Tracie Mauriello
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Welch might not have political experience, but he does have a sense of humor — one his campaign (with the help of the inimitable John Brabender) demonstrated in six-minute Internet attack ad. With the help of deadpan acting, witty scripting and creative Photoshopping, the Welch campaign suggests that Mr. Casey and Mr. Obama were separated at birth.
“What I find most intriguing is their uncanny ability to show up dressed almost identically,” one actor said while several photos of the pair appear. One clearly altered shot shows Mr. Casey and Mr. Obama in the sort of pose most often seen in engagement photos and wearing identical blue Argyle sweaters that rival Rick Santorum’s sartorial sweater vests.
“The probability that two individuals would so consistently demonstrate such exact fashion taste at precisely the same moment, day in and day out, suggests more than coincidence, the actor deadpans.
Another actor portrays a statistician who suggests that voting records show its “probable” that Mr. Casey and Mr. Obama are twins. “In vote after vote you would think they are the same person. In fact, Casey voted with Obama 98 percent of the time,” the actor says. “People don’t agree with their spouses that often.”
Next up: a suggestion that Mr. Casey is trying to be like the president even when it comes to food choices. A photo appears of the pair visiting a diner during a 2008 campaign stop. The actress notes that Mr. Casey is “staring longingly at Mr.Casey’s buttery waffles. Unfortunately, Mr. Casey’s fruit plate selection makes him different from Obama. A picture taken moments later shows that the fruit is gone and has been replaced with an order of buttery pancakes,” she says, as if revealing a great conspiracy.
“Very telling.”
The tag line: “Ordering buttery pancakes, dressing alike and voting together time. Now you know why experts and people all across Pennsylvania think Bob Casey and Barack Obama must have been separated at birth.”