OMG -- Democrats Attacking McCain!

The 3AM conceit is nonsensical in this context, but good for Hillary Clinton, breaking stride with the general tenor of the Democratic campaign and going after John McCain:

I will say, however, that I'd rather see Democrats attack McCain early on national security. McCain is very unpersuasive on economics, this is the weak point of his reputation with the national press corps, and Democrats have a lot of ex ante credibility on the issue. It's on security stuff where McCain has a glowing, but utterly undeserved, reputation that desperately needs some tarnishing.

Still -- good for Clinton!

Comments

Of course, Obama has been going after McCain a great deal beginning with his speech in Madison after the WI primary.

Posted by john m | April 3, 2008 10:59 AM

More hilarity from Hillary. I'm sure Johnny Mac is happy to get the attention.

Sorry, but with Clintonian ambition as the driving force, it's clear that Hill has to try to assail McCain now because each and every attack on Obama -- from her own mouth or through surrogates -- backfires if it has any effect at all.

It's also clear that the ad recycles older material with a new voice-over as a means of saving money for an increasingly cash-strapped candidate.

More likely under President H-Rod would be this 3:00 a.m. call: "It's three in the morning, do you know where your husband is?"

Posted by MarkG | April 3, 2008 11:07 AM

I would love to see a counter attack against Hillary to the effect of...

"It's 3AM and a phone is ringing. Hillary answers, but because she's so tired, she starts talking about getting shot at in Bosnia and that time that she passed the DC bar exam."

Posted by mike | April 3, 2008 11:16 AM

Still -- good for Clinton!

She's about a month late to this portion of the show, but better late than never.

Posted by Brad L | April 3, 2008 11:27 AM

I'm so pleased to see this. Clinton's only chance of winning the nomination is if

a) Barack self-destructs and
b) she hasn't made herself toxic among Democratic superdelegates.

This ad seems to be addressing the (b) part of the equation. (A) is very unlikely to happen -- but more importantly, Clinton seems to be realizing now that she can't *make* it happen without losing (b).

So I think attacking McCain is a smart strategy for HRC, as well as a constructive one for the party. And god knows his puffed-up reputation is riding for a fall.

Posted by Ted | April 3, 2008 11:29 AM

Re: Matt's headline

OMG! Who have you been calling at 3am?
IDK, maybe my BFF Hill?

Posted by Ted | April 3, 2008 11:34 AM

Why does it say "senile" on that kid's pajamas?

Posted by live | April 3, 2008 11:50 AM

I haven't seen much comment on this, but this is HRC's best "delaying" strategy -- attack McCain, not Obama, and she will suddenly find that Democrats are more willing to let her hang around for a while. I don't know what took her so long to hit upon it, though I'm glad she finally did.

Posted by anon | April 3, 2008 11:54 AM

Its 3 a.m. and the President is awakened by news of a terrorist attack. You need a President who does not need an explanation that there is a difference between Sunni and Shia, and that some of them are good and some of them bad. You need an President who knows who the enemy is.

Posted by bob h | April 3, 2008 12:01 PM

The above anonymous comment is astute; the heat will surely be turned of HRC if she packs in the trash Obama tack.

The 3am conceit was always nonsensical, but it isn't difficult to imagine some East-Asian market collapse that required the President's 3am attention in preparation for the markets opening in NY. (The 'what markets are open at 3am' comments I have seen elsewhere strikes me as horribly provincial.)

Extra cool points for the ironic use of their own add, and it looks like the McCain campaign has responded in kind.

It is good to see the Clintons learning from the Obama campaign; in a way its a shame it happened so late.

Posted by Chris Dornan | April 3, 2008 12:31 PM

The Lieberman in bed with John and Cindy joke is probably too inside baseball for a mass market ad, but some variation on that would be awesome...

[using actual McCain audio clips, grainy black and white photos]

(Briiiiing!....Briiiiiing!....)

McC: Yes? Hello? It's 3 A.M.!
[Bonus points for a crotchedy/angry/confused sounding clip. Alternatively, McC is already awake, as indicated by a subtle flushing sound just before the phone begins to ring. Super bonus points for any clips referencing his prostate.]

Anonymous Advisor: Mr. President! Al Qaeda has just attacked one of our warships in the Persian Gulf.

McC: Bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran!

AA: Uh, no Mr. President, Al Qaeda, not Iran.

McC: Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran! 100 years of war! [chuckles]

Voice Over: It's time for a president who remembers who the enemy is. [Confident looking picture of Obama]

Posted by jack lecou | April 3, 2008 12:53 PM

A thought: what is the restriction on primary and GE funds? Is it a date range? Could this ad be paid from GE funds since it is going against a GE opponent? I say that because a lot of Clinton's recent fundraising is money for GE, that can't be used for the primary. I don't know the answer, so I'm asking.

Posted by Bobo | April 3, 2008 12:59 PM

I think these 3am ads are really silly, but that notwithstanding, I think is great. The Democrats should be spending all their time attacking McCain so that primary voters can base their choice on who is more effective at it. Enough of attacking eachother. If I have to listen to Clinton or her surrogates claim Obama is inferior to McCain one more time I'm going to vomit.

Posted by greg | April 3, 2008 1:00 PM

Both Clinton's and the McCain's 3:00 AM ads are retarded.

They both say there is financial turmoil, the phone rings at 3:00 AM, and they "have a plan" to fix the mess. What is that plan? They don't fucking tell you.

The target audience for these ads is retarded voters.

Posted by blah | April 3, 2008 2:00 PM

Too little too late from Hillary.

After all this time trying to tear Obama down and actually build McCain up, she finally gets to criticizing McCain, albeit in a rather lame ad.

Of course Obama has been taking on McCain in his speeches for a while now, and so this is just Hillary following Obama's lead, once again.

Posted by cm | April 3, 2008 3:00 PM

Who's gonna notice that she's attacking McCain? The idea of an economic crisis striking so suddenly that a President has to be awakened at 3am is so nutso that by the time McCain's name comes up, people will either be laughing their heads off, or sitting there in stunned silence, with their jaws in their laps.

Posted by low-tech cyclist | April 3, 2008 3:45 PM

I know that the bankers are really evil and everything, but who the hell is going to foreclose at 3AM?

Posted by mobile | April 3, 2008 5:13 PM

"You need an President who knows who the enemy is."

Preferably one who hasn't been told who the enemy is by Israel.

That definitely ain't Hillary. Or McCain.

Not sure it's even Obama.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 3, 2008 6:40 PM

In this day and age, plenty of US markets are open overnight, to say nothing of Asian and European markets. Heck, remember the fiasco in January when the US markets were closed for MLK day and SocGen dumped their 50bn position and lost $7bn? I'm sure plenty of people were up at 3am, the fed cut rates intra-meeting (first time since 9/11), etc...

Posted by dbt | April 4, 2008 6:46 AM