{"id":14750,"date":"2008-03-01T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2008-03-01T17:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14750.html"},"modified":"2008-03-01T12:00:29","modified_gmt":"2008-03-01T17:00:29","slug":"obama-responds-with-his-own-3-am-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/obama-responds-with-his-own-3-am-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama responds with his own ‘3 a.m.’ ad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given all the attention<\/a> given to the Clinton’s campaign’s phone-rings-at-3-a.m. ad yesterday, I thought it only fair to take a closer look at the Obama’s campaign’s very quick response.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t watch videos online, the beginning of the clip isn’t just similar to the Clinton ad; it’s identical, showing the same house, with the same sleeping children in the same bed. When the White House phone is ringing at 3 a.m., it’s the same ring in both ads.<\/p>\n

The script, however, delivers a different message: “It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone ringing in the White House. Something’s happening in the world. When that call gets answered, shouldn’t the president be the one — the only<\/i> one — who had judgment and courage to oppose the Iraq war from the start? Who understood the REAL threat to America was al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan, not Iraq? Who led the effort to secure loose nuclear weapons around the globe? In a dangerous world, it’s judgment that matters.”<\/p>\n

It brings the debate full circle — we’re right back to where we were last summer. Clinton believes she’s best able to handle a crisis because she’s spent more time on the national stage. Obama believes he’s best able to handle a crisis because he has superior judgment, as evidenced by his consistent opposition to the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The difference is, now, Obama’s message seems geared to challenge both Clinton and<\/i> John McCain.
\n
\nBen Smith and Beth Frerking had a good item<\/a> about all of this.<\/p>\n

Obama’s response, though, was adapted to both Clinton and McCain. <\/p>\n

“It won’t work this time,” he said of the ringing phone. “Because the question is not about picking up the phone. The question is: What kind of judgment will you make when you answer? <\/p>\n

“We’ve had a red phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. And Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer. George Bush gave the wrong answer. John McCain gave the wrong answer.” <\/p>\n

Obama signaled that he will use as his trump card in the general election the same moment that has been his fallback argument, time and again, against Clinton’s claims of experience: the decision to invade Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When push comes to shove, it’s still a compelling message, no matter which opponent Obama is talking about. When the proverbial “red phone” rings, do people want someone who got the big question wrong to be picking up the phone, confronted with a question that requires sound judgment? It’s Obama’s strongest card, and it’s smart to play it as often as necessary. (He also played this one awfully quickly — it was only a couple of hours between Clinton’s ad being unveiled and Obama’s similar response ad.)<\/p>\n

Rick Wilson, a Republican media consultant, sounded a little cocky when it comes to a general-election match-up.<\/p>\n

“If Barack Obama gets in a scrap with John McCain over national security credentials, he might as well pack up and go home, because John McCain cannot be beat on that front by a guy who never served in the military, who has no experience or background or basis of understanding of national security matters,” said Wilson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think this is fundamentally wrong, and I’m optimistic the Obama campaign does, too. McCain can absolutely “be beat” on national security — rather easily, in fact — given that he consistently demonstrated that he’s confused and misguided<\/a> on the key questions.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, Obama isn’t willing to give an inch of ground on this issue. It’s encouraging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given all the attention given to the Clinton’s campaign’s phone-rings-at-3-a.m. ad yesterday, I thought it only fair to take a closer look at the Obama’s campaign’s very quick response. If you can\u2019t watch videos online, the beginning of the clip isn’t just similar to the Clinton ad; it’s identical, showing the same house, with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}