Scott Wagner, a Republican challenging Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf for governor of Pennsylvania, threatened his rival with the “golf spikes” ad. Polls show Wolf has a wide lead.
“Governor Wolf, let me tell you what, between now and Nov. 6, you’d better put a catcher’s mask on your face because I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes,” Wagner said in the video.
Wagner later took the ad down amid criticism from national Republican leaders, saying he had “chosen a poor metaphor.”
I never saw that ad--I've never seen ANY ad for Wagner--but the whole episode puzzled me. Apparently one of Wagner's excuses was that Wolf's own ads were super-partisan attacks on him.
Huh? Wolf's ads--and there are many of them--are about the nicest political ads I've ever seen. They discuss Wolf's accomplishments during his first term as governor, but in a modest way: still lives in his own house, gives to charity, doesn't take his salary, and so on. They explain how he's seen to it schools have have their funding restored, and show pictures of him with happy students. There's even one, featuring a mixed pitbull pup, that's entirely about how Wolf worked to make animal abuse a felony statewide. They stress his willingness to reach across the aisle, and feature a number of Republicans who speak well of him. In NONE of them is Wagner or any other Republican attacked.
So I just don't get it...
