McCain's New Ad: "Beautiful" Words Won't Improve Your Life

The McCain campaign is out with a new, minute long TV ad that is at once biographical and a not-too-subtle jab at Barack Obama.

Starting with his military service and POW status in Vietnam, the spot highlights what his campaign describes as the Senator's "record of putting his country first and taking on the tough challenges confronting our country even when it was not popular or in his self-interest."

But it also hits at Obama, in ways similar to attack-ads past.

"John McCain doesn't always tell us what we 'hope' to hear," says the narrator, with a particular emphasis (and pause around) the word hope. "Beautiful words cannot make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics can. Don't 'hope' for a better life. Vote for one."

The choice of the word "beautiful" is telling. Obama has often been described as the candidate of words and speeches and great oratory. But the preceding adjective - which suggests poetry far more than presidential politics - has rarely been used and seems like an attempt to paint Obama as effete to McCain's macho.

Also of note: by starting with a war-versus-hippies montage, the McCain campaign is clearly not shying away from the Vietnam debates that marked the campaign just one week ago (when Gen. Wesley Clark's comments about POW status not being a prerequisite for a commander-in-chief caused a manufactured stir).

Mark Halperin, at the Page, reports that the spot "will be cycled into McCain's ad buy on national cable and in Colorado, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin."

Comments

[VivaZapata]

hmmm? beautiful speech or shameless huckster exploiting jingoistic slogans? not too hard to choose, i hope.

[Sparty1]

Sounds like someone's a little JEALOUS to me. Instead of stumbling and bumbling through a speech, I'd rather hear a 'beautiful' speech anyday.

SpartyHUSSEIN1

[JeremyO]

That's just what we need, another macho president. I have a feeling WWIII starts on the Republican's watch, that's for sure. Is Flip Romney his running mate yet?

[funnyguy]

I guess McCain does think getting shot down in a fighter plane is a qualification to be President.

[Vicendithas]

I know a number of posters have stated this, but beautiful words do make your life better. They are the core of our morality and humanity. Whatever ignoramus thought up this slogan was very shortsighted, and I hope that this phrase does not die, but is turned on its head and formed into a bludgeon with which to drive a railroad spike of inspiration into the hearts of everyone who would buy into this absurd notion.

[canadagood]

Thing that I got out of this was the phrase "our economy is in shambles". Strong words for someone trying to sell the Republican party after eight years of a Republican presidency.

[DrFitz]

The first reaction I had was that it reminded me of that dopey "Big John" ad run by John Cornyn. In fact the Big John song kept running through my head. I'm thinking of making a mashup.

The other thing the "don't hope for a better future" line made me think is that McCain just doen't believe in Morning in America-style hope.

[soithoni]

Wrong.

Beautiful words, beautiful ideas, a bringing together of the entire country. This is exactly what we need. We need to feel like a community again. We need to have faith in ourselves, in our ability to get things done. We have so much crfapolla to clean up from you incompetent Rethuglicans.

Beautiful words are at our core. They make our hearts sing. "When in the course of human events..." "We the people..." "... endowed with unalienable rights, that among these are life... liberty... and the pursuit of happiness."

No, you're wrong, Mr McPainInTheTukkus, Mr McWhatDayIsItToday...

Beautiful words from one certain candidate have begun to heal this nation.
And come November you are going to really hear some beautiful words: "Senator McSlimy, you're defeated. Smashed into the ground. Done for. Kaputt."

Beautiful... don't you think.... my friendssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss?

[bosshogg]

it was just discovered that ad plagiarized from another ad from the 70's i hope msm report this because this could be embarrassing........... the slogan "don't hope for a better life vote for one" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/07/22/sv_saatchibrothers22.xml&page=3 ......... sullivan from the atlantic talk about it http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/

[jeanrenoir]

A hundred more years of war, tax breaks for the rich, and corporate fascism, plus a foreign policy run as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Israel won't improve our lives either. If the stupid American public doesn't "get it" about McCain now that Maliki has explicitly called for the US to get out of Iran, essentially endorsing Obama's, not Israel's, foreign policy, then the boobs are even more impenetrable than any of us already assumed. But chances are, losing their jobs and paying $4 at the pump, they are slowly but surely catching on.

[TerryFL]

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Joe Lieberman is not going to be happy when he reads your post.

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[ghop]

Thank you for reminding us how old and stuck in the past you are, Johnny! Please keep fighting the culture wars of the 60's and 70's, I'm sure it will help you with all the voters still riled about those lazy, draft-dodging longhairs.

[DSully]

Someone in the press needs to come out and write an article asking... .is John McCain an idiot?

I haven't ever seen him with a firm grasp on any political concept. He doesn't know anything about the economy. He somehow spent the last 20 years refusing to use a computer. He admits to always doing horrible in school. He always confuses things in Iraq. What the heck does he bring to the tables besides being old and white?

[nowRnever]

Don't blink or you'll definitely miss the two (count 'em 2) "people of color " at the 37 second mark in the clip. Do blacks, latinos and other people of color not exist in McSame's world?

[richardgordon]

Well, I'm not going to waste my time watching the Ad. But clearly the McCain people don't get it. Beautiful words and hope do make a big difference. After 8 years of cynical fear mongering and divisiveness what America DESPERATELY needs is a LEADER that can INSPIRE and INSTILL CONFIDENCE. Obama is all of these things and more.

[mdargo]

McCain's "Summer of Love" .... I think McCain and his campaign are pissed off they missed the sixties. In many ways John McCain also missed the Vietnam war. He dropped bombs from a distance, then got locked away in a prison and listened to North Vietnamese propaganda for 5.5 years. I am a card-carrying, former Republican, baby boomer. John McCain's world view is dangerous and under-developed, much in part to him missing what was happening on the ground in Vietnam and what was happening in America during those years. I honor his service and sacrifice. But he never fought in combat. I had too many high school classmates go to Vietnam and either never return or return damaged. McCain is courageous and brave to live through those horrible years as a POW, but that does not mean he is right for the Presidency at this point in history. I wore a POW bracelet during the years. I fit the so-called Hillary demographic -- white female age 59. But I have supported Obama since mid-2007 and look forward to him becoming the next President of the United States. McCain is grounded in the past. Obama is grounded in the future. I think the sub-text of this ad works against McCain, and neither McCain nor his campaign seem to get that. There is a huge disconnect.