DNC Web Ad: McCain In Lockstep With Bush

The Democratic National Committee is out with a new web ad today, pushing an argument that voters better get used to: John McCain is an extension of George W. Bush's presidency.

The video, titled "Lockstep," shows the Arizona Republican echoing, almost verbatim, some of the definitively false and misleading claims that members of the Bush team used to rationalize the Iraq war.

The hit list includes:

McCain parroting the notion that "there has been significant involvement on the part of the Iraqis and Saddam Hussein in the acts of terror that have been committed in the past."

McCain projecting, in March 2003, that the U.S. would "be welcomed as liberators.

And then some de-facto Republican talking points when the war was souring in 2004: "We've got to stay the course" and "al-Qaeda is on the run."

It almost makes you nostalgic.

Anyways, this is the trump card that the Democrats will almost assuredly return to again and again as the election progresses. It is also proof that, despite claims to the contrary, the party very much thinks Iraq is an issue they want on the electoral table.

Already, as Jonathan Martin at Politico noted, McCain's statement that he doesn't mind U.S. forces in Iraq for 100 years -- which he contends has been drastically misconstrued -- has been an albatross on his campaign.

And, as the senator himself has noted, if the country doesn't think the war was worth it come November, he likely won't win the White House.