It’s never easy running in your first election after you’ve done the old party switcheroo. Let’s stipulate to that. And it’s easy to bash Arlen Specter for being a Bush guy in one election and an Obama guy in the next.
But Arlen isn’t doing himself any favors with the new TV ad that he has running in Pennsylvania about how much Obama loves him. The new ad almost exactly mirrors a TV ad that Specter ran in his 2004 campaign about how much Bush loved him.
Indoor rally? Check. Blue curtain backdrop? Check? U.S. and Pennsylvania flags in the background? Check. A President bounding on to the stage? Check.
Compare the two ads after the jump:
Arlen Specter for Senate TV ad, 2004:
Arlen Specter for Senate TV ad, 2010:
Late Update: Our Rachel Slajda has done a must-watch mash-up of the two ads. Take a look.
David Kurtz
David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.