EDITORIAL – Latest GOP ad drops the bomb

The persistent ticking sound in your ear is making you uneasy as images of Osama Bin Laden… The persistent ticking sound in your ear is making you uneasy as images of Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists come into focus. Is this a dream?

“Kill the Americans!” they proclaim.

“What is yet to come will be even greater!”

No, it must be a nightmare.

The training camp images with gun-clad terrorists-to-be isn’t the stuff sweet dreams are made of, either.

You hear a bomb explode and suddenly you realize that it wasn’t a dream — you weren’t asleep. You were just watching the latest GOP attack ad flash across your television.

“These are the stakes,” the ad reads. “Vote November 7th.”

Whose “stakes” are these? Ours?

The Republican party sure wants all of us to believe that unless its candidates are re-elected and remain in control of both houses — which is looking more and more dismal as the mid-term elections approach — terrorists will unleash their fiendish plans for the destruction of the United States.

Democrats are calling it “scaremongering” and a “desperate ploy to once again try to scare voters and distract from their failures,” according to the BBC.

“Republicans are so afraid of their abysmal record they can’t offer an example of what they’ve done t keep America safe,” read a statement on the Democratic National Committee Web site.

Is this really what its come to? Scare voters and distract them from the real issues like the growing number of American deaths in Iraq — October is on track to be the deadliest month in two years for our soldiers. How many people have to die before we all can agree that it’s time to let the Iraqi people sort out our mess?

And what about the problems within your own party? The Foley scandal? If you can’t manage your own members, how can we trust you to manage the country?

Here’s a novel idea: What about an ad telling the American people what you’ve done and why you should be elected with testimonials and facts? Let the numbers speak. Are we in better shape than we were four years ago? No, not really. Are things looking better if we stay on this track? Depends who you ask.

Maybe it is easier to spin propaganda and rhetoric.

Don’t just tell us what will happen if you aren’t in power. Republicans had the chance to lead the War on Terror and it’s just not panning out. This new ad (which began airing Sunday according to the BBC) is a sad, last-ditch attempt to pick up votes. And please, we’re not as stupid as you think — show some class. Using Bin Laden as a battle cry has worked in the past, but its usefulness is wearing thin, especially when used in such a tasteless, tactless manner.