Obama has been very harsh to Chavez in various statements. Still, his position on Chavez is not different that the one he has about Iran or Cuba.

Chavez is nothing more that a autocratic clown. He just expelled yesterday the head of Human Rights Watch of Venezuela just because he presented a report about human rights violations during his time in power. I know it for sure because I've been there on the ground and the situation there is not pretty. He's just a fucking asshole, period.

This is nothing. The Obama ad with Rush's comments is more effective than this. This is just desperate.

There's a lot of SFC channeling here today...

Obama was great on Florida recently. He's getting better each day.

More important, Rasmussen has Obama pulling to within 2 (within the MOE) in Indiana.

this ad is pretty ridiculous. maybe the next ad will have lenin endorsing Obama from the grave?

the Daigo/Hotline poll is very weird. Gallup's write up and R2000's have him with his best night last night. Not so with D/H and they have McCain with an uptick of 6+ in 3 days?

This is payback for the Rush Limbaugh ad, but as usual with the McCain campaign, they go over the top and it will probably end up hurting them.

LFO just cannot have a perfect day :)

Wow Mccain sounds godawful in Minnesota

I'm very wary of overconfidence, but- man, these guys really ARE flailing. What a stupid ad. Go on guys, waste all your money on crap like this, please!

one more thought though---those very familiar with Chavez, cubans and venezuelans and other latin americans in Miami, are very very familiar with this language from Chavez so the shock value of it to them is almost nill (I listen to chavez every weekend on his program Alo Presidente, so to me this is business as usual and does not raise an eyebrow). So if the idea is to associate Obama with Chavez and his 'shocking' language this ad, at least as a latina immigrant, is not very effective. Latinos really know Chavez well and they are not 100% sure what to do about him, he is seen as the colorful charismatic leader we all know, but not as an evil Kim Jung Il figure to the majority. So this gambit may play well with only a very limited number of people.

The problem with this ad? Most Latin Americans dont have a negative view of Hugo Chavez. To them he is like a crazy uncle.

I wonder if most Latinos believe that "talking to" someone is a mortal sin.

I assume this is a play to Florida and not to the Southwest. As such, I don't think it will be successful. I'm a Miami Cuban-American of sorts myself, and this Chavez posturing might appeal to a lot of old anti-Castro Cubans and to bourgeois Venezuelan immigrants -- but to most Miami Latinos (especially younger ones) Chavez is a kind of comical and unthreatening figure, if anything a bit sympathetic. Tying him to Obama is pretty meaningless, I think. If anything, this ad might play better if it were in English and targeted to North and Central Florida Anglos.

i pity those who are sending mccain their hard-earned cash....what a waste!!

i am latina and NO i do not believe talking to someone is mortal sin..that silliness begins and end with the castro zealots who think alienating their family members in cuba is great policy even though it never stopped castro one bit..to the rest of the latino community, we look upon cuba and its american cuban population with awe--wondering why this failed policy is still favored by an elite few....in florida, only a select few thinks this stand-off/no talk approach to cuba is good...the younger generation and poorer people thinks it is stupid...especially so, since IKE destroyed cuba and our standish rules makes it that much harder to help the little people...the rich cubans can afford to stand off b/c their relatives are probably here eating and living well..the poor folks who are here in the US and who still has relatives on the island is NOT FOR THIS FAILED POLICY......

this was a waste of time and money for mccain!!!

McCain has nothing left to campaign on except fear itself.