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McCain's "American President" Ad

The Washington Post among others, prints the wrong-headed speculation today that John McCain's first national campaign ad, calling him "The American President America Has Been Waiting For" is somehow a dig against Barack You-Know-Who Obama. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Let me tell you a little secret we political propagandists know.  The use of unifying national symbols appeals to voters, and words like "America" or "American" are (nearly) always a worthwhile component of effective slogans. 

McCain's ad vindicates another early opinion I had of him, when I first saw the old newsreel footage of the young POW McCain. It's powerful stuff, and I knew we'd be seeing more of it in McCain's commercials.  That is, when he's not comparing himself to Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt...

See the new ad for yourself.

And I'll ask again, where are the attack commercials reminding voters of the Keating Five?

And now for something completely different...

You Heard It Here First (And Not From Me)

PoliticalWire has this tantalizing story today.  Can a deal really be in the works?  Will Howard Dean finally show some backbone? 

Reprinted here in full:

The Las Vegas Review Journal runs a brief Q&A with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) about settling on a Democratic nominee for president.

Q: Do you still think the Democratic race can be resolved before the convention?

Reid: Easy.

Q: How is that?

Reid: It will be done.

Q: It just will?

Reid: Yep.

Q: Magically?

Reid: No, it will be done. I had a conversation with Governor Dean (Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean) today. Things are being done.

Don't you just love it?  "Things are being done."  Ooooo, scary.

Obama's Speech -- Visionary or Dumb?

First thing every morning, and often thereafter during the day, I check out Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, and recently I saw these opinions of Barack Obama's speech on race.  I'm inclined to agree with Marc Ambinder, who I used to find really really annoying when he wrote The Note in that over-caffeinated, smart alecky style still maintained by his successors.   But here Ambinder reads like Walter Whitman next to the always effete Andrew Sullivan when he writes:

If the media focuses more on the Wright defense-by-renouncements and then juxtaposes them with clips of Wright's comments, then I think the trouble remains.

I know what he means.

"Methinks he doth protest too much" thought I as I heard Obama mention Minister Wright about 27 times. It was Obama's "Sister Souljah" moment--and he cut a duet with her.  Old school is repudiating the person your opponents will use against you, in that highly effective way they have of scaring voters about Democrats, New School is not caring and speaking truth to power.  You know, a lot of my crazy left wing clients in the 1980s used to say that about how they were fighting Ronald Reagan...

On the other hand...maybe I should do what Obama askes and look beyond that aspect of his speech and listen, really listen, to what he says about race.  OK, he's eloquent and persuasive and totally right, but does that make him qualified to be president?  I remain torn, and reminded of what a politically highly influential friend of mine said in the winter of 1992:  "Either Bill Clinton will be the best Democratic president of the United States, or the last one."

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The day after I wrote the above, Dan Balz nailed what I was trying to say in this column.  Good job, Washington Post.   

Gov Fingered In Hooker Probe

I owe my friend Paul B. that title, which he entered in the New York Post's "Write Your Own Headline."  There's been a lot of interesting comment about Eliot Spitzer, from Ruth Marcus in the Post to Maureen Dowd in the Times and lots of places in between.  My reaction:  Andrew Cuomo must be wetting his pants.  Any dream of defeating a weakened governor in a primary is gone.  Andrew has to go on being the "real Elliot Spitzer," a crusader for justice. with a happy marriage and proven respect for women.  Oh, right...

Other than that, I won't pile on to poor Eliot, but if you want to indulge go to the Smoking Gun and let's all get ready for the person I call dibs on calling the "real Barack Obama:" David Patterson.

Post Primary Partum Blues

Now that the dust has settled from "Super Tuesday II" a couple of points seem evident.  First, as Taegan Goddard, the proprietor of the indispensable Political Wire writes in his new Political Insider blog, Howard Dean has proved once again how useless he's been as leader of the Democratic party.  A lot of Democrats had serious doubts about his selection as party chair back in 2005 and in the years since Dean has done little to prove them wrong.  Like his campaign for president, his party leadership resembles a balloon that pops into nothingness after a big buildup.  Dean's initial stubbornness and current dithering concerning Michigan and Florida are damaging the party and alienating voters in two key states.  Let's have a do-over in June, and I'm not just saying that because I know it will help Hillary Clinton.

Speaking of Hillary, don't you just love the now out-in-the-open feud among her consultants?  As readers of my earlier newspaper articles and posts on this subject now, I believe that my fellow consultants are harming democracy with their egotism and greed.  Mark Penn, that means you.  The Washington Post story linked above (and to be sure you don't miss it, again here) contains this lovely exchange between Penn and Harold Ickes:

"[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted.

"[Expletive] you!" Penn replied.

"[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted again.

Priceless.