Politicians have been mining 9/11 and throwing it back at us as a buzzword for a decade now. Vendors of flags and shirts and ribbons have profited over the sensationalism and subsequent commodification of a tragedy. Using violent deaths to sell cheap trinkets isn't the most admirable move, but plenty did it without much protest. Maybe it wasn't wrong; maybe they were just filling a psychic need to show solidarity. But using 9/11 footage in an overwrought campaign ad? That's stretching the usability of the event just a little far.

Herman Cain is not one of the Republican frontrunners, and after this ad, he'll probably be out of the competition altogether. The video features two minutes of original news footage from 9/11/01 underneath an audio track of Cain singing "God Bless America". It then cuts to his campaign logo and URL: Herman Cain, President 2012. Say what? I'm supposed to watch the Twin Towers fall down in flames all over again, view footage of firefighters struggling to deal with the damage, see the faces of kids who have lost their parents in the attacks--and then I'm supposed to feel compelled to vote for this one guy who felt the need to sing badly about America on top of the whole reel? 

I don't quite see what you're getting at here, Herman Cain. I think you're supposed to be demonstrating how much you care about America and reminding us all how sad it was that this awful event took place. But you didn't even have the tact to focus on the silver lining like the rest of us have been. You know, the fact that Americans banded together to rebuild and all that positive junk. You just hit us with the outrageously sad bits and then flashed a picture of your face so that we now associate them with you. This might be the least classy campaign ad on the face of the planet. Take a gander below and see for yourself.