“President Zero”

Lucas Baiano, who Weigel dubs "the Michael Bay of political video-making," is now working for Rick Perry. His first ad:

Ed Morrissey claps:

Substantively it’s a bit weak; I’d have expected Perry to toss in a few statistics about job creation in Texas, especially with a video titled “Proven Leadership.” He has plenty of time to make that argument, of course, and this is a good introduction to the campaign’s central theme — and a good demonstration of how tough Perry will be on Obama in a general election, assuming he gets the nomination. Notice the emphasis on “President Zero”?

Amy Davidson, who is less favorable, thinks the ad previews the GOP's general election message:

The Hill thought the opening looked like “a trailer for a zombie movie,” and, on the whole, it has the logic of something Jerry Bruckheimer would have put together: doom impending, accentuated by news clips, then the hero comes, surrounded by hopeful, neighborly faces. … Perry’s extremism may ultimately cause his party to turn away from him, but his ad gives an idea of the direction any Republican is likely to take: the dominant sentiment, for all the Americana, is not one of nostalgia, but of fear.