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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > August > 11 > Entry
Eye on Ohio: “Embrace” ad for Obama
The ad: “Embrace,” 30 seconds.
Producer: Obama campaign.
Where to see it: It begins airing today on national cable stations.
Script (male announcer): “For decades, he’s been Washington’s biggest celebrity. John McCain.
“And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back. The lobbyists — running his low-road campaign. The money — billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours. Lurching to the right, then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes.
“John McCain. A Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington game.”
Video: There are lots of shots of McCain with President George W. Bush. They hug, affectionately butt heads, and Bush even kisses McCain on the head. There’s also video of McCain with Letterman, Leno and on “The View” and “Saturday Night Live.” McCain is shown with lobbyists — at least that’s how the Obama campaign identifies them — and aides and in front of an oil rig.
Analysis: This is an Obama-strikes-back ad. You called me a celebrity? I’ll call you one. Take that.
In his earlier ad, McCain used video of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears to cast Obama as a well-spoken, but unprepared, empty suit. The Obama ad wants people to know that McCain has had his own fling as the media’s favorite politician, although it’s a stretch to say that McCain’s been “Washington’s favorite celebrity” for decades.
But that’s not the real point the ad is trying to make.
The goal is to drill home the message that McCain and the very unpopular President Bush are head-butting, kissing cousins, politically speaking, and that electing McCain would be the same as giving Bush and the fat-cat oil and drug companies four more years.
This is a problem for McCain, a direct assault on his self-proclaimed reputation as a Washington maverick, beholden to no one but the voters and, as McCain puts it, “the country we love.”
The ad might try to do too much. Bush is unpopular, so it makes sense to try to link McCain with him. But Letterman, Leno, “Saturday Night Live” and “The View” aren’t exactly on the same celebrity low road as Britney and Paris.
William Hershey is Columbus bureau chief for the Dayton Daily News. E-mail: whershey@daytondailynews.com.
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