Pat McCrory's new TV campaign ad is stunning, and I don't mean it's beautiful. Rather, it's stunning in an "I can't believe I'm seeing this" way - cheesy, vapid and desperate and, depending on your view of the guy, either sad or sickening. Moreover, it's also stunning to see just how many half-truths, distortions and outright lies the producers managed to pack into one minute. For sure, those qualities mean that McCrory's ad fits right in with the tenor of the slick, image-making modern political ads we've all gotten used to. But considering that the commercial is McCrory's attempt to counter abysmal poll numbers (only 35 percent of North Carolinians approve, according to latest surveys), and the growing perception of him as a lightweight who was stampeded in the legislature by the wingnuts in his own party, you'd think the ad would be more than a parade of dubious platitudes. You'd think he would offer more than shadings, spin and, not to put too fine a point on it, bullshit.
If you haven't seen McCrory's ad, check it out.

First: McCrory says he "stepped on the toes of both the left and the right." In truth, his only veto of a rightwing law - the one that will waste your money drug-testing welfare recipients until it's struck down by the courts - is hardly a counterweight to the scores of destructive new rightwing laws McCrory signed that are now making the state a national freak show as it lurches to the far right.

Next: McCrory claims to have reduced taxes and helped create jobs. In fact, only the rich will get a big tax cut, while most of us will be paying more to make up the difference. As for jobs, has anyone seen the ones the governor is talking about? Me either. Note also that it's hard to boost vocational training for new jobs, as Pat claims, when you're cutting community college budgets.

More B.S. from MC Master Pat: He's clamping down on waste (except when it comes to salaries in the Department of Health and Human Services, naturally). He's finding ways to reward our best teachers (while teachers' assistants are dropping like flies and new teachers with masters degrees are screwed out of their $5K bonus).

And finally, my favorite. McCrory has the brazen, infuriating gall to say that he's helping "our most vulnerable citizens get excellent healthcare" - after shafting 500,000 North Carolinians by refusing federal money for Medicaid expansion, effectively leaving those "most vulnerable citizens" without any healthcare insurance whatsoever. I said the governor's ad was sad or sickening, and McCrory's healthcare claim is both: sickening in its flagrant lying and contempt for voters' intelligence, and sad because many voters who should know better will fall for slickly produced B.S., no matter if it's promoting oil companies' "dedication to the environment" or McCrory's concern for our most vulnerable citizens. I thought, rather I knew, that McCrory was mostly corporate spin and smoke and mirrors with little substance while he was mayor. This new ad - and apparently there are more to come - confirms it once and for all. Shallowness, Patrick McCrory is indeed thy name. And that's being generous.