Sophie Pilgrim is France24.com’s New York correspondent. She previously wrote ‘The French Observatory’ column from her watchtower in Paris. Join Sophie on ‘Nouvelle York’ as she discovers a new world of curiosities in the US.

Nouvelle York Reflections from America’s ville lumière

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 15:23 FRANCE 24

Only in America… the creepiest midterm campaign videos

Political agendas seem to be of little value in this year’s midterm elections. The idea instead is to come up with an alarming narrative and make a video clip out of it. The more shocking, the better. But make sure to get some laughs! Oh and there are a few common themes. Guns are in, Barack Obama is out.


Pot, beer, and… guns in North Carolina

This beer-swilling pizza delivery guy is running for Senate in North Carolina on a Libertarian ticket. Sean Haugh wants peace, marijuana legalisation and equal rights. But he’s also keen to stress his commitment to the Second Amendment. “I’m the only candidate that knows that banning stuff just doesn’t work,” he says. Instead of restricting the sale of firearms, Haugh believes the solution to cutting gun crime is to “get the murderer out of our own hearts”.

Presumably by smoking pot?


Fighting off terrorists in Kansas

Perhaps the most agenda-less of them all, Kansas incumbent Pat Roberts is running 100% on the not-Obama bill. Like many Republicans, his campaign message is simply ‘if you vote for my Democratic rival, you’re voting for Obama’.

Roberts -- like everyone else lacking inspiration -- has found an easy target in Obamacare. The president’s signature legislation is as unpopular as the president himself (as low as 40 percent). Only terrorists are more hated. Alas, Roberts claimed last week that Obama was planning to bring terrorists to Kansas. As if universal healthcare wasn’t enough!


Gun wielding in Kentucky

Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergram Grimes, who fell victim to a nasty campaign by Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell (the dozy-sounding Senate Minority Leader), is so desperate to distance herself from the president that she refused to say if she voted for Obama in a campaign debate a few weeks ago.

If that wasn’t enough, she’s now running on the message: “I’m not Barack Obama”.

To emphasise her rebellion, she’s got a gun. And she’s shooting it. In the campaign video.


Ball breaking in Iowa

As she’ll gladly tell you, Republican Iowa candidate Joni Ernst grew up castrating hogs on a farm in Iowa. Now she’s off to Washington to make the swine of Congress “squeal”.

And squeal they might. Like Grimes, Ersnt wanted to make it very clear to voters that if she’s struggling with the traditional channels of lawmaking, such as debate and voting, she’ll be able to shoot her way through Congress. (Her first target? Why, it’s universal healthcare!)

She’s a “Mom, farm girl and lieutenant colonel who carries more than just lipstick in her purse”.

I was under the impression that mothers, farm hands and especially lieutenant colonels carry belongings other than lipstick. But maybe it’s different in Iowa. Don’t forget your lipstick honey. Oh, you’re running for election? Then throw in your pistol too!


Debating ‘that political correctness stuff’ in Nevada

This cringeworthy attempt to act out a natural conversation becomes all the more painful when the narrative of the story reveals itself as pitifully racist.

Independent House hopeful Kamau Bakari -- who is black -- is sick of “black folks whining”. Dressed up in cowboy garb, he’s filmed faux-debating “political correctness stuff” with a man who should know -- Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy who is best known for suggesting that “the Negro” might be better off enslaved.

Unsurprisingly, Bakari has failed to attract a large following.