New McCain Ad: I Know Bush Is Bad, But I'm Better
John McCain's newest one-minute TV ad, set to air nationally, features McCain essentially admitting that the Bush years have been bad for the country -- -- a last ditch effort to dump the albatross (Bush) that has essentially defined this race and weighed him down from the start.
"The last eight years haven't worked very well, have they?" McCain says. "I'll make the next four better." McCain then proceeds to go after the opposition -- but curiously never saying "Obama" or "Democrats" by name -- on issues like taxes and energy.
This ad really does speak to the fundamental dynamic at work in this race: The country is in the hole, and the Republican Party has struggled to give voters a reason to let them continue in office. In an environment like this, it's hard for any GOP candidate to really argue with any plausibility that he can improve things.
Not bad, really, for what it is. But where was this stuff eight weeks ago?
October 16, 2008 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's what I'm asking. If this ad had been up eight weeks ago, and THIS message been hammered home by McCain, Obama would have practically lost that talking point. Just more evidence of how pathetic McCain's campaign has been.
But at least now McCain has 1 positive ad up? So... 99.9% of his ads are still negative. Got a long way to go, Johnny Boy, and only 19 days to do it in.
October 16, 2008 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, the criticism about negative ads must've hit home, since this is the first "positive" ads in weeks. Moments ago, CNN had one of their fact check segments where they analyzed that claim. They twisted what Sen. Obama clearly said to imply that the claim was that Sen. McCain had only run negative ads throughout the entire campaign, and then decided to "fact check" that twisted claim. They referred to reports claiming this, that, and the other instead of the obvious way of checking it -- tell me on what date the last positive ad was run by the McCain campaign!
October 16, 2008 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly.
The "I'm not Bush line" was good, just about 8 weeks too late.
October 16, 2008 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Best McCain ad in weeks. Too bad he's already blown the election...
October 16, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just because Obama can pull off the talking to the camera bit well, doesn't mean it works well for all politicians. And frankly, all of this is undone by Obama's new ad.
No specifics, no real plan beyond platitudes. Everything he accuses Obama of being/doing. FAIL.
October 16, 2008 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly.
He essentially campaigned throughout the primaries as a Bush. Now he is desperately trying to sell himself as a non-Bush. Sorta multiple personality disorder. Doesn't work.
October 16, 2008 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope they didn't pay that announcer guy very much, because he totally sucks.
October 16, 2008 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess the fundamental dynamic in the race is Bush and the Repugs ruined the country. But I also think the real dynamic is simply that McLame never had what it takes to be a good candidate, let alone president.
'
And Barack Obama does. Maybe people wouldn't have listened if the Repugs had broken the country but I don't know that and no one else does either.
October 16, 2008 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the Repugs had not broken the country...
October 16, 2008 9:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
I want to thank FOX.
I'm so happy to meet my new friend Joe the Plumber.
He's way more important and interesting than G.I. Joe and Jane and their 150,000+ friends on their third and fourth tours of Iraq that NPR has ignored for the past two months. G.I. Joe and Jane's stories are so messy, hard to cover, and might remind people about America's worst foreign policy failure.
Thank you FOX News for my new friend.
October 16, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another example of the success Obama has had at defining McCain, and McCain's powerlessness, with all his handlers and Rove's genius, at resisting Obama's effort to define him in the minds of voters.
Once again, McCain, epic fail.
October 16, 2008 9:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops wrong thread, me bad, need, more, coffee.
October 16, 2008 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like the Bush-controlled Secret Service has decided to back off and cover up for fellow Republican John McCain on the death threats at his rallies:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/breakingnews/Secret_Service_says_Kill_him_allegation_unfounded_.html
The Secret Service is sure looking like the polticized Bush-Rove DOJ right about now. I fear for Obama's life if Bush-Rove employees are responsible for his safety.
October 16, 2008 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's not the crowd they have to worry about, it's the nominee and her well-being. As long as no one goes for her, they don't react.
On the other hand, inciting a riot using political speech is covered under some other legal heading and that needs to be addressed. I would assume the DoJ would be the correct govt entity to tackle the issue, but as we all know it's nothing but an empty shell left discarded on a beach somewhere.
October 16, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is it true what they are saying at Kos, that Joe the Plumber might be related to one of the Keating 5?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/16/02217/845/591/632001
October 16, 2008 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I will be skeptical of that report
October 16, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Worse than that. Sure, he's a "plumber," but he only got that moniker because he helped break into the Watergate.
October 16, 2008 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
If only the media had looked as closely at Obama...
October 16, 2008 10:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
So Bu$h is bad but McCain is better, eh? Better just means he's not as bad as Bu$h. Doesn't mean he's good.
October 16, 2008 9:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, at least he tried...
Time doesn't forgive, Mr.McCain. It's too late now.
October 16, 2008 9:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
A lot of this is about performance. Put those words in Reagan's mouth and you've got a winner. But McCain seems angry in his own SCRIPTED ads. I'm sure that the directors and other prep people who set up these ads will be glad when this campaign is over. If McCain looks like this in the final product, can you just imagine how angry he must be while taping these?
"Senator, can we do that again with a little more...um, humanity?"
Kapow!
October 16, 2008 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
A little perspective from Obama this morning:
Donate. Call. Knock.
October 16, 2008 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Word. Landslides don't come up for themselves.
October 16, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed.
However, I have almost zero worry about Obama becoming complacent.
McCain can claim that Obama is measuring the drapes, but the fact remains that he’s out there knocking on fucking doors in Ohio.
October 16, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
New McCain ad: "I am NOT Spartacus!"
October 16, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
A lot of this is about performance. Put those words in Reagan's mouth and you've got a winner. But McCain seems angry in his own SCRIPTED ads. I'm sure that the directors and other prep people who set up these ads will be glad when this campaign is over. If McCain looks like this in the final product, can you just imagine how angry he must be while taping these?
"Senator, can we do that again with a little more...um, humanity?"
Kapow!
October 16, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
When you have a 10 trillion dollar debt and a 500 billion dollar deficit in this year's budget, (before all the bailouts)paying higher taxes IS patriotic.What is unpatriotic is to leave a giant fiscal and environmental mess to your children and grandchildren.
October 16, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
No one dared say last night what is actually true, which is that there is going to be some more deficit spending before this is over because that's the only way to fix it. I was worried Obama might say that and he didn't.
Thank the gods cause I don't think anyone wants to hear that right now, but you know the only way we can stay afloat long enough to fix this, if it's fixable, is more deficit spending.
Obama is cautioning us to not get cocky - ok. But I'm way more convinced that he's won this and where it's going to start being bad news is once he gets in office.
;)
October 16, 2008 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
New McCain ad: "I am NOT Spartacus!"
October 16, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is too late, McCain >=Bush, Sorry i am not buying this Ad
October 16, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
New McCain ad: "I am NOT Spartacus!"
October 16, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
You really think the "I'm not Bush" line was good??? That was just a desperate attempt to do what he has been unable to PROVE: that his policies ARE BUSH policies. Just blurting out a prepared line does not make it true. Since the media laps up this kind of zinger-style stuff, it just means that they will now probably examine whether or not it is TRUE. And we all know it is NOT true. He is eseentially the same on foreign policy, judges and economy.
October 16, 2008 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
No I don't. And frankly, I really didn't think the lines and attacks McCain threw out which pundits commended were anyway good. I was quite surprised some said McCain started strong or the Ayers attacks were good at least in the beginning or like that. In my view he started shaky, and the Ayers attacks? All McCain took long time to keep saying was "It needs to be examined." Nothing like caught him with the goods or like that. Obama's response was good enough.
October 16, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is just astonishing at how tone deaf the McLame campaign is. I mean "spread the wealth around" does not sound like bad news to the average guy who is struggling to make ends meet. Fortunately, for the good guys, McLame's camp will go down as one of the worst in history...right next to Rudy Giuliani's.
October 16, 2008 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is astonishing. He's one of the worst I've ever seen for having no touch at all for just people. He has none.
No one could have competed with Obama's ability to connect with people, but getting mad sure isn't the way to deal with it.
I've never seen such a patently angry, nasty, contemptuous little man.
October 16, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dick Cheney isn't so sure about that.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
October 16, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know what the difference is between them, for me?
McLame is a nasty little man. I hate Cheney, but there's nothing small about him. He's big evil.
October 16, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Americans have heard nothing but Republican dogma for the last 30 years and this is more of the same with a few twists. When Reagan talked about smaller government and lower taxes it may have seemed like a coherent response for those that were predisposed to accept Nixonian race baiting.
But after eight years of Bush, McCain is reduced to explicit threats of a black man taking rich people's money and giving it to black people. He has so much contempt for everybody that he assumes that we still don't get Nixonian code and all he has to do is spell it out for us. Then he would have us pretend that the last 8 years of the same dogma didn't result in calamity on about 7 different levels.
And then he would have us believe that Palin is not Bush on estrogen and steroids. Most people, even most Republicans, don't take "small government" rhetoric seriously, it doesn't have any credibility anymore. Folks just tune it out because it directly contradicts their experience on a daily basis. The Republican brand has destroyed itself and the base is returning to a place where they are very comfortable - the peanut gallery.
October 16, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have to agree with you that the repug party is in the process of breaking apart into little self-contained, single-issue entities: neo-cons, fundies, and conservatives.
Christopher Buckley's article hints that the conservatives may be ready to seize control and oust the renegades that have been running the show since Bu$h came on the scene and get back to the original party line - plain and simple conservative values void of religious and pax americana goals.
October 16, 2008 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
What a slogan: Better than Bad!
October 16, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
What's better than bad? Superbad!
October 16, 2008 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
"our slime is better slime"
October 16, 2008 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does being better than bad mean you're worst?
October 16, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
And the republicans railed against Clinton for "re-inventing" himself...
How can one distance themselves from a pile of crap when they have rolled around in it for decades?
October 16, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can anyone tell me how McCain knew about "JoePlumber"....how did he know what the guy said to Obama on the trail YESTERDAY ...right before the debate?.
I just feel like JoethePlumber was a plant.
Just like the black conservative radio talk host who told McCain to go after Obama..on Wright...another blatant set-up...just being a black man in that sea of whiteness at McCain's campaign screamed he was a plant. Reminded me of JC Watts speaking at the GOP convention...what a farce that was too.
October 16, 2008 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Think Progess has the video embedded with their talking points about the debate last nite. It's quite a long video with Obama going one-on-one with the guy.
October 16, 2008 10:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who, it turns out, is not even registered to vote!
(there was a link last night - on the last thread, I think)
October 16, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Plus the guy, is not even in the tax bracket above which his taxes go up!!
Which is a huge 'of course NOT' since 80% of small business make less than $250K, just like 95% of Americans do.
This sounds like GOP plant to me ...did anyone else see this Ben Smith commentary:
"Katie gets the first interview with Joe Wurzelbacher and, like everyone else in America, he talks like a pundit.
"McCain was solid in his performance," he says. "I still don't know where he stands," he says of Obama. "I'm middle class. I can't have my taxes raised any more."
He also says he actually isn't in the bracket where Obama would raise his taxes -- but he's worried that Obama will shift the bracket down.
He also said that, in his encounter with Obama, the Illinois Senator "a tap dance...almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr."
----
more racist overtones...comparing him to Step -n-Fetch tap dancers!!...and the Sammy Davis reference too??
Puhleeeze...this guy is a staunch GOP'r
Was that ThinkProgress tape up PRIOR to the debate?
October 16, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Expensive stupid war
Ruined economy
torture
wire-tapping
outing CIA agent
....and the big thing.....
Obama is not wearing Earth Tones
Obama is not searching for his alpha-male
Obama is wearing a flag pin
Obama is not wearing cowboy boots
Obama is smart - but lets the press think they are just as smart
So basically McCain sucks - as bad as Bush & Bush & Reagan....
but the press is only mildly misbehaving
So all is well
October 16, 2008 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
And here should be Obama's 23 second rebuttal ad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U5KZzgaB2k
October 16, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you wanted to run against Bush, John McCain, you should have run for president in 2004.
October 16, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
The thing that disappoints me the most is neither candidate is willing to say what is evident to most of us. We're going to have to pay for all the spending that is going on. $10,000,000,000 a month on Bush's dick measuring contest with Iraq has added up to real money after all these years.
Bailing out unregulated wall street banks is going to cost real money.
All this money is going to come from US, the taxpayers, with interest paid to China.
We're going to have to make sacrifices as nation. Or go broke as a nation. May not be popular, but it's going to have to be done.
The measures can be small to start with, or be ignored an become painful and inevitable.
Little things can help alot. Outlaw incadescent light bulbs in favor of flourescent, reduce the speed limit to 55...hell, even 65 nationwide, A five thousand dollar tax on every SUV or Pickup that doesn't get 25 mpg, etc. etc.
Repugs want to scare us with "redistribution of wealth," socialist mantra, at the same time they are redistributing all our wealth to China and the oil producing states( that really don't like us as a nation).
Tell them all to grow a pair and fix this thing! I don't care what Ayers was doing to protest another uneeded and immoral war, and someone point out that voting with the Bushies over 90% of the time isn't mavericky. Picking a dumb airhead, bitchy woman as a running mate is....but I'm still not impressed that is what we need.
Is Obama an elitist? I sure as hell hope so. I want the most elite team possible running the show. I've already seen the frat boy result.
Finally, what scares me most, is that McCain is as close as he is in this race. Man, this is a spooky country. I had no idea how stupid a whole lot of folks are!
October 16, 2008 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are so right Bobble.
This financial crisis begs for regulation and Obama is going to have to a leader in a significant time of crisis for our nation. I feel confident that he has the intellect and the wisdom to do so and the humility to seek help from the best. He is no shoot from the hip type and he is not prone to eruptions of astonished blinking when serious decisions have to be made.
This was a good article.
http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2008/10/econ-blame.php
October 16, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
"I'm not just crap, like the previous guy. I'm the CREAM of the crap." -- Sen. John McCain
October 16, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
"I'm not just crap, like the previous guy. I'm the CREAM of the crap." -- Sen. John McCain
October 16, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I know Diet Pepsi sucks, but Diet Rite is better.
October 16, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why does McCain insist on addressing us as if we are all in the first grade?
October 16, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's difficult to square this schmaltzy teleprompter reader with the angry fidget from last night's debate. Grumpy turns into gumby.
October 16, 2008 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
How long has the maverick been mispronouncing "Washington"? Going for the PA vote?
October 16, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
And his contempt for women was clear in his "health of the mother" response. Another Compassionate conservative!
October 16, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain can run but he can't hide. No matter how much he tries to duck and dodge his connection to George W. Bush and the last 8 years, he will fail. You can't run from the truth. His record and his own words speak for itself.
WATCH THIS VIDEO ABOUT THE "REAL" JOHN McCAIN:
http://okwassup.blogspot.com/2008/08/warning-john-mccain.html
October 16, 2008 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain's PTSD: "Palin Totally Scuttled my Destiny."
October 16, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
See,see they aren't all negative ads.Only 99.99% negative. Where is Warshington?
October 16, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice to see McCain finally distancing himself from Bush, though I think it's too late.
http://www.entertonement.com/collections/4734/But-I%27m-Better-Ad
October 16, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too little, too late. And does he not get that the majority of voters don't have investments? Most of us in the true middle class don't play the stock market. We might have some 401K investments but that's the extent of it. He'd have been done better if he'd used the phrase "protect your 401K savings" or something, but to say "restore your investments" assumes that everyone has some and that's far from true. Just more of McCain's disconnect from the real America.
October 16, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink