BLOGS

Two new videos: Weiland's song and Bosworth's kids

David Montgomery
dmontgome@argusleader.com

Most of the ads we've seen so far in the U.S. Senate race in South Dakota have been pretty typical stuff: the candidate or a narrator talking straightforwardly about their platform and credentials. See Bosworth's "Cares," Mike Rounds' "Reacquainted" and Rick Weiland's "Take It Back."

Now some of the candidates are out with some more unorthodox, potentially attention-grabbing videos.

Bosworth's is a 30-second campaign commercial "Vote For Our Mom," in the time-honored tradition of ads featuring a candidate's cute kids. It eschews any real political statements (other than a reference to Bosworth teaching her kids how to shoot a gun), focusing on painting a positive picture of Bosworth:

Meanwhile, Rick Weiland shows off his pipes by putting out a music video highlighting his successful campaign accomplishment of visiting every town in South Dakota. The vehicle is a parody of "I've Been Everywhere," the song made popular by Johnny Cash*, in which Weiland sings about South Dakota towns to a slideshow of him campaigning in each one:

Side note: Weiland's not the only U.S. Senate candidate from South Dakota who likes to sing. New independent Gordon Howie recorded himself singing some patriotic songs before his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Here's Howie performing "This Is My Country," complete with a political speech as a spoken-word interlude:

(*Update: "I've Been Everywhere" is not actually a Johnny Cash song -- nor even American. Its lyrics have been revised constantly over the years, since its original incarnation in 1959 as a song about Australian cities. Here's the Wikipedia page.)