The Obama campaign released a new, national cable ad on Saturday responding to John McCain's decision to tap Sarah Palin as his running mate. The message could not be clearer: Forget McCain/Palin, this ticket is all about McCain/Bush.
The negative ad comes just after Obama and Biden congratulated Palin's progress, though not her positions, touting her on Friday as a "compelling new voice" whose assent marked an "encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics." Picking up where that praise left off, the ad says McCain offers no change, given his economic policies and support for Bush. "He's made his choice," the narrator sighs, "but for the rest of us, there's still no change." The Obama camp is right to commend the Palin pick for breaking barriers -- I had a similar reaction on Friday -- and immediately return to savaging McCain for his elitist economic agenda and stubborn support for the failed Bush policies of the past.
The ad is below, followed by video of Obama speaking about Palin, and then a clip of an MSNBC debate I did from the Democratic convention. The debate focsed on McCain's outreach to Clinton supporters and the prospect of putting a women on his ticket.
Ari Melber
The Obama campaign released a new, national cable ad on Saturday responding to John McCain’s decision to tap Sarah Palin as his running mate. The message could not be clearer: Forget McCain/Palin, this ticket is all about McCain/Bush.
The negative ad comes just after Obama and Biden congratulated Palin’s progress, though not her positions, touting her on Friday as a "compelling new voice" whose assent marked an "encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics." Picking up where that praise left off, the ad says McCain offers no change, given his economic policies and support for Bush. "He’s made his choice," the narrator sighs, "but for the rest of us, there’s still no change." The Obama camp is right to commend the Palin pick for breaking barriers — I had a similar reaction on Friday — and immediately return to savaging McCain for his elitist economic agenda and stubborn support for the failed Bush policies of the past.
The ad is below, followed by video of Obama speaking about Palin, and then a clip of an MSNBC debate I did from the Democratic convention. The debate focsed on McCain’s outreach to Clinton supporters and the prospect of putting a women on his ticket.
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Update 2: Obama, flanked by Biden, speaks out on the Palin Pick:
Update 1: Politico’s Mike Allen says the "biggest risk" in Palin is that voters must embrace McCain’s humorous side:
Democrats are now the ticket of experience – 40 years in Washington vs. 36 years for the Republicans. Senator McCain is asking voters to assume he was just kidding about a basic premise of his campaign, both in the primaries and the general — that national-security experience matters when the country is at war.
Ari MelberTwitterAri Melber is The Nation's Net movement correspondent, covering politics, law, public policy and new media, and a regular contributor to the magazine's blog. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. Contact Ari: on Facebook, on Twitter, and at amelber@hotmail.com. Melber is also an attorney, a columnist for Politico and a contributing editor at techPresident, a nonpartisan website covering technology’s impact on democracy. During the 2008 general election, he traveled with the Obama Campaign on special assignment for The Washington Independent. He previously served as a Legislative Aide in the US Senate and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign. As a commentator on public affairs, Melber frequently speaks on national television and radio, including including appearances on NBC, CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, FOX News, and NPR, on programs such as “The Today Show,” “American Morning,” “Washington Journal,” “Power Lunch,” "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," "The Joy Behar Show," “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” and “The Daily Rundown,” among others. Melber has also been a featured speaker at Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Columbia, NYU, The Center for American Progress and many other institutions. He has contributed chapters or essays to the books “America Now,” (St. Martins, 2009), “At Issue: Affirmative Action,” (Cengage, 2009), and “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country,” (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004). His reporting has been cited by a wide range of news organizations, academic journals and nonfiction books, including the The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, FOX News, National Review Online, The New England Journal of Medicine and Boston University Law Review. He is a member of the American Constitution Society, he serves on the advisory board of the Roosevelt Institute and lives in Manhattan.