Obama Ad Responding To Ayers Spot Now Running In Virginia, Too
The Obama campaign's ad responding to the Swift-Boat spot tying him to William Ayers, formerly only confirmed to be running in Ohio, is now running in Virginia, too, according to Democrats in the state.
The ratcheted-up response suggests that the Obama camp recognizes that the spot tying him to the former Weatherman requires a more aggressive and broader counterattack.
The Obama campaign didn't publicly release the response ad, in keeping with its strategy of keeping its counterattack against the Swift-Boating under the national radar. Obama aides won't publicly confirm where their response spot is running.
The group running the Ayers ad, which is bankrolled by a single Texas billionaire, put $2.8 million into the spot, and it's running in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia. The Obama camp is broadening the geographic reach of its response.
In addition to Camp Obama's response being up in Ohio, and now, Virginia, we now also have unconfirmed reader reports that it's also up in Michigan, too.
Looks like I was at least half right:
Maybe not so much about the not-much-traction stuff, though.
August 26, 2008 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just a point of clarification, the Ayers ad is running in the Pittsburgh area only, not all of PA. And Pittsburgh feeds the eastern part of Ohio.
They don't have a prayer in PA and they know it.
PEACE
August 26, 2008 9:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live in NE PA, and the Ayers attack as is playin here too...
August 26, 2008 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like I said yesterday, they've gotta match that ad buy dollar for dollar.
It's a good response. People need to see it.
August 26, 2008 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you. People need to donate to make that happen.
August 26, 2008 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
absolutely. it costs money rebutting this garbage, and the money they spend doing it is money they don't have to get their own message out.
August 26, 2008 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Virginia is the new Ohio. BOOM go the Democrats!
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
August 26, 2008 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. and I just dont see Obama winning Ohio, something is just off base in that state, they always vote against their self interest every election.
PUMA at the convention: day 1
August 26, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a guy from Columbus I can say with complete certainty that what you said is right. Ohioans don't want change. They want 1950.
August 26, 2008 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not really all of Ohio--just around the edges, particularly Southern Ohio. In this case, it's not just Ohio--it's Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky and Western PA.
Remember, Cincinnati is the same city that charged a blind man with jaywalking for crossing the street (as allowed by state law) and another random person for putting quarters in expired meters before the city had a chance to issue tickets. Cincinnati is also the same city that elected Gerry Springer and Charles Keating (yes, the same Keating) as mayors. And it's the same district that elected Mean Jean twice.
But I am not that pessimistic about the whole state--after all, it did have enough sense to send Ken Blackwell packing. The real problem is that there are a lot of people in the state who think that it's still 1929 and the Great Depression will not happen. There are plenty of stupid people everywhere, but they don't necessarily outnumber those who can think.
The biggest idiots out there believe that they have to protect against "unreasonable" taxation the millions that they think they might make one day. After all, where would the myth of the American Dream be without the loons to blindly believe in it.
August 26, 2008 11:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will Texas ever run out of asshole billionaires?
August 26, 2008 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good one. That's a T-Shirt in the making...
McCain: If he's the answer, then the question must be ridiculous.
August 26, 2008 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good one. A little tighter:
"If McCain's the answer, the question is ridiculous."
August 26, 2008 9:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The line belongs to Governor of NY David Patterson.
August 26, 2008 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
*makes bumperstickers*
August 26, 2008 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is a good ad.
I think they should follow with one expanding on the "why does John McCain want to talk about things that happened 40 years ago when Barack Obama was still a child? Maybe it's because he doesn't have any solutions to the problems we face today. (Heath care, the economy, energy, etc.) We can't solve today's problems by living in the past."
And I still love the idea of tying McCain's obsession with 40 years ago into an ad hinting that "McCain wants to talk about the unpopular war of 40 years ago to distract you from his plans to continue the unpopular war of today forever." Which, as I stated, could turn his constant "POW! POW! POW!"ing into a negative.
August 26, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes -- and not only "to continue the unpopular war" but also to start new wars. Cue clip: bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
August 26, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why are we not seeing VIDEO of what many are calling the most electrifying speech of the convention so far? I'm talking Kucinich, people. That needs to go viral, stat!
August 26, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
i live in Salem VA, which is southwest, but not quite coal country. i saw the McCain "Ayers" ad on the local NBC news today, and in the following commercial break, saw the Obama "why's he talking about the 60s" ad. i really liked the contrast between the two. the McCain ad seemed run of the mill negative, while the Obama ad had just the right touch of condesension (sp) to seem a little different. also Obama's ad lays the "ayers" ad directly at McCain's feet, doesn't even mention that this is supposedly some kind of outside group. and i liked that too, so there's the additional contrast between the kind of campaign McCain claims to be running and the kind of campaign he IS running.
now i just want to see the Sam Cook ad.
August 26, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
At the risk of getting all semanticky about it, "ratcheting" something "up" suggests a greater intensity of the message in question -- not a greater circulation of that message. It would be great to see the Obama campaign hit back much harder than this ad does. This is pretty much just standard (& milquetoast, imho) denial & switching of the subject. Let's see the spot that slams McCain for his hypocrisy in remaining silent about the very type of spot he told Chris Matthews he was firmly opposed to. Let's see the spot that slams the billionaire messenger behind the Swift campaign legacy. Let's see the spot that highlights the direct ties McCain has to right wing evangelical zealots like James Hagee, to oligarch-aspirants like Phil Gramm, and lobbying moguls like, well, his entire campaign staff. Frankly, the spot you're highlighting here is namby-pamby when compared with the stuff they need to be running.
August 26, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder how much of the true campaign we are really seeing - as much as was made about Kerry flip-flopping and Swift Boats, what got Bush the election in 2004 was the 5 million evangelicals that came out through GOTV. Right now, I'm wondering how much of the current polls have to do with McCain's attacks and how much have to do with the backlash of Obama not picking Hillary.
August 26, 2008 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was attending a series of meetings in SW Ohio in 1988 during October, and they ran that Willie Horton Ad during virtually every break in the late night movie -- One evening I counted four Horton ads in an hour, four views of the subway turnstile. (what else except watch the late night movie is there to do in a motel???)
I think the Swiftboaters and the children of the Atwater had the notion that repetition at 1AM was the way to seed the fear of hot and cold running Willie Horton's -- and I would be looking for a repeat of that pattern.
August 26, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, Greg...
The Obama campaign is RATCHETING UP its response? But just this morning you were telling us what an aggressive response they had.
Heh.
August 26, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you. People need to donate to make that happen.
Posted by Publicola Hussein
Going to donate another $50 right now.You are Right ON Publicola Hussein.
August 26, 2008 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
WE have to donate bc apparently HILLRAISERS are being assholes.
Front page of the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/us/politics/27donorcnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
I mean, my God, how the hell did these ppl make so much money by being petulant whiners?
August 26, 2008 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
CNN: STFU!
C-SPAN: Thank god you exist.
MSNBC: Where's Rachel?
FNC: Why bother?
August 26, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm in Michigan, and the Lansing CNN station just showed the Ayers ad. I've seen it twice in an hour.
August 26, 2008 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody here has argued the point, but I think it's worth noting that tying McCain to the Ayers attack ad is perfectly legitimate. Obama's ad doesn't say the McCain campaign ran that ad, just that McCain "keeps talking about the 60's" and "tries to tie Obama to Ayers," both of which are true of the McCain campaign. The beauty of the response is that it addresses the Swift-boat style ad, McCain's fixation on being a POW ("keeps talking about the 60's") and his surrogates middle-school press releases. And I think it throws in a backhanded reference to McCain's age to boot. Nice.
August 26, 2008 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live in north-eastern Pennsylvania and just saw Obama's response ad on the local NBC affiliate. I haven't seen the original attack ad though.
August 26, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
ye ye ye,
Clinton's corporate conspiritors provided the cash.
August 26, 2008 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live in Pittsburgh and the Ayers ad plays on local station 4 KDKA. Obama's response ad also played tonight as well.
August 27, 2008 7:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm
The guy who is bankrolling this ad, Harold Simmons.
Isn't he the same guy who was sued by his daughters for, among other things, forging their signatures to get around the limitations on campaign contributions, and in a Perry Mason moment, admitted to it in open court?
Yeah, that's him.
August 28, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink