is this the ad?

i hope it's not. if you are trying to convince democrats that sen. mccain is no longer a "maverick", then this ad will do just fine. but if you're trying to convince independents and republicans of that fact, putting up sen. clinton, sen. kerry, and chairman dean might not be the way to go.

i think a more effective ad would have the arguments that they deliver, but from a voice-over along with some pictures/stats of mccain voting in favor of bush/mccain standing with bush.

Good ad, good response. And pretty damn fast, to boot.

What's with the freaking web ads, anyway?

The people who are going to watch them are already not fans of McCain.

Come on DNC, start putting ads out there on the TEE VEE. This one is too long and won't reach the intended audience...

WTF? John mcCain was NEVER a maverick!

John McCain -- Retired Maverick

This press release just out from the McSame campaign:

My friends... (grin)... You've known me as a maverick for many years.  Yes, almost an uncountable number of years.  But lately I've had to hang up my guns, and I think you deserve an explanation of why I've decided to retire.

You see, I'm now running for President.  There are rules about how I have to do that.  My handlers told me about them, but most of them I've forgotten.  One I do remember, though, is there's no maverickiness allowed.  No offense to Bret or Bart, but it's time to sing Happy Trails and ride into the sunset.

Another problem -- I'm sure you've noticed -- is that I've begun to slow down.  Having trouble remembering things.  I have to rely on my handlers to remind me of my current position on a lot of the issues.  So the mavericky bit has to go.  It's just too hard to remember what I'm supposed to be mavericky on and what I'm not.

More importantly, I've been having a harder time lately controlling my temper.  It'd be just awful to shoot the wrong guy by mistake.  Lots of bad publicity from that.  Just ask Dick PlausibleDeniability Cheney.

So that's why I'm hanging 'em up.  But don't you worry at all -- my reruns are still available on the internets.  I know 'cuz Cindy just showed me how to work the tubes!

Curious,,,, but there's a theme here. PBS ran a series of, I think, American Esperience, on Monday nights, on recent US Presidents. The one on Bush41 seems a parallel to McCain,,,, they tell the story of how Bush, in order to win, adopted the tacky attack motief,,,,, just like McCain is using, on pressure from a new set of advisors and 'the base'. If the episode is on archive at PBS, it is indeed an enlightening and morst curious tale to tell.

I'm not shedding any tears for those Dems or anyone who has mouthed the obligatory "maverick" or "war hero" memes.

Lies have consequences

Has the Top Gun - Maverick analogy been discussed/mentioned? An over simplified, Jerry Bruckheimer - Lt. Pete Mitchel- 'Top Gun'- McCain complex?

Uh...whoever thinks that Kerry would make a good dark horse VP candidate just has to watch that clip. The guy is an anchor who can't string three words together without sounding smug and self-important. Compare his delivery, and directness of message, to Daschle. No contest.

Kerry sucked as Presidential candidate. He would suck as a VP candidate.

The whole "maverick" thing is such bullshit. I don't think the Democratic Party should even lend that meme a bit of credence. John McCain has been the most ubiquitous presence on the Sunday morning hot-air circuit for 25 years. "Meet the Press", "Face the Nation", whatever...he's done it. Many times. At the very least, that shows that he's not a "maverick" at all, just another politician who's part of the problem. To any seasoned political observer, it's always been patently obvious that John McCain is driven by ambition, and a complete phony. To me, this ad seems kinda off-message.

We've just posted ringtone-ready audio from this spot over at Entertonement.