McCain Ad Uses President Clinton To Bash Democrats

Mr. President, it's your turn.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has already starred in ads produced by the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee this year, which used her primary-season barbs against Barack Obama for general election purposes.

Now McCain is using President Bill Clinton in an ad that not only draws a contrast with Barack Obama, but with Democrats overall. At issue is the former president's appearance last Thursday on ABC's Good Morning America. In the ad, which will "air nationally," McCain's camp isolates a soundbite in which Clinton says: "I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress, or by me when I was President, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

In the context of McCain's ad, the selected clip of Clinton's interview bolsters the charge that Democrats sold out homeowners: "Democrats blocked the reforms. Loans soared. Then, the bubble burst. And, taxpayers are on the hook for billions. Bill Clinton knows who is responsible."

Except, of course, in the full interview with Chris Cuomo (viewable here), the former president distributes blame a little more evenly -- and, interestingly, even references the pointlessness of trying assign blame for the crisis at this particular point in time. When asked if Democrats were "playing politics" with the issue, Clinton said "well, maybe everybody does that a little bit."

Later, he said it was "important" that the country have "two candidates for president saying 'let's try to minimize the partisan differences.' We'll have plenty of time later to look at who caused this and what mistakes were made. Let's figure out what to do now and go forward." Clearly, though, McCain's latest ad is targeted for expressly that purpose.

Regardless, the use of Clinton in a McCain spot is likely to further rile observers who feel that the former president has been a less-than-enthusiastic surrogate for Obama this season.

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Full script:

ANNCR: John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie.

The Post says: McCain "pushed for stronger regulation"..."while Mr. Obama was notably silent."

But, Democrats blocked the reforms.

Loans soared.

Then, the bubble burst.

And, taxpayers are on the hook for billions.

Bill Clinton knows who is responsible.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: "I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

ANNCR: You're right, Mr. President. It didn't have to happen.

JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Comments

[mscriblerus]

No surprise here. I'm sure McCain has an inexhaustible volume of Clinton for McCain soundbites by now. I'm expecting a lot more and more specific Clinton ads as the election looms closer.

[ccsky]

ITA. I was fully expecting the commercial to showcase some of those glowing quotes of McPalin Bubba's been spitting out left and right.

Take your little hostile rocks back to Harlem.

[SwingVoter]

Bill Clinton will be on my campus early tomorrow, but I will not go see him. Has has lost respect.

[naschkatze]

McCain will not come out with an ad about Bill Clinton signing the repeal of the Glass-Steagel Act against the wishes of 44 Democrats and with the approval of only 1. Oh no.

[gisellestwocents]

That's the ad that Obama/Biden should be running.

[PatForObama]

This is slightly off-topic. I'm not a lawyer and hopefully somebody here can shed some light, but don't celebritie­s/personal­ities have the right to their own images, and the further right to sign releases if said images (and words) are going to be used by another party, particularly out of context? Singers have gotten cease and desist orders, so why not politicians?

This assumes, of course, that Bill doesn't really want his good buddy Johnny Mac to get elected and provide Billary with a couple of high-profile positions.­..

[Maderous]

For the most part there is no right to privacy, the test on what can be reported in the news is the news worthiness test and the media pretty much gets to decide what is and is not news worthy, and once you do something that is news worthy you then become a public figure and then your right to privacy is just about all gone. The courts provide virtually no protections for people that seek out fame like celebrities and certainly none for people seeking public office. Anything they say out loud, so long as it was obtained by legal means, can be used so long as it is not being used to endorse a product, or to sell something. I'm guessing selling a politician does not count. There are issues of misrepresenting what someone has said (slander and liable), like this ad seems to have done, but this is a very hard thing to prove and to show damages for.

In the case of muscians that is getting their words by illegal means because they own the copyrights to their songs. But if they gave an interview they could not stop soneone from using that.

[PatForObama]

Thanks; that makes sense. :)

Hmmm, wouldn't a cease and desist order be interesting in these cases, though. And wouldn't it also be interesting if, in addition to having candidates state that they approve an ad, that they could also state they copyrighted whatever they said so it couldn't be used against them? I'm probably nibbling at the minutae here, but it's a welcome break after witnessing Bill's milquetoast support.

[sixchair]

Yeh, the McCain is a great man came up on The Daily Show, too. I think Bill should go back to doing what he does best - cutting deals with oil-rich central asian dictators on behalf of his library-loving friends.

[rj610]

i think bill would give hillary the same treatment. i don't think he wants a democrat president in the whitehouse. if one was in it could diminish his appeal and he wouldn't want that. if palin/mccain get in, he wouldn't have that fear. it's possible that his lackluster support could sway some of the people who didn't especially like clinton obama's way.

[Birdman]

Wow now let me get this straight the Republicans have had a majority for almost 12 years and it is the Democrats fault? Incredible, how can anyone even make that claim. How can they get away with this LIE? Is there no longer any morals left in this country? Disgusting, worst part is the majority will believe it.

[NewAmerican]

Bill Clinton has been nothing but utterly selfish and a sore loser the past two weeks.
He can learn something from Hillary about fighting hard, but putting principles ahead of ego.

[MIVOTE]

I don't even know why MSM is asking Bill's opinion. He seems to be suffering from the same disease as mcCain...

[doctordoubt]

New low. Mc........­.....actua­lly called Sen Obama 'mr'. What's next? calling him 'boy'. This is disrespect of the highest order. Typical of this campaign, typical of this man, typical of the way he sees the rest of us. We simply don't count to him.

[MikaS]

Bill Clinton can say goodbye to being a leader of the Democratic party. He has been so hell bent on saving his own legacy that he is pissing all over it himself. He has spoken so highly of McCain the past few weeks and I find it funny that his good friend John McCain is using him for political gain.

[sixchair]

Probably gave to the library in return!

[DyslexicPalindrome]

Considering Bill's blistering endorsement of the Rebups of late (in comparison to his own party's candidate) this comes as no surprise to me.
I truly hope he reaps the whirlwind he's helped create.

[123dee]

Remember Obama told us No One, runs his campaign or will run his presidency
but, us, me and you the American People. I guess hubba was looking for something
and didn't get it. So we have to fight harder to win this election.

Just signed this petition asking the commission to remove Brokaw as moderator
of debate who is clearly in the tank for McCain 150,000 so far

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/567728305?z00m=14099068

[mijumom]

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/555930821

There are only about 1,000 sigs.

[Timothy468]

Well, yeah, but 150,000 have signed up to save polar bears!

I am amazed at how McCain will slam Obama within SECONDS of saying he wants to take "partisan politics" out of the financial rescue plan!

[TrueThis]

Clinton suppose to speak in Florida tomorrow, I hope no one barely show up. Obama do not need Clinton, period. Bill Clinton is very smart and he knows exactly what he's doing.

[sheikwil]

F Bill Clinton, all he is doing is ending Hillary's chances of ever becoming President because everytime he opens his mouth, he is just losing more and more of the AA vote for her, here in NY State, not one AA I asked said they would every vote for her again because of what Bill Clinton is doing. Go ahead Bill, Hillary will never be President because she may have come up with 18 Million votes, but she will also need the AA voters to help her to win her Senate seat again and if she tries to run again after Obama 2 terms.

[FaceYourFears]

How true

[Whatashame]

If Bill Clinton is counting on blacks to support Hillary in 2012 if Obama loses, he's sadly mistaken.

[gisellestwocents]

Senator Obama has wide spread support. His nomination was not and his election as President will not be "a black thing." Don't buy in to the MSM and other pols divisive rhetoric. With that said, I don't think that any Democrat is happy with Former President Clinton at this point. I know that I wouldn't vote for any candidate that he openly supports. He might as well do a Joe Lieberman and change his party affiliation.

[DontBeFoolish]

Ya know fellow democrates. After we win this election, the Clintons will have to be dealt with. We need to let them know that they are either ON THE BUS or UNDER IT. Enough already. What a bunch of EGO-MANIAC­S......

[highonanxiety]

This is unbelievable (unless you aren't aware of Bill's motive--Hillary in 2012). Did anyone see Meet the Press last Sunday? Excuse me if this was already discussed, but it bears repeating. He actually said "John McCain is a great man." He spoke of him in glowing terms while he practically called Obama an office intern. Somebody has got to get Slick out of the media and back in Africa.