Freedom's Watch, Remembered: Their Greatest Hits

Ahh, Freedom's Watch. Not long ago, they were supposed to be the New New Shiny Thing in conservative advocacy groups. Funded by Sheldon Adelson, fronted by Ari Fleischer, and with deep connections to organizations like the American Enterprise Institute, they were some war-lovin' fools that were going to blanket the airwaves with issue ads and be total Game Changers. Now, sadly, the group has fallen on hard times, along with Adelson, who, according to reports saw his "net worth had [fallen] by more than $16.6 billion for the year."

Karen Tumulty has a piece on Freedom's Watch that captures their legacy pretty perfectly, as an organization who assaulted America with senses-dulling advertisements that employed a combination of really hamhanded jokes and illiteracy to fully fail to convince wide swaths of Americans. One cited example includes this terrible ad copy, which failed to prevent Democrat Dina Titus from winning her race in Nevada's 3rd District:

One memorable spot featured surgeons hunched over an operating table, exchanging the following dialogue:

"Oh my."

"Colitis?"

"No."

"Hepatitis?"

"No."

"Diverticulitis?"

Story continues below

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"No, I'm afraid it's Dinatitus! Taxes up the yin-yang!"

Oh, such hilarity! Of course, our personal favorite ad from the organization's repertoire was deployed back in May. Nancy Pelosi had made an appearance on Larry King Live, pointing out how much the price of gas had gone up on Bush's watch:

Pelosi noted the deleterious effects that Bush White House policy has had on prices at the pumps. But, during the conversation, Pelosi briefly misspoke and said that the cost of gas was "almost three times what it was when Bush took office...it was a dollar something when he took office, now it's $2.56 on average."

So, Pelosi either miscalculated or misstated her calculation. Well Freedom's Watch was het up to nail Pelosi for this picayune mistake, so they cut an ad featuring footage of gas station price boards with the actual price of gas. The problem was, those prices painted Bush in an even worse light.

So, anyway, that's Freedom's Watch, proving once again that with great incompetence comes sporadic outpourings of pity.

Comments

[KaLaPa111]

Thank God I live in solid, blue NYC where we're thankfully not subjected to this sort of dribble.

[LMPE]

Eh, b-dip, b-dip, th-th-th-that's all, right-wing whack-jobs!

[realpolitic]

Conservatives thrive on misinformation.

[ATL78]

I have the joy of seeing new Freedom's Watch ads each week thanks to the senate runoff....hard for me to think this is the "end"

[Islanders6466]

nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey-hey-he­y...GOODBY­E:)

[saxmaniac]

Having once worked for Shelly, nothing he does surprises me. Disgusts, infuriates, angers, but doesn't surprise.

[larry278]

I'll miss the wretches of Freedoms Watch & their wretched ads, infomercials, whatever as I'd miss prolapsed, thrombosed piles after a proctologist had excised them.

[AllenD]

Good riddance!

[leeman79]

Join the ranks of PNAC and all the other edsels in the pasture.

[BearsLeft]

My favorite is the incredibly stupid "Dept of Peace" ad against Mark Udall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aR3HQTi9bw&feature=related

[christopherflynn]

Incredibly stupid?"-no way, that ad would have delivered the vote for me for Udall... :)

[noamjunior]

targeting the audience that think smoking pot is much worse than murdering 150+K Iraqis

[lovethesinner]

In any Freedom's Watch greatest hits catalogue there should be a special mention of John McCain supporter David Bellavia's simultaneous disparagement of Tiger Woods (whose father was a green beret) and Barack Obama in a less than subtle (and completely backwards) racial comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gg621-DrmU&feature=related

What is especially poignant about the folly of Bellavia's comparison is that, like Woods, Obama went on to score a decisive victory and now John McCain is going to be seriously challenged in his 2010 senate race because of the cloud of RACISM his comments left on the Republican party.

http://www.thegolfblog.com/2008/04/mccain-introducer-disparages-tiger.html

[steve-annie]

I won't miss 'em one bit.

[Nomccain]

Migage2008, couldn't have said it better. What we need is a national show to counter the lies of such scumbags as Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, Huckabee, et al. These people are paid to tear down the present administration and cause all the division in the country that they can. I don't suppose we can even hope somebody will take them off the air.

[mirage2008]

Rest in Pieces Repug scum.