New McCain ad: “Remote Control”
It’s a newly-released web ad, and one that if they could condense from one and a half minutes down to 30 seconds, would be very effective, I think, on TV:
Jim Geraghty describes it:
A lot of political ads try to do too much, but by using the “picture in picture” television format, it’s a very powerful contrast – the dangers in the world the next president will face, coupled with a stream of Democratic convention speakers who not so long ago were saying that Obama was insufficiently experienced. I’ve read the Obama quote before, but watching it delivered by him – coupled with the context of images of Russian forces invading Georgia, terror attacks, and Iran’s Ahmadinejad behind him — is powerful, powerful stuff. The fact that Obama looks the same as he did in 2005, when he made the statement, reinforces that Obama himself though he wasn’t ready not too long ago.
The statement he’s talking about is the one Obama made in 2004, shortly after he was elected to the US Senate:
“I am a believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. If I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now there are some people who might be comfortable doing that, but I’m not one of those people.”
The McCain campaign today is also promoting a new ad which is scheduled to air tonight, in a clear attempt at trying to blunt some of this evening’s O-mentum. They’re secretive as to the contents of it, but here’s a teaser as to what to expect:
Please be on the lookout for an exciting and unprecedented new McCain ad we’ll release later today. Please see Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker talk about it this morning on “Morning Joe”:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Apparently the McCain campaign has an ad rolling out tonight. What’s it about?
JILL HAZELBAKER: Well, Mika, this is a historic ad. I think this is the first of its kind. Senator McCain is going to speak direct to camera to Barack Obama. I’m not going to give away many more details than that. But suffice to say it’s going to be a very exciting ad, and I think it’s going to get a lot of attention.
[…]
BRZEZINSKI: Jill, you’ve got to give us more on this ad. He’s speaking directly to camera, John McCain is to Barack Obama. If you say there’s news here, what’s the news?
HAZELBAKER: Well, I’m going to keep a lid on it. But I think it’s newsworthy to note that Senator McCain is going to have an ad that’s going to air in battleground states around the time that Senator Obama is speaking tonight. And he’s going to be talking directly to his opponent. So, I’m going to leave it there, but it’s going be very exciting and a lot of people are going to focus on it.
Stay tuned …