Well, this is odd. Norm Coleman’s new 30-second campaign spot, "Got It," features a kitchen colloquy between Coleman and his wife, Laurie. The theme is Norm’s purported independence from the toxic legacy of the Bush administration; the punchline is that she’s the only special interest who’s got his ear. It’s the sort of home-and-hearth political spot you’ve seen a thousand times.

Or not. Since the spot premiered online yesterday, a number of bloggers with videography experience have cried foul, claiming the ad looks like a composite editing job–which, if correct, would mean that Laurie Coleman was not even present when it was shot, but was taped in a remote location and later added to the master shot. (For years, Laurie Coleman has spent much of her time in Los Angeles, where she pursued careers in modeling and acting before making her entrepreneurial debut earlier this year with the introduction of Blo’N'Go, which is not a lobbying firm but a hair dryer with grooming attachments.)

MnBlue raised the red flag on the curious appearance of the ad. MnPublius later posted a survey of several skeptical reactions. The criticisms revolve around lighting and the proportionality of the figures in the frame. To a video rube like me, the curious thing is the resolution of the Laurie image versus that of Norm and the backdrop.

It’s a matter of no serious political consequence, of course, but potentially embarrassing nonetheless given the family-man undertow of the ad and the longstanding buzz in DFL circles about the status of the Colemans’ apparently bi-coastal marriage. In the past hour I’ve phoned and emailed the Coleman campaign’s media rep, Tom Erickson, to ask whether Norm and Laurie were in fact together for the shooting of the ad. I’ll post his response when I receive it.

In the meantime, here’s the ad. See what you think.

 

Coleman for Senate: Got It (:30)

Update: Via comments we learn that Coleman campaign communications director Erin Rath has made a statement on the commercial: "These left-wing, liberal, Al Franken bloggers are as goofy a bunch as I’ve ever seen. They’ve spent too much time concocting a conspiracy theory, wasting valuable bandwidth on the Internet. The senator and his wife were both in the kitchen of their home where the commercial was filmed."