McSame

Okay, looks like we won't be totally without televised attacks on John McCain while Hillary Clinton continues her efforts to draw a backdoor straight:

Good stuff. According to Greg Sargent the buyer is the Campaign to Defend America who'll be spending over $1,000,000 on ads from a perspective that Sargent judiciously describes as one that "appears to be pro-Democratic." I'd like to see some mention of Social Security in future ads -- that issue absolutely killed Bush back in 2005 when people liked Republicans, and McCain has said he's a supporter of Bush's efforts to dismantle the program.

Comments

It's OK; I would like to see the arguments reinforced with text. I do have the sound turned off on my computer so the impact is greatly reduced.

According to NPR, one million dollars is a drop in the bucket and they are only running it in Erie, PA to test its impact on working class whites.

Posted by Mike | March 6, 2008 9:04 AM

They ought to run this as often as they can afford to. Anything that ties Saint McCain to Boosh is a good thing. Don't a lot of people mistrust the TradMed anyway? We have to make sure people know that Saint McCain the Maverick is just a media creation and not based on fact in anyway.

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | March 6, 2008 9:14 AM

Great stuff. Run in Ohio and Florida.

Posted by John McCain: More of the Same | March 6, 2008 9:28 AM

According to NPR, one million dollars is a drop in the bucket

Find a rich uncle and tell them to donate.

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | March 6, 2008 9:28 AM

Me likey -- it's terse and tough and gimmicky and should make an impact.

Posted by BryklynLibrul | March 6, 2008 9:41 AM

The problem with trying to tie Mccain to Bush is that the precise reason the GOP base hates McCain is because he WOULDN'T go along with Bush on issues they considered important.

This strikes me as the least effective attack. And showing him hugging Bush is rather pointless when there are pictures of both Clintons laughing and yucking it up with the unpopular President.

As for Obama, all Mccain has to do is run pictures of Kim Jong Il, Bashar Assad, Fidel Castro, and the President of Iran:

"If Obama is elected President, pictures of him smiling, shaking hands, and hugging these men will soon be all over the news."

Posted by Adam Herman | March 6, 2008 9:53 AM

"he's a supporter of Bush's efforts to dismantle the program."

That's the ultimate in political hackery. For this you went to Harvard?

Bush's plan consisted of two components:

1) A eminently reasonable proposal by Democrat Bob Pozen to progressively index Social Security benefits, i.e., keep them generously indexed to wages for lower income recipients and index them to prices for higher income recipients. Considering that ultimately a plan to fix the fiscal problems with Social Security will probably include this proposal, does it make sense demagoguing it?

2) A proposal to allow workers to voluntarily direct a portion of their contributions to a private account. Bush would have been smart to focus on the first proposal, which is the one that would have ameliorated the looming fiscal problems with Social Security, but this proposal wouldn't have "dismantled" Social Security at all.

Posted by Juan | March 6, 2008 10:10 AM

Here is the line to use to attack John McCain on Social Security:

"John McCain, of all people, should not be threatening Social Security"

If challenged on whether this is an attack on McCain's age, the response is, "No, he claimed for years to be for "Straight Talk", but he wants to put Social Security at risk based upon arguments from the same think tanks that dreamed up the Iraq War."

Posted by Ephus | March 6, 2008 10:33 AM

Adam: Even republicans think Bush is an idiot; under 30% approval means your base is not behind you. And what was the ratio of Bush:Reagan namedrops in teh GOP debate?

Posted by yoyo | March 6, 2008 10:50 AM

I like the linkage to Bush, since the middle third of the population doesn't like Bush any more than we libruls do.

And I especially like the use of The Hug, an image I'd like to see plastered on billboards from coast to coast.

Posted by low-tech cyclist | March 6, 2008 3:35 PM

You bet! Old farts like me see red when they go after Social Security. McCain can be whipped on that [ssue alone.

Posted by buddy66 | March 6, 2008 3:47 PM