There's a lot of hand-wringing on the tubes today about Hillary Clinton's latest ad that asks voters who they trust to answer the "phone in the White House" when it rings at 3 AM.
Does it play to people's fears? Of course. Is it a last ditch act of desperation? Probably. Will it work? Probably not. Look, the fact is this ad merely brings to the surface what has been the subtext of Clinton's "ready on day one" argument from, well, day one. It isn't working not because voters don't hear the argument, it's not working because any fears people have about Obama as commander in chief he has apparently assuaged. So I don't think this ad does much of anything for Hillary Clinton, other than confirm the left's worst assumptions about her.
What this ad does do though is give Barack Obama the opportunity to show how deft he is at hitting back against this sort of campaign tactic, which no doubt John McCain intends to use this year no matter who the nominee is. I'm actually glad we're seeing this argument play out now, maybe we'll be spared it later on once it is proven to be ineffective as I expect it will. Barack Obama likes to say "I look forward to having that argument." Now we get to see what he means.
First, he responded in his usual "you're sort of right but let me tell you why actually you're wrong" way:
I do want to take a moment to respond, because the press is, I'm sure, curious, to an ad that Senator Clinton is apparently running today. It asks a legitimate question. It says, who do you want answering the phone in the White House when it's 3:00 a.m. and something has happened in the world. It's a legitimate question. And we've seen these ads before. They're usually the kind that play upon people's fears and try to scare up votes. [...]I don't think these ads will work this time because the question is not about picking up the phone. The question is, what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone. In fact, we have had a red phone moment; it was the decision to invade Iraq. [...]
I will never see the threat of terrorism as a way to scare up votes, because it's a threat that should rally the country around our common enemies. That is the judgment we need at 3:00 a.m., and that's the judgment that I am running for as president of the United States of America.
Next, the campaign released its own response ad that both parodies Hillary's ad and communicates in a compelling way Obama's central message about his foreign policy asset: it's about judgment, stupid.
So in the end, all Clinton's ad really accomplished was to give Obama the opportunity both to show what an agile campaigner he is, but also to make the case that judgment is what's really important when dealing with global threats, allowing him to hit back against not only Clinton but McCain as well. And I have to say, Obama scored on both counts. Seems to me the Obama campaign should be sending Hillary Clinton a thank you note right about now.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 180 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
