Mitch McConnell Is Your New Justin Bieber

Here's Mitch McConnell's new campaign ad. Built on footage from the chelonian senator's recent appearance at a Kentucky political fest that is really actually genuinely called "Fancy Farm," it's pretty much an epic of attempted turd-polishing. AsNew Republic's  Alec MacGinnis says, it "manages to make McConnell's turn at Fancy Farm out to be as electrifying as Hendrix at Woodstock." Reports from the scene indicate that McConnell narrowly escaped injury in the flurry of jump-cuts.

McGinnis was impressed by the energy the ad managed to whip up from what was, in reality, a fairly routine campaign appearance, especially in comparison to the buzz around Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes and the performance given later in the day by McConnell's teabagger primary opponent Matt Bevin:

McConnell gave a feisty enough speech, complete with an opening shot at Grimes' father, but his support had a distinctly manufactured quality, consisting primarily of young college-types bused in from elsewhere in matching red T-shirts and then bused back out after McConnell was done speaking, as if the campaign did not even want the youngsters exposed to the charms of Bevin, who spoke last and, almost everyone agrees, pretty much stole the show. 

We just like the heartfelt sentiments of the red-shirted supporters, especially the young woman who says that McConnell is for "guns, freedom, and cahhl" (cut to a button reading "I [heart] coal"). We also enjoy the Dennis Hopper vibe from the woman who said "He speaks... when he speaks... his words are for Kentucky!" He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. A big turtle, man...

McConnell's ads are being made by Lucas Baiano, who was probably behind that similar-looking ad that either went viral in a single day, or had inflated YouTube stats because the McConnell campaign paid for automated pageviews. We wish Mr. Baiano luck in generating excitement around Mitch McConnell. If he can pull that off, maybe he can direct a feature:  Fast and Furious 8: Yugo Fever. 

[ New Republic / YouTube ]