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Santorum denied this was the case, pointing out the context of the ad is a list of four important issues that Santorum, as he argues, is more in line with conservative values than his Republican rivals. Santorum has not gone after Romney or Gingrich with the same level of vitriol they’re attacking each other with, and his attack ads have not been that controversial. The ad in question makes a powerful comparison between Gingrich and Democrats like President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. But Santorum did agree that the character of any political candidate should be taken into consideration when casting one’s vote, though he did not specifically say Gingrich’s name in professing that.

Watch the clip below, courtesy of Fox:

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Gregory asked Bloomberg how much the national debate over gun control has been caught up in pure politics. The New York mayor brought up the Gabrielle Giffords shooting thirteen months ago, and thought that could have led to some serious dialogue on the issue.

“You’d think that if a congresswoman got shot in the head, that would have changed Congress’ views. I can tell you how to change it, just get Congress to come with me to the hospital when I’ve got to tell somebody that their son or daughter, their spouse, their parent is not going to come home ever again.”

Bloomberg called on Congress to implement more background checks and seal all the loopholes in existing gun law. He claimed that roughly 400,000 Americans have been killed since the 1960s, a number larger than the number of Americans who died during World War II.

Watch the video below, courtesy of NBC:

“Newt Gingrich,” she tells viewers, “had a leadership style that can only be described as leadership by chaos.”

The decisions that he would make today would be different decisions tomorrow. And a lot of the problems came from sort of the discipline that he lacked in order to get the job done. The last time Newt Gingrich was the head of the Republican party as Speaker, he became so controversial he helped re-elect a Democratic president.

I worry about the Republican party’s chances to defeat President Obama if Newt Gingrich is the nominee.

Have a look at “Undisciplined:”

h/t Mitt Romney on YouTube

Candy Crowley brought up the ad, hoping to get Pelosi to expand on her comments last month that when the time is right, she would dish some dirt on Gingrich acquired from being on a committee that investigated him in the 90s. When Crowley reminded Pelosi of her comments, Pelosi insisted what she meant was for people to read Gingrich’s public record during his time in office. She did not say whether or not anything in his record was a disqualifying factor to becoming the president, however.

But Pelosi didn’t let Gingrich get away so easily, getting in this quick swipe at him:

“Since you brought up my name in association with him as the dumbest thing he ever did, I think there’s plenty of stiff competition for that honor as far as his activities are concerned.”

In the first part of the interview, Pelosi alleged that Gingrich was fined $300,000 by the House Ethics Committee. Later on in the show, Crowley gave Gingrich’s response to the charge, with the candidate claiming the money was paid to reimburse the cost of the House investigation.

Watch the video below, courtesy of CNN:

And watch Crowley read Gingrich’s response here:

Santorum’s spot focuses primarily on his family, highlighting the former senator’s 21-year marriage and his children, whom, the ad notes, were all home-schooled. (Although is dog, it adds, was not.) Special attention is paid to little Isabella Santorum, who has a chromosome-related condition called Trisomy 18.

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The ad also highlights Santorum’s love of sports, even if he might be better at passing legislation than footballs. Some of those pieces of legislation are mentioned, including welfare reform and Santorum’s work in making partial-birth abortions illegal in the U.S. All this is presented in the style of everyone favorite music video trivia show, Pop-Up Video. And the format works rather well, we think, as a good meld of cutesy, “gettin’-to-know-you” bits of trivia with more substantive information about Santorum as a candidate. Plus: You can’t go wrong with dogs.

Have a look at the ad for yourselves:

h/t Politico

Samsung is hitting back, however, by poking fun of Apple-obsessed zombies with its new ad.

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In the commercial, Apple fans in big cities full of obnoxious people are lining up for, presumably, the very latest iPhone. They are prepared to wait for hours and hours if that’s what it takes; it don’t matter what state their Uniqlo jeans are in after. Then, they spot a couple of nice-looking people using… Gasp! Samsung phones!

And then there is, of course, a barista joke. Poor fancy coffee baristas, man. Forever the butt of jokes for 99 and 1 percenters alike.

Have a look at the ad and let us know what you think:

h/t BuzzFeed

The ad shows a nice-looking young woman flirting with a nice-looking young man. The man holds open a voting booth curtain for her, because he is a gentleman. She thanks him by doing something about his hanging chad situation. What I’m saying is he drops a vote in her ballot box. Her punches her tab, you guys.

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They totally [BLEEP].

The ad also includes the Party’s catchy slogan: “Russia: Putin It In You.” No, that’s filthy. It says “Let’s Do It Together.”

Have a look, via GOTV:

h/t Politico

This Western-cum-campaign ad from CTV includes drinking, punching, spitting and the phrase “Cock-a-doodle-doo ma’am.” I don’t really know what this has to do with voting for Cain, but, damn it, I like it.

RELATED: Stephen Colbert: Herman Cain Is ‘Running For President Of Flavor Country’

Here’s a sampling:

White man without any cool facial hair: Those some purdy flowers you got there, mister.

Black man with cool mustache: Pretty YELLER flowers.

White man with cool mustache: Well I’m glad you like ‘em.

B.M.W.C.M: Yup. I bet… That yer as yeller as those flowers right there.

W.M.W.C.M: Why’s it always gotta be about color? What are you guys, liberals?

Too bad they cast the hero as being kind of a douchebag. Are we supposed to listen to what some jerk who drinks cocktails thinks? Did Rick Perry secretly make this ad?

Watch for yourselves:

h/t Boing Boing

He explained the process behind getting him onto the ad (it turns out he really was surprised by that press conference) and Hannity commended him for his candor in having shared that it was important for him to buy a car from a company that had chosen not accept the government’s bailout package.

“Do you think,” asked Hannity, “this was pulled for the reasons that some have been writing about? That the Obama administration — which wants to tout their bailout as some success — got angry and got in touch with Ford.”

McDaniel shared that he had contacted Ford and asked them directly about what had happened, which is when he was informed that the ad had simply run its cycle. Nonetheless, “it just seems fishy that these other stories are circling around at the same time. You know the old saying: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” He added, however, that he applauds Ford for having put the ad on air in the first place.

Later in the segment, McDaniel’s frustration is palpable as he asks why it is that those in government can’t “pack a lunch” and make cuts while so many Americans are themselves struggling. Hannity responded by asking McDaniel to consider running for president. So. Is this our Joe the Plumber, version 2.0?

Watch the segment, via Fox News:

Well, now Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes is reporting that the car company has pulled the ad after questions from the White House:

With President Barack Obama tuning his re-election campaign amid dismal economic conditions and simmering antipathy toward his stimulus spending and associated bailouts, the Ford ad carried the makings of a political liability when Team Obama can least afford yet another one. Can’t have that.

The ad, pulled in response to White House questions (and, presumably, carping from rival GM), threatened to rekindle the negative (if accurate) association just when the president wants credit for their positive results (GM and Chrysler are moving forward, making money and selling vehicles) and to distance himself from any public downside of his decision.

In other words, where presidential politics and automotive marketing collide — clean, green, politically correct vehicles not included — the president wins and the automaker loses because the benefit of the battle isn’t worth the cost of waging it.

An industry source stressed that there was not any pressure to take the ad down, adding that Ford “never meant to attack the policy.” At the time of Kelly’s report for Fox News, a spokesperson for the company also said that the ad is not meant to be “an attack,” but, rather, a change to let an actual Ford driver share his thoughts.

This afternoon, however, Ford Motor Co. responded to a disgruntled Facebook comment calling the pulling of its ad “gutless” by assuring the public that the ad was taken out of circulation in a manner that was totally routine. What makes this doubly interesting is that it wasn’t just any ol’ commenter who called the company out — it was the man in the ad it was some dude having a bit of fun:

Update: The man who actually appeared in that ad is named Chris McDaniel and he gave Larry O’Connor an interview about the “commercial-pulling controversy:”

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart.com, the “star” of the popular ad, Chris McDaniel told me he was “a little bit flustered’ by Ford’s decision. He found out about it during a live radio interview this morning. “I had no idea. As soon as I got off the interview, I sent an e-mail to Ford’s VP of Marketing.” He told me, “I put myself out there on the line. You either stand behind it or you don’t.”

Ford has not yet returned Mr. McDaniel’s e-mail.

The interview also includes McDaniel’s video response to the discussion surrounding his ad.

—

For reference, here’s the original report on the ad from Fox News:

h/t Detroit News

In the commercial, an “average guy” is pulled off the street and into a press conference, where he is asked various questions about buying a Ford vehicle, including whether driving an American car is important to him. His response ran a little deeper than “Yes, but only if I can airbrush a weeping American eagle onto the passenger side door:”

I wasn’t going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government. I was going to buy from a manufacturer that’s standing on their own — win, lose or draw. That’s what America is about, is taking the chance to succeed and understand when you feel that you got to pick yourself up and go back to work. Ford is that company for me.

A Ford spokesperson has said that the ad is not meant to be an attack, but, rather, a platform to highlight real thoughts by real Ford drivers. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that commercials aren’t simply shot and plastered on TV. A lot of research, money, planning, testing and editing goes into making commercials, and a big company like Ford wouldn’t simply run an ad this potentially divisive without considering the implications.

To discuss what this ad might mean to consumers, host Megyn Kelly brought on Wall Street Journal economic writer Steve Moore. Moore personally loved the ad, adding that it appealed to his patriotism.

Kelly observed that the ad seemed to be trying to tap into something like a “Tea Party ideology.” Personally, I find it obnoxious and presumptuous when companies blatantly air out their political beliefs in their ads, no matter what those political beliefs might be. Which is precisely why I’ll never hand my money over to a local storage company that advertises in, like, every single subway car.

But do you all find the Ford ad to be political? If so, do you like what it has to say? Does this campaign make you want to rush out and buy a Ford?

Have a look at the segment, via Fox News, ad let us know:

“We are sorry,” reads the ad, signed by Murdoch. “The News of the World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself.”

Murdoch, along with his son, James Murdoch, and Rebekah Brooks, the NOTW‘s editor at the time of the hacking, are set to testify before Parliament next week. Brooks recently announced her resignation from her post at Murdoch’s chief executive in the UK following increased public scorn over her perceived role in the scandal. Brooks has claimed she had no knowledge of the phone hackings.

Take a look at the full ad:

h/t @jdavidgoodman, @timgatt

But the internal ad in this week’s issue may be one of the most pretentious self-advertisements of all time. Let’s take a look.

In May, Newsweek went through a redesign promising a magazine that is “sophisticated and airy,” with less focus on “celebrity news” and more on “the most pressing issues of our time.” The results of this goal have been mixed, but the unsaid takeaway was the magazine was looking to become more exclusive instead of inclusive. It would reach a smarter audience instead of a greater one. Quality would win out over quantity.

Whether Newsweek wants to admit this didn’t matter – their ad this week for Newsweek.com/Gift, hoping their print readers sign their friends up for the magazine, is a clear indication of their mindstate. Here it is, then let’s talk about it:

So the tagline here is “It’s Not for Everyone. Just Everyone you Know.” And some examples of the mock gift cards:
• “To ___ who updates her facebook status with Jon Alter aphorisms. Busted.”

• “To ___ who has 20/20 vision, but wears geek glasses to look like Dan Lyons.”

• “To ___ the aspiring politico down the hall who dreams of the day Jon Meacham decides to pen his biography.”

We get the concept – highlight the stars of Newsweek in a jokey-insidery way. See, if you read the magazine, you get it. You’re in the club. But seriously, is this the way to attract new people to the magazine? By massaging the self-important egos of their existing readers?

Reading this on the 6-train on the way to work this week, I just felt like an asshole.

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