Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d say the Bush gang actually wants to help Hillary Clinton get elected. It’s good to have skills, it’s better to get lucky, but it’s the best when your enemies are hopelessly inept.
This week, the Clinton campaign unveiled its first TV ad of the season, which hit the Iowa airwaves yesterday. It’s a pretty good spot, featuring Clinton delivering a speech to a wholesome group of folks. “If you’re a family that is struggling and you don’t have health care, you are invisible to this president,” she says. “If you’re a single mom trying to find affordable child care so you can go to work, you’re invisible too. Americans from all walks of life across our country may be invisible to this president but they’re not invisible to me and they won’t be invisible to the next president of the United States.”
It seemed like a rather straightforward ad — nice music, simple theme, easy-to-embrace message. No muss, no fuss.
Except, the White House, showing absolute no message discipline at all, complained bitterly about it yesterday. A reporter asked Dana Perino if she wanted to respond to the ad. The obvious response is to take a pass, tell reporters that the White House doesn’t do advertising critiques, and steer clear of the 2008 race. Indeed, Perino initially seemed to realize the dynamic, telling reporters, “Well, this is going to be tricky going into the campaign season, when people start running ads, because as tempted as I am to take that head on, I think I will refer to the RNC for the specific — for answers on the politics of it.”
But then Perino just couldn’t help herself.
“[A]s to the merits of [the Clinton ad], I think it’s outrageous. This is a President who, first and foremost, has helped millions of seniors across the country have access to prescription drugs at a much lower cost. That system that the President put in — helped put in place, with the help of both sides of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, Medicare Part D, is helping millions of people, and working better than anyone would have expected. In addition to that, the President has tried to take on the issue at the root cause of it, and tried to change our health care system so that we actually are helping provide less expensive but still great quality care to people all over the country.
“And as to whether or not our troops are invisible to this President, I think that that is absurd, and that is unconscionable that a member of Congress would say such a thing.”
Perino might as well put gift-wrapping on it, with a little note for Hillary that read, “Your welcome.”
Clinton, naturally, was thrilled with the response and the White House’s whining.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she thinks she struck a nerve with her new TV advertisement that accuses President Bush of ignoring certain Americans.
In the advertisement, Clinton says families without health care and single moms trying to find affordable child care are being treated as though they’re invisible to Bush — and so are soldiers who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Apparently, I’ve struck a nerve. The White House just attacked me a few minutes ago saying how dare I say that Americans weren’t visible to the president,” Clinton told a crowd of more than 800 in Dubuque today. “Not only have I said it, I’m saying it now and I will keep saying it because I happen to believe it.”
The campaign also quickly linked to the official transcript of Perino’s comments on its campaign site, with the headline, “White House Attacks Hillary’s New Ad.”
This not only helps draw more publicity for the ad, but more importantly, it sets up the dynamic the campaign loves: the Bush White House vs. Hillary Clinton. (Right now, every other Democratic candidate is wondering, “How do we get the White House to attack one of our ads?”)
The exact same thing happened a month ago when Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman blasted Clinton, giving her yet another opportunity to humiliate the Bush gang.
As Ana Marie Cox put it, “The White House calling out Hillary’s new ad as ‘outrageous’ and ‘audacious’ plays so exactly in Clinton’s hands that if I didn’t know better, I’d assume the 08 campaign Karl’s working on is hers.”