KEITH OLBERMANN: There were a number of funny, insightful and entertaining ads during the Super Bowl yesterday, and then — on the telecast on the NBC station in Michigan — there was one that would have made the 1970 incarnation of Don Rickles flinch. It was from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra.
In our fourth story on the "Countdown" — the former congressman drawing harsh criticism, but it's not the first time race-baiting has been used to win political points. The ad against Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow is supposed to depict an Asian woman in a rice paddy, speaking broken English.
(Excerpt from video clip) WOMAN: Debbie spends so much American money, you borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak, ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spend-it-now.
OLBERMANN: Script get very weak, acting get worse. The Michigan chapter of the nonpartisan Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote group said it was "deeply disappointed" in Hoekstra.
In a statement today, "It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra's campaign chose to use harmful and negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment. The use of these stereotypes is counter to the progress our country has made over the past decades to encourage respect for all communities."
And a coalition of black ministers is calling on Hoekstra to remove the ad. The Reverend Charles William II — Williams, rather — of the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit saying, "The imagery in the ad is no different than the folks who had to put blackface paint on and tap dance."
But Hoekstra says the ad — starring an American actress whose broken English isn't really that convincing — is really a compliment.
(Excerpt from video clip) PETE HOEKSTRA: Well it's not a stereotype at all. This is a — through the creative, this is a young woman in China who's speaking English. That's quite an achievement.
OLBERMANN: Seriously. And if history is any guide, equally poor judgment may encroach on advertisements in the presidential contest as well. The man responsible for the 1988 racially-charged "Willie Horton" ad, which helped topple Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis is now leading the ad wars on behalf of the pro-Romney super PAC, "Restore Our Future."
Joining me now, Markos Moulitsas, "Countdown" contributor, founder and publisher of Daily Kos. Thanks for your time tonight, my friend.
MARKOS MOULITSAS: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: First point — so, that was a compliment? I mean — apart from the fact that the rice paddy that she's in looks like this nice country road in the upper peninsula of Michigan in the late summer, maybe, and she sounds like an American — a bad American actress doing a bad dialect bit — that was supposed to be a compliment to people in China who are bilingual? Is that what we're having — Representative Hoekstra wants us to believe?
MOULITSAS: You know, given the fact that his explanation is so bad, sort of tells me that he had no idea he was going to get this kind of pushback on his ad. I mean, what was amazing to me is that, almost immediately, it was Republicans who were attacking this ad. They immediately saw it as a problem.
Remember, this nation is getting browner and less white every single day and Republicans — if they're going to compete long-term — can't be turning off every single group that is not a white Southern male. And here, again, they've gone through African-Americans. They've definitely done a number on Latinos. Now I guess it's Asian Americans' turn.
OLBERMANN: But it used — there used to be minority groups in this country who were — it was okay to make jokes about or to do, particularly, dialect bits — whether you were kidding or trying to represent some sort of foreign element that people had to be scared of. I don't remember them being widespread in political ads, but — you know, I'm just thinking, your point was, probably, that Hoekstra is of a certain age — or the people who designed this ad are of a certain age — where it hasn't occurred to them that even Don Rickles doesn't do "Polack" jokes anymore.
MOULITSAS: Yeah, I know, times are definitely changing. I mean, one of the things that's accelerating that trend is the use of social media where people are — they're not really locked down in their little white suburbs anymore, or their African-American enclaves in the urban centers. They're actually interacting online with people of different colors and different nationalities, different parts of the country. So, this notion that we're going to demonize — or we're going rally around, as a group — by hating on somebody else, really is becoming an anachronism.
And, in politics, it really has become almost the exclusive enclave of the Republican Party. And the more they do this, the more they lose amongst youth voters, the more they lose amongst people who are not — again — white male voters.
OLBERMANN: It will be a signal day when an ad like that, that is does not have a supposed Chinese woman in it, but has a Muslim woman in it that makes fun, or makes fear out of them, is denounced across the minority spectrum the way this ad has been made.
But, jumping off this to the process — this ad for Hoekstra was produced by Fred Davis, and Fred Davis is the same man who conceived the demon-sheep video for Carly Fiorina in California, which is one of the great bad ads of all time, where the guy dressed up in a sheep outfit in wolf's clothing and he's got the FCI — the FCINO thing. He also did the Christine O'Donnell "I'm not a witch" ad. And he was the one who came up with the "complete the danged fence" spot for McCain. And I guess the question — and now, with this one in Michigan — Fred Davis, how does he keep getting work?
MOULITSAS: That's a good question. I don't have any answer. I guess he's the purview of Republicans who don't stand a chance and they're desperate for any kind of attention, because, the one thing he does do, he gives them attention.
Of course, almost universally, that has been bad attention, but I guess if you're desperate for any kind of traction — and Hoekstra, keep in mind, he's in an uphill battle against Debbie Stabenow in Michigan. So, it's not like he's a front-runner. I mean, this guy's trying to get traction, he still has the primary to get through, he's desperate for attention and, I guess, nothing gets attention now a days then stereotyping and playing off racial stereotypes. So, I guess — mission accomplished, if that's what you want.
I don't think that's a winning strategy, either short-term to win the election, in the long term for the Republican party to be able to compete nationally in a country that is increasingly less white.
OLBERMANN: Well, you just hit the nail on the head, though. And this brings us to the subject of Larry McCarthy working to promote Mitt Romney. And the bugaboo — you know, this inherited, in many cases, fear that Democrats and liberals have of "Willie Horton" commercials. And here's the man who did the "Willie Horton" commercial, now going to work for Romney. Is there any evidence that this stuff works anymore?
MOULITSAS: I think it works in Republican primaries. I would assume, if it's going to work anywhere, that's where it works. Now, nationally though, or in a general election, it works less and less. I mean, that's why we we're seeing less overt appeals to racism and bigotry and even attacking — the gay stuff, I mean, it's amazing how quickly popular culture has moved from an area where it's okay to demonize and make fun of gay people. Now it is not. Now, it's actually seen as a political liability.
And now, we're seeing a situation where, I think, African Americans are off the table. Immigrants, yeah, you can still kind of bash on them.
So — but, again, it's a cautionary tale. This was a big issue in the Nevada Senate race in 2010. Harry Reid was one of the few Democrats to escape, and he did so because the Latino turnout was through the roof in 2010. And — in the caucuses on Saturday — only five percent of Republican caucus-goers were Latino. It was eight percent in 2008, So, they've lost almost half of Latino support. They didn't have a lot to begin with, but they're losing it.
As the country gets browner, they get whiter. And these appeals are just bad politics, which is why you have people like Karl Rove, actually — Mike Murphy, Republican strategist — sort of shaking their heads in horror, because they see the long-term trends and they see that this is going to hurt the Republican party brand in the short term and in the long term.
OLBERMANN: Right, and that they all think that they're still running against Al Smith in 1928. You can't convince them otherwise.
Markos Moulitsas, "Countdown" contributor, founder and publisher of Daily Kos. Always a pleasure, sir, thank you.
MOULITSAS: Thank you very much.
