I challenge you to show me even one instance of someone calling Rick Snyder “The Comeback Kid”

If you’re in the State of Michigan, and you’re watching the Super Bowl on television this evening, you’re likely going to see the following ad… the first real ad of Governor Rick Snyder’s reelection campaign.

TRANSCRIPT:

“Some call him a nerd. But Michigan now calls him The Comeback Kid. Politicians had pushed Michigan down to the bottom of the barrel. We elected this self-made nerd as Governor and he started making long overdue tough decisions for the right reasons. Decisions that are bringing Michigan back! Governor Rick Snyder cut job-killing taxes and Michigan gained two hundred and twenty thousand private sector jobs, first in the nation in manufacturing jobs. Rick focused on veterans… made it easier for them to find jobs. We’re number one in states that have recovered the most from the Great Recession. Education funding’s up. Our one and a half billion dollar deficit is gone. Michigan is coming back. Because our governor loves budgets, ignores politics, and brings us results. Michigan’s nerd is The Comeback Kid.”

There’s certainly a lot to talk about… not the least of which being the perplexing footage of Snyder coming at the voters of Michigan with a snorkel in his mouth… but I’d like to start by offering a reward. I’ve got a crisp $5 bill on my desk for the first person who can demonstrate that anyone not on Snyder’s payroll has referred to him as “The Comeback Kid.” I can accept the other lies in the ad, of which there are many, but it really irks me that they’re trying to perpetuate the ludicrous notion that the nickname “Comeback Kid” has been bestowed upon him. I don’t care how much money you have, you can’t choose your own nickname.

I don’t envy Fred Davis, the Hollywood-based ad man who was given the task of creating the spot. When he’d come up with Snyder’s “One Tough Nerd” campaign during the last election cycle, it was easy. Snyder was largely an unknown entity. All people knew, for the most part, was that he’d ascended to great heights in the corporate world without the benefit of charisma. And “One Tough Nerd” took that lack of charisma and made it an attribute. “No, he’s not inspiring political leader,” we were told, “but we don’t need that right now. We need a guy who’s above politics, who will sit in an office with a spreadsheet and fix what’s wrong.” Of curse, as we know now, the nerd wasn’t that tough. (He caved to the right wing ideologues within his party every time he was given an opportunity.) And, to be honest, he wasn’t so much of a nerd. Despite what’s said in the ad about job growth, Michigan has the third worst unemployment rate in the country. So, Davis had a herculean task. He had to recreate the magic of “One Tough Nerd” with an incumbent who we knew to be neither. They needed a new nickname to capture the imagination of an unimpressed electorate, and they had less than nothing to work with. (Hence the bewildering imagery of Snyder snorkeling alone in a pool.) If I were Davis, I think I would have passed. But he apparently took the $300,000, spun the wheel, and came up with the absolutely laughable “Comeback Kid.” It might as well have been, “Novice Kelp Farmer,” as it has no basis whatsoever in reality, and would have worked better with the snorkeling imagery. Snyder has never come back from anything, unless you count the time that he came back to Michigan after off-shoring jobs at Gateway.

I’m not certain of it, but I suspect the ad, which, according to the Detroit Free Press, cost Snyder approximately $700,000 to produce and air during the Super Bowl, makes Snyder one of the first incumbent governors in the country to officially launch his reelection campaign. And this, I think, speaks volumes to the amount of trouble that he’s in, as his former Democratic supporters abandon him, his Democratic opponent starts gaining momentum, and the right wing zealots in the Republican party continue their search for a more ideologically pure replacement. (It’s aparently not enough the Snyder has done everything that they’ve wanted, they want someone who has the perfect blend of paranoia and rage that they can feed off of. Someone like Michele Bachmann.)

Speaking of the ideological purge taking place within the Michigan Republican party, did you happen to see that the Delta County GOP came out a few days ago, accusing members of their own party, like Tim Walberg, who expressed displeasure about racist and homophobic comments made by Michigan GOP chairman Dave Agema of having “blatantly surrendered to the homosexual & stealth jihad agenda”?

So, Snyder is standing on a sandbar that’s rapidly being eroded on every side.

Fortunately, though, he has a snorkel…

More important than a snorkel, though, he’s also got the backing of wealthy conservatives like Dick DeVos, who appreciate his willingness to toe the line on everything from right-to-work to rape insurance. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how far that takes him.

One more thing… Does anyone one else hear Moving in Stereo when looking at that image of Snyder emerging from the water?