Ron Paul Up On TV

Congressman Ron Paul’s R-LOVE-ution is on the air with a 30-second TV spot that, according to the Register, will run in Sioux City, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids. The ad, which is better than Tancredo’s but worse than everyone else’s, highlights Paul’s record on fiscal policy, emphasizing that he has never accepted his Congressional pay. (Is he against paying members of Congress in general, or just in circumstances where he thinks Congress is spending too much?)

The ad definitely sounds libertarian to anyone who wants it to sound libertarian, but it doesn’t get into specifics. It also doesn’t mention abortion, and its mention of “securing our borders” doesn’t sound aggressive — or convincingly scary — like Tancredo’s intends to.

In fact, it emphasizes hope — “Hope for America,” that is — in a way that other Republican ads don’t. It’s interesting to see that on the Democratic side, all the candidates seek to co-opt “hope” (although Obama seems to have won the rights to that word this cycle in the way that one might argue John Edwards did during the 2004 cycle), while on the Republican side it takes someone like Ron Paul to really try to hammer it home.

No word on the size of the ad buy, although the way it was reported makes it sound like it’s going out on broadcast outlets (”The 30-second ads will be in rotation in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City,” which would mean broadcast outlets unless for some reason they are targeting those three specific cities through cable buys). Cable would’ve been a better choice for a campaign with a budget like Paul’s, especially in a situation like the Straw Poll when the goal is to target a very specific audience. So far, in my 24/7 cable news-watching, I haven’t seen his ad once — again, probably because it’s on network and not cable.

Here’s the ad:

Hat tip, once again, to Common Iowan