Sara and I spent the weekend at her parents’ house in Missouri, where most of the network TV originates from Kansas City. Being near the end of October, every commercial break was packed with political ads from Kansas and Missouri.

One huge difference I noticed between these ads and the political ads in Nebraska was that the identification of the political party was nowhere to be found. Same with yard signs and stickers. Here in Nebraska, people are “Conservative Republicans for Change” or “Family Republican for Congress” or whatever. It may be explained by something as simple as state campaign laws, but it sure does suggest that Nebraskans – for all their claims of being independent populists – are far more likely to blindly vote for a party than their neighbors to the south and southeast.

And speaking of political ads, last night I caught the new Pete Ricketts “Clicker” ad.

It’s an interesting approach to take, attempting to get him off the hook for his pretty embarrassing existing arsenal of TV ads and fighting the opinions of 56% of voters who view him unfavorably. But like all of his commercials, it’ll likely backfire, because it essentially criticizes the viewers for disliking his commercials.

Like he has no choice other than to make ridiculous claims and accusations with animations and silly voices. Like the seniors he’s supposedly talking to who are worried about health care can’t figure out that his faithful alliance with corporate Republicans might not be in their best health care interests. Like the families who are worried about high taxes can’t figure out that eliminating the “death tax” will result in revenue shortfalls that will only come back to them.

He’s very consistent – I’ll give him that. We viewers / voters are too stupid to really understand issues for ourselves, so we need someone like Pete to talk down to us and tell it like it is. I mean, no one could possibly be campaigning on a platform of “Conservative Change in Washington” without thinking his audience is completely clueless and ignorant.

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