Wolves... Great Idea, Guys.

Today's political "bombshell," the Bush campaign's "Wolves" ad (You can see it at the President's re-elect site and make him think he's generating "buzz" through his Web traffic) has got to be the most unintentionally funny thing I've seen in a long time. It barely even works as metaphor, considering the "wolves" are so small and docile-looking, it seems like my Boston terrier can beat them up. I don't even think they're wolves, they look like chows to me.

If you will allow the metaphor, it's still ridiculous, the most pertinent example of fearmongering from a campaign that likes to accuse the other side of the same. (Do you think Bill Safire will offer an apology for lambasting the Democrats for scaring America now?) The ad blatantly misleads by saying "After the first terrorist attack on America, John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to cut intelligence and defense budgets," trying to make people think that "the first terrorist attack" in question is 9/11, when in fact they're talking about the first WTC bombing in 1993. Never mind that these intelligence cuts never passed, or that greater cuts were proposed by Dick Cheney and Porter Goss, or that Kerry also voted for huge intelligence and defense budget increases. But it distills the BC04 message nicely: vote for us or die. By being eaten. By wolves. Or at least puppies that kind of look like wolves.

Here's the funny thing: yesterday, in a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the President had this to say:

He charged that Kerry "considers the war on terror primarily a law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering operation" and that the senator's top foreign policy adviser has "questioned whether it's even a war at all, saying that's just a metaphor, like the war on poverty."

Bush added, "I've got news. Anyone who thinks we're fighting a metaphor does not understand the enemy we face and has no idea how to win the war and keep America secure."

Unless the metaphor is, you know, wolves. That can eat you. And scare you. That is, if we could find wolves that were scary.

[UPDATE] The Wolf Packs for Truth speak out!