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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder - Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. More

Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal. He previously served as the politics editor, and is now a contributing editor, for The Atlantic, where he curated the influential Politics channel on TheAtlantic.com and contributed to the magazine. He was also a chief political consultant to CBS News. Earlier, at NJ's Hotline, Ambinder was the founding editor of "Hotline On Call," a pathbreaking political news blog. He also worked as a producer and reporter for the ABC News Political Unit and was one of the founders of ABC's "The Note." Born in New York City, raised in Central Florida, Ambinder is a 2001 graduate of Harvard and lives in Washington, D.C.

NRA's New Ad: McDonnell Protects You From "Them"

By Marc Ambinder
Oct 20 2009, 1:54 PM ET Comment

The National Rife Association's political action committee takes aim at gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds in new ad that's running across the state of Virginia.  The spot isn't just about guns. And it doesn't actually mention Deeds -- who opposes gun control -- by name.    

A deep-voiced narrator intones that "they" are creating "mountains of debt" and heavy spending and "unprecedented government intervention" that chips away at "Your Rights" and "Your Freedom," including "Our Second Amendment."  Who's "them?" Not defined. 

But, the viewer is told, "you can stop them right now."  How? By voting for Bob McDonnell on November 2.

Kind of sneaky -- although sneaky in a fairly obvious way -- to cast Bob McDonnell as the defense against unknown malevolent forces who are trying to take away your guns...even though the reality is that neither Democrats in Virginia nor Democrats in Washington have any appetite for gun control legislation.




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