McCain seems to be working here to build an anti-Obama narrative unencumbered by much consideration of actual events. But then, considering his campaign week was highlighted by cruising around with Bush Sr. in a golf cart while Obama was speaking in the Tiergarten, reality really isn't getting McCain very far. What's sad is that there are probably people who will see this ad and believe it uncritically - hopefully, most of them are just having pre-conceived notions reinforced.In my opinion, this is where media coverage so often falls flat on its face. Issues such as the veracity of McCain's ad claims are far too often presented as a dichotomy, e.g. McCain's interpretation is X, while the Obama campaign is arguing Y.
Nevertheless, and perhaps it's just my political disposition, I can't really imagine someone who had genuinely not decided who to vote for using this as the basis for hopping over to the McCain side of the fence. It might work the last week of October, but with over three months until the election? It just seems like too much time for Obama to expose the ad for what it objectively is: a disingenuous slander.
It also begs the question of where does McCain from here? Will those aforementioned late October ads make veiled references to a secret Obama/Bin Laden sex tape?
On a more serious note, I believe this strategy originated from the fairly decided change in tone HRC embarked on in the middle-end of the primary season, and which it could be argued yielded some results. The difference of course is that the primary season is a lot more fluid. You get a very limited amount of time to craft a message (be it yours or your opponents) and then you move on to address the dynamics of a completely different electorate in a completely different state.
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