I sometimes wonder why I can't muster the passion and dedication to subscribe to Macleans, and this recent commentary by Feschuk kind of reminds me.
You, like me, may not like the Tory attack ads. I have said long ago that attacking Ignatieff because he loved the country he lived in was a cheap shot. A few weeks back I stumbled upon a comment in the Globe and Mail that essentially turned the tables on the PM, and imagined what a Liberal attack ad of the same format would contain. No surprise, it's the bogeymen every opponent lets loose whenever an election is looming, and which have all been thrown out of Party policy ages ago.
The Globe's assumption is false on one elementary count: while the PM and the Conservative Party have long recanted their unpalatable views, Ignatieff has kept the door open to a Coalition even after this election and has done nothing to disprove the attack's allegations. He is too arrogant to admit he was wrong, and it will be his undoing.
In the meantime, critics of Tory marketing tactics should think twice before slinging around accusations of ill-will. No-one in the Party is as cynical as to assume supporters will believe a "memo" fundraising letter is an actual memo. Marketing is marketing: if a certain tactic works you don't question why it does, you just use it.
Knowing what makes people tick is different from assuming they're stupid. That's the Liberals' domain.
