Behind the Ad: Mitch McConnell plays an unconvincing victim

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.)

Who: The Mitch McConnell Senate campaign.

Where: Kentucky.

What's going on: I didn't pay much attention to the recent story of Progress Kentucky, a liberal super PAC, secretly taping a Sen. Mitch McConnell campaign strategy session, but I thought it was a pretty damned stupid thing to do. A lot of things are said in private "blue sky"-type strategy discussions, and I'm certainly glad no jackass stood in the hallway taping things that I might have said in one of them back in the day.

Did members of McConnell's team say creepy things? Yeah. Did they have an expectation of privacy? I certainly hope so.

It's not typically the way I swing, but I'm with Senator Mitch on this one. Leave it up to McConnell, however, to squander that goodwill as he did in an ad attempting to tie President Obama to the taping.

In part, the ad says:

Mitch McConnell is Obama's No. 1 target because Mitch protects Kentucky from bad ideas. Liberals will do anything to beat McConnell.

Yes, well, liberals might, but Obama didn't.

I'm also having a hard time seeing McConnell as a victim in this little drama, given his people's discussions (however obtained or serious) of using a potential opponent's mental health history against her.


(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)