13 Things To Know About The 3rd Straight Mac Attack Ad

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Posted July 29, 2008 | 08:50 PM (EST)



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John McCain's third straight attack ad.

Okay, another day, another John McCain attack ad on Barack Obama. This one came in over the weekend. It's the third straight, as the McCain campaign is increasingly abandoning positive advertising in favor of negative ads on the frontrunner. Though the positive ad I wrote about on July 10th is still in rotation, at least for now.

The latest Mac attack ad plays above. And here is the text:

Announcer: Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan.
He hadn't been to Iraq in years.
He voted against funding our troops.
And now, he made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops.
Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras.
John McCain is always there for our troops.
McCain. Country first.
John McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Here are 13 things to know about this ad.

1. Campaigns go very negative like this when they are very worried. John McCain's campaign has now put out out three straight negative TV ads in a row, attacking Barack Obama. And the McCain message in the free media is virtually all negative.

2. The reason the McCain campaign is so worried is that the Olympics start in less than two weeks. At the height of summer, most experts think that whomever has a steady lead going in will have a steady lead coming out. The next big event after the Olympics? The Democratic National Convention. At which Obama will accept the presidential nomination in a speech at Denver's football stadium before 80,000 screaming supporters.

3. This TV ad is media bait. There is no serious buy behind it. I've gone through this before with McCain's new campaign director, Steve Schmidt, when he was Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign manager in 2006. The Schwarzenegger campaign rolled out a couple of TV ads early on, which I pointed out then were running in San Diego at midnight. In this case, think Denver, Harrisburg, and, naturally, Washington. The purpose of this ad is to further press commentary to continue a storyline. A major caveat. This does not mean that there is not a serious ad, and a serious new ad buy, coming.

4. In keeping with what I just wrote, this ad is the highest-rated YouTube video for McCain of the general election campaign. What that means is that the ad is being pushed out to create a frenzy amongst the conservative Republican base, whipped up by the right-wing talk show circuit and blogosphere. I think more people have seen it on YouTube than have seen it on their TV sets.

5. Obama is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe. Afghanistan, as it happens, is not in Europe. Afghanistan is covered by an entirely separate subcommittee. Thus the attack on Obama for failing to hold a hearing on Afghanistan is non-serious. This does not mean that he should not have done so, as an eager beaver presidential candidate. Surely, McCain would have been opportunistic enough to do so.

6. ... But it turns out that McCain has missed every hearing for the past two years of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan. McCain is the ranking Republican member of this very powerful committee. It's only in the last week that McCain has endorsed Joe Biden's -- and Obama's -- plan to send more US brigades to Afghanistan.

7. It's true that Obama hadn't been to Iraq for two years. McCain has been there a lot. There was the time last year when he toured a Baghdad market, declaring everything to be copacetic. As it should have been, with him wearing a bullet-proof vest, accompanied by a company of paratroopers and a flight of helicopter gunships. As most shoppers undoubtedly were.

8. Obama voted for troop funding on all but one occasion. When he decided to try to force the Bush administration to set a timeline for US troop withdrawal.

9. Obama's visit to the US military hospital in Germany was never, despite the statement in this ad, on his media schedule. He actually visited the US military hospital in Baghdad a few days earlier, sans media. The former head of the military hospital in Germany has denounced the ad, noting that Obama visited the military hospital in Baghdad with no fanfare whasoever.

10. Obama pulled out of the German military hospital visit when the Pentagon informed his military advisor on the trip, retired Air Force General Scott Gration, that only Senate staff could accompany him. This happened after all the Senate staffers along for the Congressional delegation visit to the Middle East had been sent home. Which meant that General Gration, a highly decorated Air Force veteran who is not a member of Obama's Senate staff, was effectively disinvited from visiting the military hospital at the well-known Air Force base at Ramstein.

11. While the TV ad says that McCain is always there for the troops, he actually opposed the new GI Bill authored by Obama ally Jim Webb, the former Navy Secretary-turned-Virginia Senator. Webb, as it happens, is an old friend of McCain, who has called him "a legendary fighting man," as befits the most highly decorated Marine combat officer of the Vietnam War. McCain lost badly in the Senate on Webb's new GI bill, but he and President Bush later tried to take some credit for its passage.

12. And with regard to always being there for the troops, it is interesting to note that McCain actually voted against $360 million for armored tactical wheeled vehicles for units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that McCain just held a big ticket fundraiser at the home of one of the country's largest defense contractors, Ronald Perelman, whose MacAndrews & Forbes holding company owns AM General, manufacturer of the HumVee. The HumVee became known in the Iraq War as a "Purple Heart box."


Here is the actual scene from which Obama's purported German workout in lieu of visiting wounded troops is taken. Note that it is Obama visiting enthusiastic American soldiers in the Middle East.

13. The footage in the McCain attack ad which accompanies the text about Obama spending time at the gym rather than visiting wounded troops is not actually of Obama working out in Berlin.

Actually, it is, as you see above, footage of Obama visiting with the troops in Kuwait. Hitting a 3-point jump shot on the first try, to the screams of the enthusiastic American soldiers.

Oh, what a tangled web ... And all that stuff.


 
 

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- dadw5boys See Profile I'm a Fan of dadw5boys permalink

Mc Cain could care less about the Troops.

After 5 years he has not bothered to even learn WHO THEY ARE FIGHTING!

Liberman had to tell him.

He has no idea of who they are helping.

Liberman again had to teach him.

Mc Cain votes against Veterans needs but for tax cuts for wealthy arms makers and oil executives.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:21 AM on 08/02/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Oh, I think McCain knows who they're fighting.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:25 PM on 08/03/2008
- rgblue See Profile I'm a Fan of rgblue permalink

No, McCain does not know who we are fighting or even who we should be fighting or when. His many displays of his lack of knowledge the past few weeks is deeply disturbing to anyone who thinks ahead. Why he has "lost it" doesn't matter. The fact that he HAS lost it does matter. He has moments of lucidity. Not only is that not good enough for one who aspires to the US Presidency, it is dangerous. Think about it.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:51 AM on 08/05/2008
- dadw5boys See Profile I'm a Fan of dadw5boys permalink

You think?

But your really nnot sure after the VIDEO where Liberman had to CORRECT HIM TWICE about who we were fighting and who needs out help in Iraq!

I saw thru his false front because Mc Cain never stooped to correct himself Liberman had to INTURRUPT HIM to correct him.

HE DOES NOT KNOW AND I DON'T NOT BELIEVE HE CARES!!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:48 AM on 08/04/2008
- maddie0001 See Profile I'm a Fan of maddie0001 permalink

Unfortunately this doesn't matter to McSame's supporters. They are not going to vote for a black man come hell or high water. All McSame has to do is make them feel good about themselves while they vote against their own interests. Unfortunately repubs are real good at that.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:51 PM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

The question is what the independents voters do.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:23 PM on 08/03/2008
- poeticjustice4all See Profile I'm a Fan of poeticjustice4all permalink

This article reminds me of when Dad comes into the kid's bedroom late at night, shines a flashlight under the bed and says, "see -- no Boogie Man." But of course the Boogie Man could still be hiding somewhere else in the room waiting to come out and kill once it's dark again.

Irrational fear and baseless fantasy cannot be undone by lists of facts and figures. In fact such investigations of nonsense only dignify and validate the nonsense.

Senator McCain recently said that in his opinion US troops were greeted as liberators just as President Bush's White House predicted.

We only need to know one thing about McCain's ads . . . they are McCain's ads.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:47 PM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Thanks for that brief exercise in nihilism and solipsism.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:23 PM on 08/03/2008
- darker See Profile I'm a Fan of darker permalink



McCAIN MONGERS GARBAGE ads for his Rovian publicity handlers crew.

When republicans have NOTHING TO OFFER, they mouth off garbage to the media as a mean form of entertainment for their audience. Like the Romans shredding christians before lions for laughs. Republicans have NO DECENCY and NO LIMITS.
REPUBLICAN FRAT BRATS RULE.

===People better begin thinking and RECOGNIZE the difference and the corruption. Or else America will be finished off by the republican NANNY STATE FOR THE RICH and its GREED MACHINE to the destruction of middle class Americans.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:37 PM on 08/02/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Yes, nothing to be done. Kick back and have a bud. Or Bud.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:44 PM on 08/01/2008
- RRonin See Profile I'm a Fan of RRonin permalink

In the Army footage showing Barack shooting hoops with the troops (hey, I made a rhyme!) the soldiers are wearing gray t-shirts with "ARMY" emblazoned on them. In Pappy's commercial, the shirts have been digitally colored to appear flesh-toned, like the soldiers are shirtless. Pappy's handlers didn't want viewers to realize this was footage from Obama's visit to Afghanistan, not Germany. Dishonest? You bet!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:40 PM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Well, it's thoroughly dishonest to use footage of a guy with the troops to argue he doesn't honor the troops.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:45 PM on 08/01/2008
- bascombe See Profile I'm a Fan of bascombe permalink

thank you.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:08 PM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

You're very welcome.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:45 PM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink
    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:57 PM on 08/01/2008
- daddysboy See Profile I'm a Fan of daddysboy permalink

Thanks for being willing to dive into the muck for us. Most of us know instinctively when the bovine waste products are rustled up, but this analysis is helpful in anesthetizing those that tend to get lost in the herd.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:08 AM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

This ad cried out for aggressive deconstruction.

McCain will be fortunate if he is not continually called to account for the bankruptcy of this message.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:56 PM on 08/01/2008
- jemiltd See Profile I'm a Fan of jemiltd permalink

I want to say to McCain, to quote an old ad: "Where's the beef?" Where are the issues that you oppose Barack Obama on? The latest McCain ad is subliminal advertising 101, covert enough in its racism to allow all the media pundits and GOP to claim that Obama plays the race card, should the GOP be called to task about what they did and meant. BTW, exactly what "experience" does McCain actually have that makes him a better candidate or love this country any more than Obama? Yes he was in the military and a Vietnam POW, but so was my Uncle and I would trust his decision making ten times over McCain. But we can't see how the military really felt about McCain because those records have been withheld. Character? He has very little, especially when it comes to women:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/e-joyce-moore/mccain-supportive-of-wome_b_113503.html

The covert strategy of labeling intelligence, self confidence, and leadership ability in a person of color and any given portion of African descent as "arrogance" "'presumptious" and "not knowing his place" -- and if you are a woman assertive equals "too agressive" -- has been around forever in the USA. Ask anyone who is in corporate management and is African American.
This is a great article that anyone with journalistic fortitude and a mike should be discussing:
www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-jenkins/obama-still-does-not-know_b_115671.html

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:37 AM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Not a fan of that ad. Gary Hart is an old friend of mine.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:07 AM on 08/01/2008
- YunekFlava See Profile I'm a Fan of YunekFlava permalink

What a really great article. Amazing stuff for those who won't research and who won't go to the websites to check out politians voting rcord. I 've email folks tonight and told them to check out the article. These also make really great talking points and arguments. I don't know who you will vote for, but I know you've got skills.

Thanx a bunch William, and
Write On.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:22 AM on 08/01/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Thanks much, that's very kind.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:53 AM on 08/01/2008
- peter777 See Profile I'm a Fan of peter777 permalink

This is a great article. It needs to be read by every reporter reporting on the presidential campaign. This stuff from Rove's play book needs to be exposed. When will the press step up and expose it?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:27 PM on 07/31/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Oh, I think some of my press colleagues have been paying attention to this piece.

Thanks much.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:52 AM on 08/01/2008
- ShawnMHenderson See Profile I'm a Fan of ShawnMHenderson permalink

This is a really great article. Way to point out some great items.

One thing seems to be overwhelmingly true. This can not be a true ad, simply used for shock factor.
Why this negative ad and smear campaign is very right-winged, I can assure you it will get worse.

Mark my words, the play will come right out of Carl Rove's playbook. Its basically going to fall along this guideline:
If you elect Obama, you will not be safe. Terrorists will run in the streets, and your children will be at risk. They will do something to feminize Obama, and make him appear to be less of a man. But, if you elect McCain your children will live and prosper. There will be no terrorists (at least till you need to be feared prior to the next election in 4 years).

Seriously, keep an eye on this because this is how it will play out.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:10 PM on 07/31/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Obviously, the intent of this iteration of the Johnny Mac campaign is to incite FUD -- Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt -- about Obama.

I've talked a couple times today with McCain advisors, and have another piece coming on the overall.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:54 AM on 08/01/2008
- BottomLine2008 See Profile I'm a Fan of BottomLine2008 permalink

Obama is scary. He's different. He's like notorious white girl celebs.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:35 PM on 07/31/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

I think you meant, Obama LIKES notorious white girl celebs ...

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:55 AM on 08/01/2008
- DRJKendall See Profile I'm a Fan of DRJKendall permalink

Smear and Fear is all they know...

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:24 PM on 07/31/2008
- William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of William Bradley permalink

Well, if that were all, McCain still couldn't win. Not this year.