A new and as yet unreleased McCain ad is already causing a stir. The McCain campaign ad is scheduled to be released at 3 AM (I assume EDT) on Sunday morning. They are clever. I’m guessing that I will have it up by dawn. When an ad is making news even before it is aired that’s really something. Talk about buzz.
Here’s the report from the Wall Street Journal:
No sooner had Barack Obama publicly announced his new running mate had John McCain’s campaign produced an attack ad asking: Why not Hillary?
“Passed Over” will hit the airwaves at (you guessed it) 3 a.m. Sunday. The timing is a reference to Hillary Clinton’s national security ad during the Democratic primary and the same time the Obama campaign sent out its text message announcing Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as the vice-presidential nominee.
“She won millions of votes. But isn’t on his ticket. Why?” an announcer says in the 30-second spot.
The answer? “For speaking the truth.”
The ad, which has not yet been released, then ticks off a litany of criticism Clinton used against Obama in the prolonged primary, according to a transcript sent to reporters.
“You never hear the specifics,” Clinton says.
“On the Rezko scandal,” the voice says.
“We still don’t have a lot of answers about Senator Obama,” Clinton says in footage from the primaries.
“Senator Obama’s campaign has become increasingly negative,” Clinton says in another scene.
The announcer closes by saying “The truth hurt. And Obama didn’t like it.”
The ad is the latest sign that the presidential contest has grown increasingly personal. It’s also proof that the some times bitter battle between the two Democratic senators has provided useful fodder to the Republican opposition.
Both Obama and McCain are fighting to win over the 18 million voters who chose Clinton during the primaries.
Recent polls show her base of mostly white working-class women has not rallied behind the Illinois senator. McCain frequently praises the former first lady in an effort to woo her still undecided supporters.
“Passed Over” could strike a chord since many Clinton fans are upset that she was not seriously considered as Obama’s running mate. While most people considered the “dream ticket” a long shot, the Obama-Biden ticket still struck a chord among supporters and delegates who had held out hope that Clinton would be chosen.
“[Hillary Clinton] has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq, and expanding access to health care,” says Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand. “It’s interesting how those remarks didn’t make it into his ad.”
I am really beginning to pity ol’Barack. He is so out of his league. Part of me can’t stop laughing, the other part is a smug satisfaction of knowing full well that this would happen. McCain is succeeding in making Obama the issue. This election has had a decent amount of policy debate (energy, off-shore drilling, and foreign affairs) but right now McCain is making this election a referendum on Obama. And by doing so, McCain should stroll to victory, not in a landslide as many expect because the country is really too polarized (in the popular vote anyway) for that, but instead by a comfortable margin.
Obama, of course, could turn the tables but I don’t expect it to happen realistically. Obama has claimed that if McCain brings a knife, he’ll bring a gun. Well McCain has brought in the heavy artillery. So will Obama go nuclear? Only time will tell.