ThoughtCrimes.org

Incredible as it may seem, what follows is apparently an honest-to-God political ad released by Carly for California, a website supporting Carly Fiorina’s campaign for senate.



It opens with a shot of bucolic peace. Blue skies, peppered with white fluffy clouds, rolling green hills… A woman’s voice breathlessly pronounces the word “Purity,” as the word itself appears in white letters against the sky, followed by “Piety.” “Our fiscal conservative leaders, men we admire” the narrator half whispers to a shot of sheep trotting across the grass. “We aspire to be.” (More sheep walking around.)

“Wholesome” She murmurs, to a shot of more sheep cropping the grass with the word itself superimposed on them. “Honorable, true believers…”

But...something is wrong! A photograph of a black-faced sheep suddenly rises up on a pillar above the grazing flock into the fleecy blue …”Men, like Tom Campbell, who would never lead us astray, his pedestal so high.”

Thunder! The sky darkens, lightning flashes, the pedestal is shattered and the little cut out sheep falls as little cut outs generally do in such videos, end over end. As it tumbles, some sinister gothic chorus starts up, a combination of the opening bars of “O Fortuna” and the original Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack from The Omen. The breathy woman narrator is replaced by a man declaring with deep voiced and sarcastic disapproval, “Leaving but one way to fall…”

What follows, backed up by this chorus, is an extended rant about how Tom Campbell is not really a fiscal conservative, peppered with unflattering shots of Campbell and people who are apparently supposed to be disapproving voters.

But it’s at the 2.26 mark where this ad truly distinguishes itself, once again returning us to the flock, who are being menaced by what looks like a possessed version of Lamb Chop, the late Shari Lewis’ puppet sidekick…



…who keeps popping up among the sheep with glowing red eyes. The true coup-de-grace to the video's credibility comes when this fiend is shown creeping away from the other sheep. Yes, the ad calls Campbell "a wolf in sheep's clothing," but what we are seeing is obviously not a wolf, but a man in a rented sheep suit crawling on his hands and knees.

So the message of this ad is, Tom Campbell may look like just another mindless sheep cropping the grass and letting out occasional bleats, but that’s just a ruse. In reality he’s not a sheep at all! He's a man capable of walking upright.

Which is a bad thing.

Bad, baaaaad, baaaaaa…..