Democrat senate candidate Chris Coons has released a new ad, “Twilight,” which uses past statements from Republican Christine O’Donnell to paint her as coming from a Twilight Zone type of mindset.

“Christine O’Donnell says a lot of strange things,” begins the narrator, as “The O’Donnell Zone,” floats across the screen. The commercial then shows clips of O’Donnell saying, “I’m not a witch,” “Evolution is a myth,” and “Scientific companies are crossbreeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.”

“Huh?” continues the narrator. “Now she’s attacking Chris Coons. The truth is, Coons cut a $130 million dollars. Taxes in New Castle County are among the lowest in the region. Unlike Washington, Chris Coons balanced six budgets.”

O’Donnell also released a new ad today. A Delaware GOP strategist criticized that ad to Battle ’10, saying that O’Donnell should entirely cease showing herself in ads, limiting her presence only to the voiceover noting approval of the message required by law. Here’s some more observations by the strategist:

Remember in 1980 when Kennedy unexpectedly defeated Carter in the New York primary — being down as many as 20 points just a week before the primary? The ad that made the difference didn’t even have Kennedy in it — it was the ad that featured Carroll O’Connor (of “Archie Bunker” fame in “All in the Family”) — looking into the camera and saying, “Let’s fight back, folks. Send them a message.”
This narrative made the race exclusively about Jimmy Carter — just as O’Donnell must do to nationalize the election in Delaware. O’Donnell should make this a referendum on Obama/Coons — leave Biden entirely out of it — and nowhere in the ad should any picture of O’Donnell be shown. Male (not female) voice over addressing the various issues: spending, debt, Obamacare, cap-and-trade, and coming income tax increase. O’Donnell’s only shot now is to become the invisible, “anti” candidate…. the only available repository for voters’ anger.
Any ad that has any photo or visual of O’Donnell is a negative, a non-starter in terms of moving the dial. She has plenty of name/picture ID, and people overwhelmingly dislike her — or are conditioned to dislike her. That perception is not going to be erased in the next 10 days.