I just saw the Democracy for America and Brave New PAC ad regarding John McCain and his prisoner of war experience. Readers should note that I'm a very strong, early supporter of Barack Obama and have been working from day one for his nomination and election.
However, in my opinion, the aforementioned ad will do much more harm to Barack then to John McCain. This ad, coming from a single former Vietnam Prisoner of War, offers the McCain camp the opportunity to put a group together of former P.O.W.'s and other military personnel to stand up and defend John McCain and speak at length about his heroism, bravery, and leadership qualities and capabilities. It takes all the attention off the truly important issues and focuses attention on McCain's war record. It gives the McCain camp the desired opportunity to take attention away from Sarah Palin's inexperience and the extreme conservative positions and lack of economic solutions of John McCain and bring attention back to McCain's strongest attraction -- his record and reputation as a war hero and patriot. It gives Republicans the chance to have a multitude of people, both in and out of the military, stand up and ask, "How angry would you be if you were a prisoner of war for five years?"
If I were a Machiavellian thinker like Karl Rove, I couldn't think of a better way to bring attention to the issues I wanted to focus on and move attention away from the deficiencies of the campaign. As a matter of fact, although I'm sure this isn't the case, it would be a brilliant ploy for a disassociated right wing group to compose and fund an ad just like this which can only benefit the McCain campaign and ultimately hurt the Obama campaign.
The ad is such an obvious swift boat attempt that it probably will require Senator Obama to disavow any connection to it and to clearly and definitively issue a statement of disapproval. How short sighted this Democracy for America and Brave New PAC Ad could prove to be. This kind of ad does a real injustice to the term "Democracy for America."