Missed it by THAT much
Pete Hoekstra is nearly giddy about all the attention his racist ad had garnered.
Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman from Holland, stood his ground Monday, saying the ad did what he wanted: It drew a clear contrast between himself and Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. […]“We knew we were taking an aggressive approach on this, but we’re in a time when people are fed up with the spending and we wanted to capture that frustration,” Hoekstra said. “It hits Debbie smack-dab between the eyes on the area where she is most vulnerable.”
Let’s have a look at the headlines to see if he has, indeed, reshaped the conversation to talk about Debbie Stabenow’s spendthrift ways.
- Washington Post – Pete Hoekstra’s bad ad
- Politico – Pete Hoekstra Super Bowl ad riles Republicans, too
- Christian Science Monitor – Hoekstra Super Bowl ad a slippery slope towards Asian-bashing?
- Detroit News – Hoekstra ad lacks smarts
- Detroit News – Hoekstra ad maybe offensive, but certainly is inaccurate
- The Hill – Hoekstra hammered for controversial ad
- Washington Post – Pete Hoekstra’s China ad provokes accusations of racism
- Talking Points Memo – Asian-American Elected GOPer Turns On Hoekstra After Ad
- Los Angeles Times – Not just M.I.A.: Super Bowl political ad using Asian woman decried
- Associated Press – Hoekstra’s broken English ad draws more criticism
- The New Yorker – How Did Hoekstra Get So Much Wrong?
- CBS Detroit – Hoekstra Ad Raising Questions Of Racism, Xenophobia
- Detroit Free Press – Hoekstra ad shortchanges audience, candidate alike
- Detroit Free Press – Pete Hoekstra defends Super Bowl ad featuring Chinese woman amid claims of racial insensitivity
- CBS News – Critics worry Senate ad will revive Asian-bashing
- New York Times/International Herald Tribune – Asia Bad. Take Many Jobs. Not Fair.
- Chicago Tribune – Michigan Senate candidate slammed over Asian campaign ad
- AnnArbor.com – Alicia Ping pulls support from Pete Hoekstra after ‘racist’ Super Bowl ad
- ABC News – Senate Candidate Pete Hoekstra Under Fire For Racially ‘Offensive’, ‘Atrocious’ Super Bowl Ad
- New York Daily News – Politician Pete Hoekstra defends Super Bowl ad against accusations of racism and stereotypes
- Michigan Radio – Pete Hoekstra reacts to charges of racism in wake of Super Bowl commercial
- WXYZ, Channel 7 News (Detroit) – Outrage and charges of racism over U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra’s Super Bowl commercial
- Livingston County Press Argus (!!!) – Hoekstra’s ad sends troubling messages
Yeah, Pete, you’ve really reshaped the conversation, alright. No question about it.
Adding… The Talking Points Memo piece that was also run in AnnArbor.com, has this interesting tidbit:
Washtenaw County, Michigan Commissioner Alicia Ping (R) says she was leaning toward endorsing former Rep. Pete Hoekstra in the Republican primary for Senate. But that’s all over now. On Monday, Ping donated money to Clark Durant, Hoekstra’s longshot rival in the primary. She told me she’d publicly endorse him if Durant asks her to.Why the change of heart? Hoekstra’s controversial Super Bowl ad, which the Chinese-American Ping called “demeaning”, is a part of it. But it was more Hokestra’s refusal to acknowledge that he’d made a mistake running the ad that really lost him Ping’s support.
“If he didn’t know it was racist on some level, then shame on him,” Ping told me in a phone interview Monday night. “He didn’t apologize or say ‘maybe it was over the top’ or anything. He said, ‘I stand by what I believe in’ and, ‘the liberals are just making a bigger thing out of it.’ Well that’s not the case at all. It’s offensive and it’s racist. It’s demeaning to the Asian-American population.”
But we’ll still have to listen to white people tell us how it’s not racist. Yeesh.
