Several people have called my attention to an NRA ad endorsing Tom Cotton that popped up on Grindr, which is, as Daily Beast describes it, a “hookup app for gay men.”

I wasn’t quite clear when I first received a screen shot if this was some Internet quirk. Grindr told Daily Beast its ad came from a “third-party ad network” and that they would drop it.

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Well sure it’s weird. Tom Cotton has scored points by joining other Republicans in opposing same-sex marriage and opposing laws that would prevent workplace discrimination against gay people.

But, hey, there are gay Republicans. Heard of the Log Cabin Republicans? And I am quite sure there are gay gun nuts, too.

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As I noted this morning, one big financial backer of Cotton, Paul Singer, is a major financial supporter of same-sex marriage. That linked item is another reason gay people should run from Tom Cotton. It’s about cynical and misleading use of a college student to play on homophobia to get votes for Cotton.

Yes, there’s a certain hypocrisy factor in this (if it is as it appears). Or maybe it’s a self-loathing factor if gay people would vote for a candidate who is so antagonistic.

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Daily Beast generally concludes it’s an advertising gaffe. But one Republican strategist it quotes thinks it might have been a considered strategy by the NRA.

However, one Republican online strategist suggested that the NRA might have intentionally run the ad on Grindr, explaining that the group “has been very big on expanding its reach beyond the stereotypical straight white male gun owner in recent years. And they might be right about there being a target universe there.”

A fellow of my acquaintance with Internet acumen offered this theory:

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An ironic consequence of right wing blanketing mail/radio/tv and ad networks.  Someone at NRA with a huge budget said “put me in front of every male in Arkansas with a smartphone” without any granular precision.

UPDATE: Now comes CNN, with a flat denial of involvement from the NRA, which had not responded to Daily Beast’s questions about the ad. It suggests the images were doctored. Dirty tricks? By whom? I’m not seeing my way clearly to the point.  But OK, for now, the NRA is on the record: It wants nothing to do with the gay guys. I come back again to the Log Cabin Republicans who’d want them and Cotton..

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