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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 17 > Entry
Eye On Ohio: “Disrespectful” ad for McCain
By Jonathan Riskind
The Columbus Dispatch
Producer: McCain campaign.
Where to see it: It’s airing in battleground states, including Ohio. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: Narrator: He was the world’s biggest celebrity, but his star’s fading. So they lashed out at Sarah Palin. Dismissed her as “good-looking.” That backfired, so they said she was doing, “what she was told.” Then desperately called Sarah Palin a liar. How disrespectful. And how Governor Sarah Palin proves them wrong, every day. McCain: I’m John McCain, and I approved this message.
Video: The spot begins with black-and-white shots of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, including in front of a podium with flashbulbs going off behind him, a not-so-flattering photo of Obama and running mate Joe Biden and shots of Obama with words such as “disrespectful” also on the screen. It ends with color footage of GOP nominee John McCain standing behind running mate Palin at a rally. The narrator is a woman.
Analysis: This is partly an attempt by the McCain campaign to keep the fires burning among the GOP’s conservative base, whose enthusiasm was stoked by the naming of Palin, the governor from Alaska, as McCain’s running mate. The ad also appears to be an effort to attract independent and conservative Democratic female voters by charging that Obama and Biden are being “disrespectful” of Palin and sparking the anger of female voters.
The allegation about dismissing Palin as “good-looking” is a reference to a comment Biden, not Obama, made in jest while poking fun at himself, not Palin. The nonpartisan Factcheck.org concluded: “Our ears don’t hear Biden’s ‘good-looking’ comment as dismissive. To the contrary, it’s clearly a self-deprecating remark made in joking about himself and his looks. And by the way, the ad shows a picture of Obama next to the ‘good-looking’ quote, but it was Biden, not Obama, who said that.”
The part about doing “what she was told?” Likewise, the true context was not uttered in a condescending manner. It involved a comment by Obama adviser David Axelrod responding to Palin’s speech at the Republican National Committee and charging that Palin’s criticism of some of Obama’s policies were off base.
As quoted by Politico, and recounted by Factcheck.org, Axelrod said it this way: “She tried to attack Obama by saying he had no significant legislative accomplishments — maybe that’s what she was told — but she should talk to Sen. Lugar, talk to Sen. Coburn, talk to people across the aisle in Illinois, where he passed dozens of major laws to expand health care, reform welfare, reduce taxes on working families.”
You could take that as a bit of an insult to be sure, suggesting that Palin should have done her own research, but its meaning and intent was not as suggested in this ad.
The charge that Obama called Palin a liar refers to an Obama campaign ad charging that Palin initially supported the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark when she had taken credit for being against it and being responsible for killing it. The evidence supports the contention that Palin was for the earmark initially, and that it was effectively dead by the time Palin moved to formally kill it off.
Jonathan Riskind writes for The Columbus Dispatch. E-mail: jriskind@dispatch.com.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Eye on Ohio
Comments
By Vermonter
September 17, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this
what is going on here? How can they get away with clear lies about the democratic ticket. Anyone who says this is OK is full of crap. Go Obama!By Ohio voter
September 17, 2008 3:22 PM | Link to this
McCain’s ads against Obama have been much more “disrespectful” than any of Obama’s ads. They’re getting desperate!