Viewable here. Wow. Tough to know where to start. Probably the claim that most deserves comment is the "he made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras". As has been widely reported (here's a good summary by Andrea Mitchell) this claim could barely be further from the truth.
Politically, this really seems like flailing to me. I don't know how this doesn't alienate independent voters. It creates a back-and-forth that seemingly has to favor Obama because the claim itself is just nonsense. Anyone that would be predisposed to believe that a major party presidential candidate could actually have this level of callousness for active duty troops, not to mention such a complete lack of political savvy (and believe me, these people do exist) would never have voted for Obama anyway. This illustrates the point I made yesterday -- that this is fundamentally counter to what should be McCain's core message. This simply doesn't seem presidential. McCain needs to be actively acquiring new independent and on-the-fence voters, and I don't see how this helps. This ad utterly lacks any degree of subletly. McCain at some point is probably going to have to answer questions about this ad, and I don't know how that exchange is going to make him appear as anything other than petty and dishonest.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
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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.
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