Star blog features new Barber ad

by David Safier

Brady McCombs has a new blog post on the Star website about Barber's latest ad: "Worry." (You can view the ad below the fold.) It begins with a pretty good summary of the ad.

Democrat Ron Barber has released a new TV ad, again attacking his GOP opponent, Jesse Kelly, for his past comments about proposing to privatize and phase out Social Security and Medicare.

The ad starts by using Kelly’s own words from his most recent TV ad in which he tells his grandpa Hank Allgyer “not to worry” in an spot where Kelly pledges to protect seniors’ benefits. 

“With Jesse Kelly, there is a lot to worry about,” the narrator says in the ad. “Kelly said he’d loved to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.”

The 30-second ad highlights remarks made by Kelly in 2009 and 2010 — during his failed attempt to win the seat — in which he talks about phasing out Medicare and privatizing and eliminating Social Security.

“Now, Jesse Kelly will say anything to get elected,” the narrator says.

McCombs follows this by noting Kelly recently changed his website, taking out a statement advocating for the privatization of Social Security.

The section now says Kelly supports “preserving, protecting and strengthening” Social Security and Medicare, and that he does not support privatizing, eliminating or phasing out the programs.

McCombs post gives the Kelly campaign some space to get in a few digs against Barber. Fair enough.

When I open the Star tomorrow, I'll be looking for an article on Barber's Monday press conference which folds in some information from the blog post, since that's the coverage Kelly got when he held a presser and released an ad last week. (No, this isn't false equivalence on my part. It's talking about equal treatment of the candidates, giving them approximately the same amount of coverage. "False equivalence" is where you say or imply both candidates are equally right or wrong on an issue when they aren't.)

Watch the ad below the fold.