{"id":15221,"date":"2008-04-15T14:35:14","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T18:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15221.html"},"modified":"2008-04-15T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2008-04-15T18:35:14","slug":"progressive-media-usa-hits-mccain-with-out-of-touch-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/progressive-media-usa-hits-mccain-with-out-of-touch-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressive Media USA hits McCain with ‘Out of Touch’ ad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on an item<\/a> from last week, independent efforts to help “define” John McCain while the Democratic nominating race continues got off to a very rough start<\/a>, in large part because Democratic investors have been focused more on the Democratic primary than their Republican opponent.<\/p>\n

Progressive Media USA, however, stepped up to pick up the slack. The project, led by Media Matters’ David Brock, is poised<\/a> to be “the main vehicle for independent Democratic attacks on McCain.”<\/p>\n

The group’s first ad was unveiled late yesterday. It’s called “Out of Touch.”<\/p>\n

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

The spot features McCain and Bush talking about the same issues, using the same language. The ad will reportedly begin running on CNN and MSNBC<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

There’s some difference of opinion on the ad, but I think it works just fine.
\n
\nYglesias noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

When you think about how potentially damaging something as basic as “John McCain agrees with George W. Bush about important issues” could be as an attack, it’s a stark reminder of how bad the fundamentals are for the Republicans. I would, however, somewhat prefer to see early attacks focus on McCain’s disastrous thinking on national security issues — the economy argument is very easy to make, so it’s more important to get started on the more difficult task of making the case that for all the honor of McCain’s military service, it’s left him with a reckless and absurd strategic vision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t disagree with any of this, but for an initial ad run, I like the idea of keeping the message nice and simple: McCain = Bush. If you want four more years like the last eight, have we got a candidate for you.<\/p>\n

Once that’s established, everything else can be worked into this framework, especially McCain’s “disastrous thinking on national security issues.” But that’s the beauty of the message. On Iraq, McCain = Bush. On economic policy, McCain = Bush. On healthcare, McCain = Bush. And so on.<\/p>\n

I’ve been feeling pretty discouraged about the presidential race lately, but I feel like the saving grace for Dems may very well be that very few Americans want to keep the country moving in the direction it’s currently headed, and on practically every issue that matters, McCain is running on a four-more-years platform. It’s not rocket science.<\/p>\n

The drive to define presidential candidates should always be really simple. Kerry? Flip-flopper. Obama? Elitist. Gore? Exaggerator. <\/p>\n

McCain? Bush.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on an item from last week, independent efforts to help “define” John McCain while the Democratic nominating race continues got off to a very rough start, in large part because Democratic investors have been focused more on the Democratic primary than their Republican opponent. Progressive Media USA, however, stepped up to pick up […]<\/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-15221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15221","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=15221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}