SCGOP launches McCain ad
POWERFUL RESPONSE TO OBAMA’S ‘HOUSE’ ATTACK
“This is the story of a John McCain home you might not know about.”
That’s the opening line of a new 30-second advertisement released today by the South Carolina Republican Party promoting the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
The ad is a response to a spot released last week by Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign attacking McCain for a comment he made about not knowing how many houses his wife owned.
The SCGOP ad highlights McCain’s “other home” — the infamous Hanoi Hilton POW camp where the Arizona senator was locked up and tortured during the Vietnam war.
“During a combat mission over Vietnam, John McCain was shot down and severely injured,” the ad says. “John McCain’s new home for the next five-and-a-half-years would be an enemy prison cell.
“This is where John McCain was starved, beaten, tortured, and maimed for life.”
The spot closes with a very strong and direct shot at Obama. “So the next time Barack Obama talks about one of John McCain’s homes, remember this one.”
This ad is a great reminder of how trivial elections can get. But the sacrifice of men like McCain is beyond heroic. And if you watch that ad a few times, I think it will be difficult to forget.
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UPDATE: I’m told the ad will air in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. television market next week during the Republican National Convention.
I know that being a POW <i>earns</i> one the admiration, honour and respect of your fellow countrymen, but I honestly didn’t realize that being a prisoner of war, entitled - and that word bears repeating - ENTITLED you to the Presidency of the United States.
Hmmm… not so much, McCain’s campaign and the SC republicans are going to wear people thin on this notion pretty quick.
So the official line from the campaign is that the answer to every criticism of any kind, on any issue, is that John McCain was a POW? Tell me this, are there any ex-POWs who lost their homes to foreclosure in the past year?
One of John McCain’s advisers said that every American had health insurance because they could go to the emergency room. That’s drawing some heat, what’s the answer to that, John McCain didn’t get decent hospital care for 5 years as a POW.
He said that illegal immigrants were needed to pick lettuce because American wouldn’t do it even for $50 per hour. That’s drawing heat, what’s his answer, John McCain didn’t get to eat lettuce for 5 years as a POW.
Remember, McCain, who lives in homes owned by his wife, and lives off allowance checks written by his wife, tried to paint Obama, who earned what he has, as an elitist. The POW-POW-POW defense is just an attempt to shield McCain from criticism. Don’t you think that many South Carolinians who are facing the loss of their trailers are at some point going to want to know what John McCain wants to do to improve their lives, rather than what he did 35 years ago?
Seriously, we get it. The man was a POW and served his country well. Thank you for serving Senator, but really, it doesn’t have anything to do with your economic policy.
I realize that this experience had an effect on him, but McCain’s campaign is quickly becoming Rudy-esque- All statements contain a noun, a verb, and “POW”. The line “This is the story of a John McCain home you might not know about” is a blatant lie, since anyone who has ever heard of John McCain, read a newspaper, or watched TV since January knows that McCain was a POW in Vietnam.
This is a nonsensical, off-topic McCain response to a stupid Obama ad. Seriously, can anyone stop long enough to talk about the issues, instead of about who Obama served on a charity board with, how many investment houses a candidate has, or whatever the Paris Hilton ad was all about?
The only thing more discouraging and retarded than these ads is the fact that the ads work so well.
The ad may very well do more harm than good. While as a Viet Nam war veteran, I understand very well the sacrifiees he made. The ad, unfortunately, has nothing to do with his fitness for the Presidency. Of course, neither does the number of houses he or his wife own. Let’s talk about issues of substance, not “red herrings’.
The number of houses he and his wife own IS relevant, because when you take it into account along with his painting Obama as an elitist, it shows McCain to be a hypocrite. Also, the fact that he lives off an allowance from his wealthy wife informs his economic outlook at the policies he promotes. He thinks people losing their homes are whiners because he has enough homes and doesn’t care about people other than himself, his friends, and his campaign contributors. Unlike the “Obama as elitist” theme McCain is dishonestly trying to promote, the number of houses McCain has, how he got them, and how he reacts to people with fewer houses, is at the heart of his fitness for the presidency.
And one thing I don’t get, the ad opens with “This is a story of a John McCain home you might not know about”. How could we not know about it? He mentions it every 8 seconds. He precedes every mention with a disclaimer about how much he hates talking about his experiences as a POW, but he seems to manage to overcome his reluctance. Maybe he thinks that constantly mentioning it is necessary to prevent a rip in the space/time continuum.
This is “powerful?”
I don’t ever want to hear Republicans criticize ANYBODY for wallowing in victimhood.
A campaign based on pity is an odd thing to behold.
I´m voting for McCain simply because he´s not a Marxist.
and ¨notverybright¨: ¨pity¨you say? ….are we allowed to say ´bullshit´on this site?
I hope so.
Lets try a word analogy to celibrate South Carolina’s SAT scores:
Rudy Guiliani is to 9/11 as John McCain is to what?
This is a brilliant ad.
The fact so many libs have become apoplectic about it (see comments above) means it hit the mark. Obama is an elitist, because he thinks most of us are cretins - that only the intelligentsia are qualified to judge about what is best for us.
McCain does not possess O’s “intellectual” arrogance.
The left have made a fetish out of McCain’s house response, even though he (McCain) pawned it off as a stupid question. (Check with my staff.) The obvious point of the ad is a graphic reminder that the decision of who should be president is much more weighty then to na na over this sort of stuff.
Obama is a hollow, shallow, trivial, unaccomplished pseudo-intellectual snob, who is orgasmic about complexity, but is dumbfounded by the obvious. The presidency is definitely “above his pay grade.”
My advice would be to quit cheapening your service, McCain. Using it to answer every attack (economy, drilling, Keating Five, Arizona carpet bagging, SERIOUS ADULTERY, temper, racism towards “gooks”) has all but lost my respect.
LAME!
If John McCain hides behind a POW wall for every criticism, he will depreciate his status of being hero because he is overplaying it.
Really DG? Na Na stuff eh? What about character assassination in calling Obama a celebrity, when McCain has appeared in more movies and tv show, written best selling books and gone on countless more talk shows that Obama can imagine. What about the claims of Obama putting politics before love of country when instead of offering solutions McCain has now begun responding to any difficult question with the POW card. If you want to talk about hypocrisy then you and your fellow Republicans need to first look into the mirror, pull out the beam from your own eye before going after others.
It is embarrassing to me that South Carolina , albeit the SCGOP,chose to represent themselves this way. Is there anything to McCain besides the fact he is Republican and a former POW? I sure don’t see anything but more Bush, Bush > Cheney, Cheney especially in this ad. Can’t they defend any of his positions??? How about one other house???
I have heard numerous Republicans ask… Is McCain trying to loose this election? Its time to wonder about that.
Dear Mattheus:
You wrote - “What about character assassination in calling Obama a celebrity, when McCain has appeared in more movies and tv show, written best selling books and gone on countless more talk shows that Obama can imagine.”
This is specious. Pointing out the fact of celebrity is not a comment on character, it is a comment on how the media are fawning over Mr. Obama. It also points out, inferentially, that the media, who fawned over McCain in 2000, are hypocritical. McCain, then, was the anti-Bush, thus worthy of their admiration. Now, though McCain maintained his independence - making ardent conservatives uncomfortable - he is smeared with slogans and bromides. McBush, etc.
Even in last night’s speech, Obama did not offer substantive specifics. He did attempt to link the promise of America to socialist ideals. Which is at once both banal and brazen. There is nothing new at all in what he says - he intends to massively expand the welfare state and wants us to believe that it will be paid for only by the “rich.” Linking America’s promise - which flows from liberty and unalienable rights - to his masked but unmistakable Marxism, would be laughable but for its triteness. This is standard Democrat party identity wrapped up in a sparkly package.
Brittney Spears’ set designer and hollywood clebs included.
“This is the story of a John McCain home you might not know about.”
Actually, we know so much about it, that we’re tired of hearing about it. His POW experience will be a border line joke by November if they don’t lay off.