White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and John McCain are both going back on South Carolina television with a pair of new 30-second spots highlighting their perceived strengths. Each ad looks to appeal to different segments of the state’s Republican-voting base — McCain targeting military retirees and active-duty service members and Romney appealing to economic conservatives, the Boston Globe notes.
But there’s a broader theme at work here. Elections center around contrast, and I think these ads show the stark difference between these two presidential candidates.
Romney’s ad looks like it should be running on CNBC, while McCain’s should be running on the Military Channel. Romney seems to be running for CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and with his experience, I bet he would be good in that role. McCain on the other hand, seems to be running for Commander-in-Chief, and I bet he would be good in that role.
I’m not sure which will win out — although it won’t be long before we know — but I think that during a time of war, Americans aren’t looking for a man whose experience came while wearing a business suit. They’re looking for a leader who earned his stripes in a military uniform. And the side-by-side comparison of these advertisements only reinforces that.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Primary Season, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Yeah! Down with bookish economics! That stuff is hard.
Why can’t people just accept that borrowing money from Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia indefinately is a great plan without questioning it?
In the mean time, we’ve got problems to kill and thats a whole lot more exciting. Also, we haven’t yet insulted every single muslim person, even the hundreds of millions that aren’t terrorists. Insulting and demonizing every single muslim is a very important thing that will help us accomplish our goals in the middle east… um… somehow.
Bill,
You’re going to love this:
http://www.palmettoscoop.com/2008/01/15/blimp-to-conspiracy-land-returns-for-more-passengers/
Enjoy!
- A.F.
Oh don’t you worry; i’m on it like the kid who sees the emperor has no cloths.
Seems like there was a Senator from Massachussetts who ran recently touting his military experience? I think he may have served in Vietnam? I wonder how things worked out for him?