Negative ads work . . .

says the CW of political campaigns, but one has to decry their use at every opportunity. McCain spent years doing the latter, and clearly has settled on doing the former as his only chance to counter the seeming inevitability of Obama. The latest web ad (see below) continues the recent trend. The visual juxtaposition of images from Obama's trip abroad with quick shots of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton reinforces the theme that Hillary Clinton tried to defeat Obama with: he's just a pretty face, an empty suit. And we can expect that it will continue the trend of the MSM, who supposedly love Obama, giving the ad much more penetration than it deserves -- like the ad falsely claiming that Obama didn't visit injured troops because he couldn't bring TV cameras, it is likely to get far more plays online and in free airings on the cable news networks than the McCain camp is going to pay for. (While I've been writing this, I've been proven right here and here, the top story on the Chicago Tribune website).

Mom always did love you more . . .

that seems to be the tone of this new web ad by Media Matters. Rather than leaving the silliness of the McCain campaign's ad that complained that the MSM love Obama to speak for itself (many, including some conservatives, have already dismissed it as a sign of desperation), they decided to produce an ad with clips designed to show that it isn't Obama, but McCain who is getting a free ride from an adulatory press. The clips are old, and the argument is silly.

Mr. Clean Politics

For many years, a significant element in John McCain's public image has been that he's the Washington maverick who wants to clean up our politics. Part of this image has hinged on him being unwilling to stoop to misleading or dishonest or personal attack ads. This was perhaps most famously illustrated by his condemnation of George W. Bush during a debate in South Carolina in 2000, after surrogates for the Bush campaign ran ads and push polls spreading smears about McCain's wife and adopted child. But it also was reinforced by his criticism of the Swift Boat ads that helped torpedo John Kerry in 2004. In 2008, he appears to have decided that he can't win as Mr. Clean, and the most recent evidence is this new ad:



The ad is premised on falsehoods and half-truths about Obama's activities during his recent trip abroad, and the tag line suggests that only McCain of the two cares about his country more than his political ambitions. Watch the ad and decide for yourself whether that's true of McCain.

Self-inflicted wounds?

The McCain campaign has released a web ad (below) that argues that the MSM is in love with Obama. The ad picks up a theme that they have been developing in recent days, pointing to the intensive coverage of Obama's trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. This goes along with the campaign's release of emails related to the New York Times rejection of a McCain op-ed response to Obama (calling for revisions that provide new information about McCain's own take on Iraq). Others have noted that this plays to the GOP base's hostility towards the Liberal Media. Meanwhile, it has gotten lots of coverage on the cable news networks (e.g., CNN through most of last night). That coverage may have the effect of making some viewers dubious about those same networks' simultaneous presentation of al-Maliki's embrace of a withdrawal by 2010.

What has gone unremarked, however, is that it was the McCain campaign itself that created the media frenzy over the Obama trip. How? Recall that this started with McCain and his surrogates repeatedly criticizing Obama for not having gone to Iraq since January 2006 and pressing him to do so. They seem to have thought it would hurt his credibility, and box him in: if he refused to go, they could keep hammering him, and if he went, they could suggest that he'd caved to their pressure and only was going because of appearances. Instead, by raising the stakes of such a trip, they assured intense media coverage of it. Then events in Afghanistan and Iraq conspired to make Obama's trip even more newsworthy. It's hard to see that any mileage they get from this ad and the meme it carries will outweigh the benefit to Obama from this trip.

The smartest guy on the Court needs to check his evidence

It is a truism that, regardless of what one thinks of Justice Scalia's views, nobody can doubt that he is whip smart, the biggest brain on the Supreme Court of the United States. That may be so (or not, as little evidence is provided for comparisons), but Justice Scalia's recent dissent in the case involving habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo detainees demonstrates a need to revisit standards for evidence. The case is reported by a Truthout legal correspondent, but backed up by a report from Seton Hall Law School and government documents.

The other prong of the media campaign

While working diligently to portray Obama as a typical politician, undercutting the image that provided much of his appeal during the primary season, the McCain campaign is working to restore some of the shine to his image as a maverick war hero, an image that has lost some of its luster with his numerous reversals of policy positions and his ardent embrace of the Bush presidency over the past four years. The big question is, will it work to convince independents and some nervous Democrats?

Cut and paste

A new RNC ad that continues the theme that Obama is a 'typical politician' provides a cut and paste approach to his statements about the surge and about ending the war in Iraq. The technique is a fairly common one, but offers little that advances any reasoned discussion of issues or positions -- then again, that isn't the goal, is it?

100 Years in Context

Here's John McCain expanding on his statement that he's okay with U.S. troops being in Iraq for 100 years. It's more reasonable than some portrayals of his position, but is it acceptable to the American voter? to Iraqis? to our military leadership?

clipped from www.salon.com

And the story goes on . . .

as Fox reports on the McCain spin of the Clark statements, and uses it as a prompt for laying out the McCain cap strategy moving forward.

More on Clark

CNN reports that Wesley Clark questioned John McCain's military service, and gives specifics about the McCain campaign's efforts to frame it as evidence that Obama cannot be trusted to mean what he says. While they gloss the Obama response, they do so more superficially.