Dems Play M-Card on McCain

Leading Democrats have been slamming the McCain campaign for quoting their dated praise of the GOP nominee in a web ad, and now the DNC has managed to churn out its own web ad rebuttal in the same day’s news cycle. 

The spot continues the summer clash over the m-word, with McCain asserting his maverick credentials while Democrats protest he has sold out.  The new video, "Maverick No More," turns to the same Democrats quoted by the McCain campaign — only this time they discuss his reversals:

"You know, the John McCain of 2000 wouldn’t’ vote for this John McCain."

-DNC Chair Howard Dean

 

"He’s changed a lot since 2001."

-Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

 

"John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting. He is not the John McCain as a senator, who defined himself quote as a ‘maverick’ though questionable. This is a different John McCain."

-Sen. John Kerry, Mass.

The video also includes a tepid quote from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who roiled Democrats this week by talking up her plans for a convention in an alternate universe. She is still campaigning for Obama, however, on Friday at a noon rally in Henderson, Nev. So that’s an opportunity for her to rebut McCain’s ad — and put her past praise for the GOP nominee in some kind of context.

 PRODUCTION NOTES: This ad is more of a duplicate than a parody. It deploys the same text presentation, rock guitar riffs and "characters" as the GOP ad, but with a different script. The DNC not only ripped off the RNC’s style, it is mooching off its web traffic, by posting the video as a linked "response" to the original ad. That may work for everyone in the end, since the response feature posts a prominent link under the video, right back to the GOP ad.