Obama Ad Accuses McCain of Taking the Low Road

Last updated on August 11th, 2014 at 12:04 am

In this age of immediate response politics it did not take long for the Obama campaign to put out a response to the attack ad earlier today by the McCain campaign. Obama’s ad accuses McCain of practicing the same old politics. Plus a former McCain advisor calls the Republican’s ad, “childish.”

Here is the McCain ad:

Here is Obama’s response:

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Former McCain aide John Weaver called McCain’s ad childish, and said that these ads need to stop. “John’s been a celebrity ever since he was shot down,” Weaver said. “Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags. For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness. There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn’t at Obama’s. For McCain’s sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop.”

I think Weaver is right. John McCain has made the classic candidate mistake. His lust for the presidency is so great that he has changed who he was. McCain has turned himself into a generic neo-con which makes him easy pickings for Obama. By going negative, the McCain campaign allowed Obama to label him politics as usual and return to their strong themes of change and a new kind of politics.

If McCain was going negative in October it would make sense, but why waste the money in July? My guess is that McCain people think that they have to slow down Obama now before he gets on a roll, and blows them out in the fall. As we have seen today, Obama has the superior organization and resources. They can quickly counter any negative attack from McCain. They may want to play dirty with Obama, but they do, they are playing right into Obama’s hands.