Now that is an effective TV ad. I hope the Democratic Party can learn from this and produce some equally effective ads for the 2008 election. But, those ads have to to focused on the Republican Party, not Bush.

Hoppy in Sacramento

Happy "Mission Accomplished" Day! To think it was only four short years ago that President Bush promised to bring the troops home - my, how time flies!

I like how the ad helps frame the issue as the Democratic Congress signing a bill into law, expressing the will of the people, and then Bush vetoes it. Too much successful messaging lately that congress was acting with just showmanship in light of the veto threat.

Agreed, exposing the debilitating ideology of this band of hooligans is key - it helps explain how such a bumbling fool could be propped up as the lead desperado. ...Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use to first, shrink wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead....Arundhati Roy

There's no way this was done by any "Democratic expert" in D.C. It's too intelligent and good.

Seems to me that two important points are glaringly absent from this spot: Bush is vetoing (1) funding the troops, and (2) that he is vetoing his own "benchmarks" set for the Iraqis. I like the spot for the most part but emphasizing that the Dems voted to bring the troops home is easy for the opposition to dismiss: "yeah, they voted to 'cut and run,' just like we said."

I agree that that's an effective ad. It's concise, it's hard-hitting, but most importantly it's accurate.

I disagree, though, with your point that future ads shouldn't focus on Bush. Democrats will be absolute fools if they miss even a single opportunity to drape that albatross around the neck of the Republican Party. Republicans have been with him in virtual lockstep every inch of the way, thus far, and it's incumbent on every single one of us to remind people of that fact throughout the primaries and the run-up to the general election. You can legitimately lay every single domestic & foreign-policy error since 2001 at the feet of the entire Republican Congress, and at the feet of any one of the Republicans running for president, as not a single one of them raised a voice in protest against the president's policies.

Bush is one sticky booger they shouldn't be allowed to get away from.

Visit the website of Americans United for Change and check out the comments under the ad. The wingers are crapping their pantaloons.

I like the framing of this ad. Here's one from Andrew Sullivan that I think is just as strong:

Just in case we are under any illusions about the Iraqi elite's interest in urgently finding a way forward, the parliament is also set to recess for two months this summer, while, at the current rate, two hundred young Americans will die to keep the Iraqi politicians' options open.