Battleangel

Now that may be obvious, but here is something that really takes it to a whole new level. Video editing, skilful out of context quotes and treasonous implications.

Slate - The Grinch Who Doctored Photos - Web ads are a special low art meant to stir the base. Both parties use them: They are cheap to produce and usually highly misleading. Both parties also hope the media pick up on them and spread their messages without the party having to buy actual, expensive air time.

Bush has distorted images of U.S. soldiers before. During the 2004 campaign, he got into trouble when one of his ads, titled “Whatever It Takes,” doctored the images of soldiers. The ad showed a crowd of soldiers listening to the president. But some of the faces appeared several times in several different places within the same crowd shot, the result of an attempt to increase the number of soldiers appearing to listen to Mr. Bush.

What neither party has done-until now-is inject the idea that the other party is undermining our troops overseas. The RNC is pimping a mute and unnamed soldier not just to defend the Iraq war but to imply that Democrats are white-handkerchief-waving cowards who want the United States to lose.

Ah yes, the unknown soldier. The tabula rasa of nationalistic yearnings. I offer a standing ovation at the hope that internal political strife will in the end render the country unmanageable or worse.