You Know Who Loves McCain? All Those Democratic Senators Republicans Can't Stand

After a week or two of drawing sharp distinctions between themselves and Obama (and seeing a corresponding cut in The One's lead) the McCain camp apparently felt they were in danger of attracting too many Republican and conservative voters.

I guess this is an attempt to take the edge off the attacks these folks have been making and will continue to make against their 'friend' John McCain.

The ad doesn't carry the McCain-Feingold mandated, "I'm John McCain and I approve this message" tag, so at this point it's web only. Given that type of distribution, will it really attract more attention from independents and disaffected Democrats than it pisses off conservatives and Republicans who are more likely to see it?

It's not just Republicans who noticed McCain's 'celebrity' ads are having an effect. Tom Daschle, a top Obama adviser and co-star in the above video says so too.

A senior adviser to Barack Obama has blamed recent attack advertisements comparing the Democratic presidential hopeful to celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton for a dip in Mr Obama’s polls with voters.

...“To a certain extent the ads are having some effect,” Mr Daschle said. “But you can’t be thrown off your game plan by a momentary dip in polls.”

I know beating a good idea to death is a bad plan but heading right back to the "I am Maverick" once you find something that is resonating with a cross section of the public seems like a really bad plan.

In fairness the Hillary clip at the end is great. Everyone who saw her say it at the time knew it was a fall commercial in the making. Pealing Hillary voters away by reopening that intra-party wound is a great idea. I just hope this isn't the only time we see it because it's kind of lost in the the clutter, it deserves it's own spot.

UPDATE Below The fold: John Kerry, This is not the Maverick I knew!

Heh.

"The McCain campaign is determined to give their Paris Hilton ad a run for its money in the desperation department, and they’ve succeeded only in shining a light on the fact that the John McCain of today is unrecognizable from the John McCain of just a couple years ago," Kerry wrote.

"The real question is what happened to the John McCain we used to know and why he changed overnight into a George Bush nominee with a Karl Rove campaign. The new John McCain supports the Bush tax giveaways for the wealthy he once denounced, opposes his own immigration bill, flip-flopped on torture, and runs negative ads after calling for an honorable campaign," Kerry's statement read.

posted by DrewM. at 10:29 AM

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