A new ad by the McCain camp shows a clip of Obama saying troops in Afghanistan are “just air-raiding villages and killing civilians,” and calls the Senator “dishonorable” and “too risky” while linking Obama to Congressional Democrats and warning of their takeover of power. The ad comes after a weekend of McCain & Palin bringing Obama’s connections to Robert Ayres to the forefront.
In the same vein Governor Palin also discussed Senator Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright during an interview with Bill Kristol saying:
“Those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”
From the “funny places campaign ads turn up online” comes this story at Clickz where DNC ads sit proudly above “Car Wash Babes” and “Celebrity Tramp Stamps.”
Hat tip to my sister-in-law for sending in the link!
SCRIPT: Questioner: “President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years ”
McCain: “Maybe 100. That would be fine with me.”
Announcer: “If all he offers is more of the same is John McCain the right choice for America’s future? The Democratic National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.”
KEY IMAGES: The ad shows a split screen, the left half with the text of the questioner’s comments, the right with a fuzzy image of McCain listening. After McCain responds, “Maybe 100,” the McCain image freezes and the words “100 years in Iraq” appear across from him. After he says, “That would be fine with me,” the full screen cuts to images of U.S. troops under fire in Iraq and violence on its streets. The words “5 years,” “$500 billion” and “Over 4,000 dead” appear over the images. Then McCain reappears on a split screen, this time facing images of violence, and the question and response are repeated. The ad concludes with a photo of Bush with his arm around McCain.
THE SPIN: The ad plays up a McCain comment about U.S. troops in Iraq, links McCain with Bush and suggests that McCain will continue the policies of the unpopular president. The spot is the second of two in a half-million-dollar, three-week campaign on national cable television aimed at a key argument against the expected GOP nominee.
ANALYSIS: In tone, the ad is much like the previous DNC spot on the struggling U.S. economy. It quoted McCain as saying “I think we are better off overall” than eight years ago. Using his own words against him is part of the overall DNC strategy to put McCain on the defensive while Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton continue to compete against each other for the Democratic nomination.
The “100″ years remark has dogged McCain since he spoke those words last January while campaigning in New Hampshire. McCain gave what seemed to be a flippant response to a question about how long the U.S. would remain in Iraq. A questioner in a town hall setting had challenged McCain about Bush’s view that troops could be in Iraq for 50 years.
“Maybe a hundred,” McCain said. “We’ve been in South Korea. We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That’d be fine with me as long as Americans, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. Then it’s fine with me. I hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.”
McCain’s opponents have suggested those remarks mean that he would continue to wage war in Iraq for a century. Not so, McCain says, though he offers no specifics for when U.S. troops would be brought home or when the violence might end. Instead of framing the comments in terms of warfare, McCain says the U.S. military would remain there much as it has in Germany, Japan and South Korea.
McCain opened himself up to the ad because of his imprecise remarks, which didn’t spell out what he meant.
OK nobody asked me but I had an hour free so I whipped up what I think is a good “very ruff so calm down” 30 second spot for Hillary Clinton that would have been perfect for online and even that old TV box thing in the corner. Obviously if you watch it this is not a real ad and not produced with lots of money. Just a mac and some free time.
Where I think Clinton traditionally fails is:
1) She doesn’t talk to young people
2) She is running on experience and we have no idea what that means
3) She is losing the style battle, Obama just seems cool and looks cool
4) She doesn’t know how to relate her complexity
Ultimately I think that last point is central. There is the Clinton we’ve known for years through right-wing media attacks and the Clinton we’ve seen on the campaign trail. She is complex, interesting, dynamic, whatever you want to call it. Her advertising and message should reflect that. She has a lot of different aspects to her personality, not always positive but always interesting. Clinton is not just one message to one group of people and her lifetime has brought a lot of unique lessons and experiences.
So all in all, “Do you Know Hillary Clinton” probably should have been their message from day one and “even better than the real thing” is just a catchy idea they could really play with. They should have blatantly reintroduced her to the nation in the same way they did to New York when she ran for Senate and went on “listening tours” where she rebranded herself.
Anyway enjoy the clip, what do I know?
If I get a chance at some point I have some ideas for McCain and even Obama.
Last nights Super Bowl featured an ad with Democratic & Clinton strategist James Carville & Former Republican Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist reaching across their differences and coming together over some sugar water. Other than being a nice contrast to the back and forth of the campaign season I don’t know how it fits into presidential politics but what the heck, I thought I would toss it up.
