and Huntsman are saying in these ads are the things Republicans should expect their candidates to say — along with a pro-enterprise message on taxes,
regulation, and government spending, of course. The ads' satire should be our party's candidate profile description. And I have no doubt that in good time, it will be so — if not
in 2012, then certainly in 2016. _Editor's note_: This article originally stated incorrectly that the Huntsman campaign had produced the anti-Pawlenty ad. It has since been revised. We
regret the error.