Barack Hits Back: Ad Says McCain Taking Low Road

Responding to a harsh personal attack from John McCain, Barack Obama released a television ad late Wednesday evening accusing the the Arizona Republican's campaign of dirty, superficial politics.

The spot, titled "The Low Road," witnesses the Illinois Democrat playing his trump card: tying McCain to George W. Bush, both in politics and in policy.

"He's practicing the politics of the past: John McCain," reads the ad. "His attacks on Barack Obama: not true, false, baloney, the low road, baseless. John McCain same old politics same failed policies."

A picture of the presumptive Republican nominee shaking hands with the soon-to-be-departed president fills the screen.

"Barack Obama supports a $1,000 middle class tax cut, an energy plan that takes on oil companies, develops alternative fuels and breaks the grip of foreign oil."

The advertisement comes hours after the McCain camp caused a stir of its own when it put out a spot comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, both in terms of international celebrity and (more subtly) lack of substance. The Obama campaign and the Senator himself denounced the ad, but their rebuttal advertisement is a stronger repudiation. This spot, at once, positions the Senator as above the fray while tying McCain to the widely-unpopular tactics of the Bush years.

Aides to the Illinois Democrat said they did not know, at this time, how big the ad buy would be.

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UPDATE: The Democratic Party is sending out this nugget from a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll, which suggest that McCain's harsh negative tone may be backfiring. Four in ten voters said that McCain had been attacking Obama unfairly while just more than two in ten say that Obama has attacked McCain unfairly.

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RELATED: Seth Colter Walls: Ex-Bush Speechwriter, McCain Strategist Fear Ad Hurts McCain's Stature

Seth Colter Walls: Britney Camp Bristles At McCain Ad

Sam Stein: Video: Do Britney And McCain Share Talking Points?

Ben Mishin: Reporters Question McCain Camp About Politics Of Paris Hilton

Jason Linkins: McCain's Paris-Britney Ad

Comments

[SnapShots]

I went to Egypt on business twice last year, once for nearly a month and then again for three months. Both times were total immersion into Egytian society.

One of the most frequently-asked questions asked of me was, "Why do the Americans allow Bush to get away with what he has done?"

My standard answer was, "The don't know. Sadly, a large percentage of Americans are ignorant and apathetic. Our corporatized media has failed in its role as a public trust to educate and inform our citizens, instead presenting idiots like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears as news, thereby dumbing down our population."

How ironic it is that McCain has used two prime examples of screwed-up American values (Hilton, Spears) who were essentially 'created' by the pathetic corporate media environment that evolved under his watch.

Add to this the fact that McCain can't remember important chronologies and geographies.

The reason Hilton and Spears are celebrities is because they're idiots. McCain compares Obama to this?

Sometimes I feel like I'm in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode.

[Sparty1]

What exactly did I do to have every last one of my comments pended? This is getting frustrating and I'm sure that it's making some folks think about going to different blogs.

[rosal]

Repubs don't understand the language spoken on the High Road. They are used to take the low and nasty road in order to avoid real issues. After the last eight years, what can McConfused talk about? That's why he doesn't have a choice but to talk about Paris Hilton. If this wasn't so pathetic, it would be funny.

[OldKnute]

OK,, OK,, Lets stay,, ON Topic Please.

The quotes are not Obama,, these are journalists interpretations of McCain and his divisive attacks in the flurries of adds of Republicans over the last 2 weeks.

McCain goaded Obama to visit the Mid East,, and guess what,, the troops came out in droves to cheer for Obama. Al Maliki, met with Obama and discussed a plan for troop withdraws. Ehud Olmert met with Obama and was pleasingly surprised. "A New initiative is very possible for Palestine and Israel." See his quotes.

Hamid Karzai met Obama and forged a new plan for increased protections in Afghanistan and for her new democracy. Petraeus briefed Obama on the surge, progress in Anbar and the Shia South in Iraq, and his willingness to press forward with troop draw-downs,, announced later that same week, when General Petraeus sent the same information, on to Washington.

Mahmud Abbas seemed more than willing to meet with Obama, their talks were stated as productive, cordial and respectful. Yes, Obama went to the Western wall,, but Abbas made no derisive comments about this.

Now Obama draws a clean comparison in his add,, and others see this as an attack????

Really???

An attack,,,,, or a clear comparison, of Obama, and the LOW Tactics to which McCain has stooped?

I don"t her one thing in that add where Obama is jabbing McCain.

Why should he get into the gutter with McCain anyway?

ON TOPIC!

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[genseric13]

The low road is B-O saying over and over again that his political opponents (fill in the blank) are using race to attack him. This is pretty slick because he gets to respond to an attack that never happens, meanwhile whipping up his base. It's a win win. Cry racism. When will that great day come when I don't hear a b-lack not whining about imagined racism.

[DragonBuddha06]

Barrack Obama has never openly cried racism... the most he does is hint that he "looks different"... that is mainly because he's a younger candidate with a different approach to the political spectrum... besides, he has not issued an all-out attack ad, just ads in response without ever insulting McCain... whenever McCain attacks him, he just brushes it off and continues his own campaign... he has a true grace and elegance often unseen in Politics

[rosal]

Your ignorance is oozing thru every pore. Enroll in the closest school, and try to educate yourself a little. Stop embarrassing yourself.

[SnapShots]

One of my very best friends was killed in an auto accident one morning four years ago. He was black. I am white. I miss him. We had many lengthy discussions about racism. One of the most profound statements he ever made to me was, "You will never know what it's like to be black."

Imagined racism, Genseric13? From under which rock did you crawl? Let me guess. You're white.

While you may interact with African Americans on a daily basis, it's painfully obvious you don't know any black people or families that you can truly refer to as friends, because if you did, you would never make such an ignorant and insulting remark as 'imagined racism.'

[seanosul]

So the Republican (and their front PUMA) answer to global warming and a need for the US, the largest consumer of oil in the World and as a result the biggest contributor to climate change, is to drill more oil?

[doofmann02]

Negative feedback from the Repub choir. Dallas Morning News tells him to focus on issues:

Absent from both commercials is a sense of Mr. McCain's vision, leadership or experience. In recent weeks, Mr. McCain lamentably has more often turned his attention to mocking his opponent rather than making a sustained case for his own candidacy.

Mr. McCain's tactics certainly aren't new to politics. But such negativity is disconcerting at this early date. The summer months usually afford presidential candidates the opportunity to delve into issues and ideology.

The bewildering debut of the politics-meets-Paris Hilton ad suggested that the clock suddenly had struck October.

Mr. McCain does voters a disservice by creating a caricature of his opponent instead of explaining their many differences on issues. Even some Republican strategists are troubled, saying that Mr. McCain appears to be swinging wildly.

If nothing else, the Republican has succeeded in stirring up a cause celebre. But inserting Britney Spears into presidential politics could prove to be famously misguided.

[uvymopkq]

"accusing the the Arizona Republican's campaign of dirty, superficial politics."
I thought he was DIFFERENT! So much for that.

[akkadian]

11 billion in profits announced by exxon today, with 10 billion going back to shareholders this year via share buybacks and dividends, total profits this year in the region of 45 billion
someone's laughing all the way to the bank, and it's not us

[lunchbag]

Since Exxons shareholders are both Republican and Democrats, i guess we have a problem

[Hare]

Lunchbag you Hit the nail on the head, why did you? I wish more people would realize that these very powerful people will never let a real independent and progressive candidate run. They approved these two main candidates and allowed them to run because neither affects their interest. It's all about degrees of how many crumbs the masses get.

[uvymopkq]

Profit !!! I did'ent know that companies were supposed to make a profit. I thought they were like the government.

[illinoisan]

"This spot, at once, positions the Senator as above the fray while tying McCain to the widely-unpopular tactics of the Bush years."

Not true - McCain tied himself to Bush.

[savagenation916]

Breaks the grip on foreign oil? WRONG!

Where was your boy Obama when they asked him if he supported off shore drilling?
He obviously doesn't want to "break the grip."

[indyrep]

Drilling in ANWR and off shore will supply less than 5% of our needs. It is basically useless. But if the populace insists and requires drilling, how about some caveats.

Don't the oil and land leases that Big Oil wants belong to the citizens of the US?
Let's just hire them to get our oil out of our ground. then we can use the huge profits to pay down the national debt.

[repubstheirownworstenemy]

Wanna "break the grip" foreign oil has on our country? Require oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres of leases they hold right now.

Poppy B ush signed the order banning offshore drilling. Even T. Boone Pickens says we can't drill our way out of this problem.

What don't people get about this bogus straw-man issue?

[kacwi]

It's a question of bonuses for the oil company execs. If they drill for oil, then this hits their bottom line and they don't get rewarded as well.

It's time to bust the myth that ExxonMobil is spending any money on drilling. They should cut all their advertising and start drilling on the leases already available.

Look at the last 3 annual reports ExxonMobil filed with the SEC. In 2005, their exploration costs were 0.269% of their revenues. In 2006, exploration was 0.323% of revenues. And in 2007, exploration was 0.376% of revenues. In Brazil, a country which made a decision to wean itself from foreign oil, Petrobras spent 1.179% of their 2007 revenues on exploration. Only 3.1 times more than ExxonMobil.

Tell Exxon to quit sending checks to Madison Avenue, and start drilling in the US on their own leases.

[Exhaust]

Another bone-head. I bet you can't name 10 things in your trailer that was made without oil or has oil in it. Another thing...if you do find something, it got to you trailer by using oil. Take a guess how long it would take to change that?

Some things with oil:
Your keyboard, tooth brush, the roads, lotion, sneakers, plastic, rubber...get the idea?
Oil doesn't just heat your trailer or make your car go.

[AzRealProgressive]

They do. There is little or no oil on those leases. That is why the oil companies were given the leases, And I hate oil companies. What I hate worse are economic ignoramuses, that includes you. Morons who made sure oil supplies have been restricted for the last two decades because of straw man concerns.

[AmericaninProtest]

Why don't you get the facts about off shore drilliing before your run your mouth off. Off shore drilling WILL NOT solve our oil dependency and the prices of gas. If it does make an impact on our oil crisis, it will be after about 10 years. Get it? 10 years and if it does make a difference it will reduce gas price by cents. By mere cents. Get it? There is not enough resources (oil to you) to satisfy our addiction to oil. Get your facts right by reading. Oh sorry, reading reliable references might be too much for your brain.

So don't use racist remarks as "boy" to make your argument. Typical repug ranting that is baseless and full of CRAP.

[AzRealProgressive]

Who used boy? And Obama now favors limited drilling. Get it?

[StillAmused]

If you know the location of a domestic oil field, onshore or off, that'll immediately produce enough crude (and whose owners will send it exclusively to domestic refineries) to "break the grip of foreign oil", I'd say it's time for you to strip naked, don a sandwich board, position yourself at the site and notify the press.

Otherwise, you're just a child with a child's understanding of "the grip of foreign oil".

Grip this...

[AzRealProgressive]

Your grip is weak child. It is not just about today, but tomorrow, next year and five years from now. Here is a clue, demand plus supply equals price we pay. I giess you must be content with 4 dollar a gallon gas. you are probably one of these rich types who could care less about his fellow American.

[savagenation916]

Soooo.....keep sucking off of the Middle-East's teet? That's a terrible idea. Wake up liberal!

[EggsBolinski]

Time for Obama to join Sadr and all the other Surge haters wherever they congregate.

[KNadine]

Say it ain't so. I just heard that Paris Hilton's parents had given more than the max amount to McCain's campaign and now they plaster their daughter's picture in a negative ad and use words like "ditsy blond" and "famous for nothing" (sounds like Cindy McCain) against them. Wow! Way to take care of your campaign contributors. Seems to me like someone could've checked this out before running the ad. Is the McCain campaign being run by pre-schoolers??

[superbust]

m

[Redrover666]

Very clever.

[suzyhein]

you are such a flirt. i wish you'd said S.

[DEl19713]

The Oil Companies have 44 million Acres of Oil they are not pumping. All they want is all the land leases so they can have a monopoly. Talk about a stranglehold.

[nicholasclaxton]

Exactly!!!!!

Drill what's already there....You would think the Republicans acting as if we are ALL this stupid would backfire by now sheesh.

[AzRealProgressive]

Well, that should give you your first clue.

[superbust]

Actually its 68 million acres.

[MourningDude]

Okay, so if they already have millions of acres they're "not pumping", then lets open ANWR so they can "not pump" it, and pay us for not doing so.

[k6007]

Dems have got to learn, that the average american is NOT learned.

They respond to pictures...Oil spills off the coasts, for example.

They respond to mantras....Drill, the leases, you ALREADY have!.............Drill the leases, you ALREADY have!.......Now!!..........Drill the leases you already have, NOW!!!!!!

Repeat. Repeat, Repeat. Soon enough all the sheeple will chant it, too! You see repubes Know this, hell it has worked for all of recorded history. Guess what, If the dems don't wake up, quick, it is going to work, yet again.

[Redrover666]

Gosh, we sure are lucky you dems are so smart. Too bad you have such a hard time convincing anyone but yourselves.

[MYQUEEN7]

You hit the nail on the head. It is not enough to just say that the other campaign is running a game on the public. Spell it out. Remind them that just a few weeks ago, the bill came up for votes and was blocked by the Repubs. What bill? The bill for drilling on the current 3000+ parcels of leased lands. I bet Johnny was not there to cast his DRILL NOW vote! We have to hold them accountable. This is no longer a "family fight". Let's take it to the streets. EMPOWER. EDUCATE!

[AzRealProgressive]

Actually most of the American people know the truth. As a sheeple you do not.