Republicans got sacked running Super Bowl ads last year — but they don’t seem tired of losing

One of the minor highlights of Super Bowl LVI was watching Republican candidates implode by running ads that could only charitably be described as fumbles.

Three GOP hopefuls bought pricey commercials from across the country with one common result: They couldn’t win their primaries. Losing U.S. Senate hopefuls Jim Lamon in Arizona and Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, and gubernatorial washout Perry Johnson in Michigan, all made truly dubious investments.

But that doesn’t mean viewers won’t see something of an instant replay. Johnson has already announced plans to air Super Bowl ads in Iowa to launch a 2024 presidential bid. That’s what one does after getting busted by Michigan GOP – and left off the 2022 primary ballot — for having submitted too many fake signatures on nominating petitions.

Johnson’s 2022 Super Bowl business “guru” ad was bland, but was at least about himself, to no avail. The other two candidates tried a splashier approach.

Lamon aired an ad pathetically attempting to depict him as a Western hero in a shootout with President Joe Biden, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Lamon lost to Blake Masters, who would lose to Kelly.

McCormick got especially classy with his ad set to crowds shouting “Let’s Go, Brandon” – MAGA-speak for “F*** Joe Biden – which wingnuts thought was the coolest thing ever. McCormick lost to Mehmet Oz, who would lose to Sen. John Fetterman.

As the world waits not so anxiously to see how many Republicans will give it a try again at Sunday’s Super Bowl XVII, MSNBC commentator Ja’han Jones pointed out the hypocrisy of it all.

“In recent years, conservatives raised the volume of their whining over professional athletes and sports leagues that acknowledge social inequality. This, conservatives claimed, broke an unwritten rule that sports and politics cannot intermingle.

Never mind the fact that their gripes largely stem from actions taken by teams and players in the National Football League, an organization known for invoking ostensibly pro-American symbols that toe — if not outright cross — the line between patriotism and propaganda.”

That’s well said. But you have to admit that sometimes the commercials are more interesting than the game at a Super Bowl. Especially when you get to watch shaky Republican candidates drop the ball so badly.

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US detains pro-Palestinian campus protest leader: union



A leader of protests at Columbia University against Israel's war in Gaza was arrested by immigration officers, a campus union said Sunday, after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.

Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces in the campus's protest movement that erupted in response to Israel's conduct of the war, was arrested Saturday, the Student Workers of Columbia union said.

"On Saturday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian recent Columbia graduate and lead negotiator for last spring's Gaza solidarity encampment," the union said in a statement.

US campuses including Columbia's in New York were rocked by student protests against Israel's war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The demonstrations ignited accusations of anti-Semitism.

Protests, some of which turned violent and saw campus buildings occupied and lectures disrupted, pitted students protesting Israel's conduct against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish.

Khalil, who remains in immigration enforcement detention, held permanent residency at the time of his arrest prompting thousands of people to sign a petition calling for his release, the union statement added.

"We are also aware of multiple reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accessing or attempting to access Columbia campus buildings on Friday and Saturday, including undergraduate dorms," the union said.

Columbia did not directly address Khalil's arrest in response to inquiries, but in a statement said "there have been reports of ICE in the streets around campus."

"Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings," Columbia said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump railed against the student protest movement linked to the conflict in Gaza, and vowed to deport foreign students who had demonstrated.

He also threatened to cut off federal funding for institutions that he said were not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.

His administration announced Friday it was cutting $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment.

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Trump turns defenses of America ‘into dust’ as he becomes ‘a source of global instability’



President Donald Trump is rebuilding a key international constituency: Anti-Americans, one columnist wrote Monday.

Adrian Woolridge, global business columnist for Bloomberg, noted that anti-American sentiment is en vogue as Trump alienates international leaders.

Woolridge cited the March YouGov poll showing positive sentiment toward the U.S. has fallen 28 points since Trump was elected, and the columnist expects these numbers to continue falling.

"Trump embodies everything critics of the US have always warned about, multiplied several times over. Yankee arrogance? He and Vance, in the Oval Office, shamelessly bullied the leader of a nation victimized by the Russian president’s aggression. Yankee imperialism? Trump bragged to a cheering Congress that he will take over Greenland 'one way or another.' Yankee incompetence? His tariffs are destabilizing global stock markets and downgrading his own economy," wrote Woolridge.

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He noted that for centuries, the U.S. has aided anyone seeking to provide "stability and security" and to lead and spread democracy and "free-market capitalism."

"Those justifications are turning into dust," Woolridge wrote, lamenting that the U.S. is now the "source of global instability" with "erratic" swings.

"Under Trump, the US is groveling to the world’s biggest enemy of liberal democracy, Putin, and injecting massive instability into global markets," said Woolridge. If Trump continues on this path, the columnist predicted it'll only worsen for the U.S.

He also thinks that if Trump continues on his current course, anti-American sentiment will likely be "transformative" in Europe. Meanwhile, the columnist said, Trump's coattails will likely drag down populist politicians along with him.

Nigel Farage is one of the best examples, he said. The leader of Britain’s Reform Party is already pulling back on his attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a contentious Oval Office meeting. Now, Farage says Vice President J.D. Vance is "wrong, wrong, wrong" on British troops.

"Both the Labour and Conservative parties think Farage’s closeness to Trump could prove to be an electoral problem for Reform," he said.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on a huge down-swing, and analysts assumed that the Conservatives were headed for an October victory in the upcoming election. "That's no longer a foregone conclusion," wrote Woolridge.

"The genie of anti-Americanism is now not only out of the bottle but doing immense damage to the country’s long-term interests," he closed.

Read the full column here.

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