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Sestak Fires Back With Admittedly Awesome New Ad

By Randy LoBasso

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted May. 7, 2010

There are only 11 days left in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary and Sestak has a new ad out featuring the Democrats’ old faithful—George Bush!

Sestak’s newest ad makes you remember why you hated that Bush so much (In the words of Alex Pareene at Gawker, Bush was “a little fuckhead no one liked”).

In the clip Sestak’s media team uses here, Bush just sounds like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, as was often the case. But what’s really so damaging about the commercial is what he ends up saying: “Arlen Specter is the right man for the United States Senate…I can count on this man.”

That’s coupled alongside the fact that Specter was a Republican for 45 years and Specter’s own words featured in the ad: "My change in party will enable me to be re-elected," the new liberal says, to which the commercial’s voiceover responds: “Arlen Specter switched parties to save one job: his, not yours.”

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post says it best when he says of the psychology behind the ad: “In an era where voters have grave misgivings about Washington generally and politicians specifically, Specter's seemingly self-serving justification for the switch—and the fact that it comes directly from him in the ad—means that there is real danger in the next few days for the Senator.”

Cillizza also calls the ad the “make or break moment of the Pennsylvania primary.”

As we mentioned yesterday, Sestak is, for lack of a better word, surging in the polls (though he remains behind by high single digits) and Specter remains below 50 percent amongst Democrats.

If nothing else, this primary battle will be long known for having great consequences:

1. After being challenged, Specter was forced to go left in his votes,

2. Sestak proved that a completely independent primary run against almost 100 percent of the establishment is still possible

3. Lasty, and probably the best, George Bush is no longer president and two years later, he can still potentially make our blood boil to the point where we’re persuaded to base our vote around it.