Dan Fletcher of Time magazine says it’s the best ad campaign ever. According to WKRG in Mobile, Mr. Peterson couldn’t afford a TV ad, so using American ingenuity (remember that?) he put it on YouTube. Without using a dime, he’s gained a following around the country and attention around the world.
Here is the ad:
The ad is genius. The first shot of the Preamble to the United States Constitution sets the tone, and Peterson understands that the destruction of our constitutional rights happens because "the thugs and criminals want to keep you in the dark." He takes a shot at the Republican Party along with his opponent, claiming that Republicans "should be better than that", and that the politicians "don’t give a rip about Alabama." Even the horse looks disgusted. In only a minute, Peterson makes a believer of anybody who’s sick of things. Which is just about everybody these days. It doesn’t hurt that he’s toting a Winchester rifle. The ad, and Peterson, has tapped into the bedrock of what has already surfaced in the Tea Party/Rand Paul/Tenth Amendment movement. We’ve all had it, and this brilliant little ad has brought attention to an obscure race in a Southern state like a blast of cool air in August. I don’t even live in Alabama, and I want to vote for Peterson. If Rick Perry keeps up his shenanigans, I might move there! But can Peterson deliver?
In an interview with Glenn Beck, Peterson stated he won’t take any special interest donations, and is funding his campaign out of his savings. Which he’s EARNED over 40 years as a farmer and businessman. He told Beck that Alabama is second only to Louisiana in political corruption, and he became motivated to run in hopes of getting the people who are killing Alabama out of power. As far as agriculture goes, he is against federal, centralized control of our food supply and says such control is a "slicing and dicing of our Constitutional rights."
When interviewed by Fox News, he said: "We’ve always voted in this country for the best of the worst, and now the country’s in a mess. It’s up to us guys to fix it. If we can get government out of the way we can fix a lot of this stuff — we can probably fix it all. We need more businessmen and businesswomen to step up to the political plate and make things happen." Amen, brother. As a former Marine, he remembers that his fellow Marines in Vietnam didn’t "pay the ultimate price for slugs and thugs to destroy our country." One of his three goals is to restore profitability to Alabama family farms, partly by reducing taxes, which will help stabilize agriculture and restore lost jobs to the State.
Why does this ad get so much attention? An ad for the position of Agriculture Commissioner. In Alabama.
Peterson’s ad spoke to so many on a personal level. One of hope, of faith, and of can-do. Uncertain times, daily bad news, and a tanking economy beg for a few somebodies to "step up to the political plate" and do something. This simple ad answers that somebody is doing just that — Dale Peterson means business.
