Rick Noriega Responds to Cornyn’s TV Ad: All By Myself

When I viewed John Cornyn’s ad, various scenes of him walking around alone in Palo Duro Canyon, I just shook my head and thought “how lame. What’s the point of this?” Well, from the Noriega campaign response ad, I can see that I need to learn a few things.

Lesson 1: Never show yourself in absolute solitude, even if that is your usual state. It opens you up to all kinds of mirth and merriment.

Lesson 2: Never try and pass off yourself as a “change candidate” when your voting record goes 95% along with Bush. That’s not change, that is status quo.

Lesson 3: Dress well. Where are the hat and the jacket with the fringe on the sleeves? We look a little frail and pasty without that hat and that fringe.

Here is the ad, short and to the point.

Big Bad John’s Video Shot by A California Media Company

I can’t find out how they figured it out, but right here at Texas Cable News we find that John Cornyn’s introductory video, a video called “Big Bad John”, a video that ranges between preposterous and bizarre in its presentation, was conceived by “a California media team.”

To refresh your memory, here is the You Tube video (why oh why haven’t they pulled it yet?). it was uploaded by Political Realm.



But wait, this gets better. You might remember that Cornyn’s campaign reacted to Rick Noriega winning the Barbara Boxer (D-CA) “Choose a Challenger” contest. The text of the campaign can be found at this LA Times blog, but the money quote is found right at the bottom of it and I have it here:

"While Rick Noriega is counting on Californians to help his campaign, John Cornyn is counting on Texans just like you."

Yeah, well it looks like John Cornyn has had some experience counting on Californians to deliver for him. It also looks like he doesn’t trust Texans to shoot a video for him.

Hey, that works for me. The question is, how did this media firm get it so very wrong? So wrong that even John Stewart parodied it on The Daily Show?

I have two theories:

1. These California media guys are way too slick and produced a cliché that reflects how Californians regard Texas and Texans. I do have some experience with this one.

2. These California media guys are way too slick and produced a video with fringe, cowboy hats and horses because they thought Texans would eat that stuff up – and the right Texans, their clients, actually did.

It would be fun to find out if these media guys are in any way, shape, or form, related to the guys who put Dukakis in that tank.

This brings to mind the memory of another campaign, a Texas campaign, where an out-of-state media group came in to shoot a folksy down-home Texas TV spot. They envisioned a quiet conversation with the candidate relaxing by a rail fence at a ranch. Trouble is, in Texas ranch fences aren’t made of rails, they are made of barbed wire (or “bobwahr” as it is known here). They looked and looked and couldn’t find a fence. Well, eventually they did.

At a place that raised miniature horses.

But I digress.

Clearly, John Cornyn is going to have a difficult time fingering Noriega as guy backed by California nuts.

Not when he himself has been “nutted”.