Does Romney's Ad Against McCain Contain A Subliminal Message?

Is there a subliminal message in Mitt Romney's recent attack (err... contrast) ad against Sen. John McCain?

About seven seconds into a spot criticizing the Arizona Republican for his stance on immigration reform, the screen quickly flashes the word "rat" in a lone white box against a predominantly blue background. The rodent reference, which appears just under and to the right of McCain's name, is a highlighted portion of the word "immigration" and disappears almost immediately.

The inclusion of the word, Romney's campaign asserted, was completely unintentional. Any interpretation otherwise was "positively ridiculous."

"I saw that mentioned on some blog post and just chalked it up for exactly what it was: an over-imaginative scrutiny of a screenshot," Romney's spokesperson Kevin Madden told the Huffington Post when asked about the "rat" shot. "It's the same sort of reasoning that would argue that the 'gal' in the word 'illegal' is a subliminal appeal to female voters."

But some in the blogosphere have latched onto the word's appearance in the campaign spot because of the blatant historical parallels. In the 2000 presidential election, the Republican National Committee ran an advertisement against Al Gore's prescription drug plan that similarly included a brief screen shot of the word "RATS." In that instance the word was part of the phrase "BUREAUCRATS DECIDE."

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmhaypWwFPY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/04/does-romneys-ad-against-_n_79905.html