Does this really work?

From the LA Times:

Later, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) accused Kerry of advocating socialism within the United States and appeasement overseas.

"It's not John Kerry's fault that he looks French," Smith told reporters on the conference call arranged by the Bush campaign.

"But it is his fault that he wants to pursue policies that have us act like the French. He advocates all kinds of additional socialism at home, appeasement abroad, and what that means is weakness for the future."

I'm willing to buy the assertion that the Republican base is solidly anti-French. But are any swing voters really so anti-French that they'd make up their minds on grounds that Kerry "looks French"?

My only guess is that this bizarre marriage of Francophobia with partisanship is part of a larger strategy to embed the notion of Kerry as a potential traitor in the wider electorate. He might as well be French, he wants to mollycoddle terrorists, he once took his marching orders from Ho Chi Minh...

But then again, maybe there is a genuine strain of populist anti-Frenchness out there in the electorate right now.

UPDATE:
Check out FrancSucks.com.

They certainly have an eloquent mission statement:

We Support the boycott of French products to put France in recession!

Chirac and the French people You'll be kissing our ass after the war but you won't be selling nuclear reactors to Iraq EVER again!
You won't be selling parts to Iraq for their weapons and helicopters to KILL OUR TROOPS! You BASTARDS!!!!
You won't be telling SECRET info DIRECTLY to Sadaam!
And American's don't need most of the $29 billion in CRAP we buy from you.

Chirac, you and France are a back stabbing, grand standing, anti-semetic, arrogant ANIMALS.......YOU suck!!

Americans have never liked the French but we never knew why.....now we have a reason!

The site promises an X-Rated Gear store of wonderfully erotic anti-French products...

Noting like an Uncle Sam thong for that special all-American lady friend