Rich – On the Romney ad, yes, the announcer’s voice sounds like a parody. But the bigger problem is the substance – or at least the substance of the opening assertion:
When it wasn’t politically correct, he stood up for life in Massachusetts.
The conservative voters to whom Romney is appealing know that that leaves out half the story. Romney ran for governor in 2002 as a solid pro-choicer; he did, after all, vow to “preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose” five times in a relatively brief exchange during a debate with his Democratic opponent. Only later, as he geared up his presidential campaign and took a stand opposing a stem-cell research bill, did he change position. That is the core of his problem with social conservatives in Iowa today.
In debates and in public appearances, Romney often says flatly, “I was wrong.” So why not say, in his ads, that he has become a dedicated convert to the pro-life cause? As it is, having an announcer with a stereotypical political-ad voice reading a stereotypical corner-cutting political ad leaves the impression that Romney is a stereotypical politician.