Video: The red-meatiest red-meat ad of all time

It’s more than a month old, but don’t let that stop you from watching it now.  Potomac Strategy Group recently focus-tested this spot, reports Jim Geraghty, and it produces real movement against Terry McAuliffe — even among Democrats.  There isn’t a line in this that doesn’t drip with red meat, and it apparently works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QJhNMUEjfU

Jim published an e-mail from Matt Mackowiak of PSG in his Morning Jolt today:

We ran a focus group, conducted by nationally-respected McLaughlin and Associates, to test the effectiveness of our “Don’t Let Them Detroit Virginia” ad, which you exclusively reported a few weeks back.

Here’s the ad, which has now been viewed over 20,000 times on YouTube alone.

Here’s a short summary of ballot movement after viewing:

GOP voters: +8
Dem voters: +4
Independents: +2
Women: +4 (McAuliffe loses 4)
Men: +5
Over 40: +6
Overall ballot: +5

It has everything that the base would want — attacks on Hollywood, the Clintons, carpetbagging, media bias, and “extreme liberals.”  The only wonder is that the spot fits in a 60-second time frame, but that might be its big problem, too.  Buying full-minute spots gets expensive, and time is running short; the election is in less than three weeks, and Ken Cuccinelli has a lot of ground to make up by then.  Jim wonders, too, whether this will be effective among casual viewers rather than focus groups, who are paying a lot more attention to the ads.

Nevertheless, it’s worth a watch simply to marvel at the genre, even if it’s pretty much substance-free, as many of McAuliffe’s attacks on Cuccinelli have been. Enjoy, especially after yesterday’s debacle.