I thought the response was a good start to more ads to come.

Let's face facts: Obama has to be more careful about his reaction than other candidates would have to be.  I think the McCain campaign would like nothing better than to attack him as "angry" and start talking about Jeremiah Wright again.

The McCain camp would love to be able to convey "angry black man" by dogwhistle if Obama gives them an opening.  

I can't recall them in New Jersey ads, and our politicians believe in 99% negative ads.

Sure, the Republican in NJ3 is holding press conferences to rant at Blue Jersey, but I don't think it does him much good.

The campaign is a long roller coaster and if he starts with emotion now, where does he escalate to?

I thought the ad was masterful.  I agree with the above contributors, when they say that an "angry black man" meme is exactly what Obama wants to avoid.

Let his surrogates (and so far it's been a lot of republicans expressing disapproval of McCains crap) blow off the steam.

It's perfect, IMO.

I say, let the 537's respond with emotion. I saw an ad today by a Vet group that had a young vet saying "Mr. McCain.. you should know better" - regarding caring for troops. I thought that was effective.

I liked the word OLD in big bold letters right in the center.
If you read the screen straight down, you see John McCain, OLD, FAILED.

Visuals are important in places where TV screens are displayed with no volume.

John McCain:  How old is too old?

McCain is really vulnerable to the OLD

This was good.

But maybe even better were Obama's remarks today. Here's the link, but if anyone wants to embed it, please do. http://thepage.time.com/obama-responds-t o-mccain-ad/

When you are in the lead you don't give attention to every temper tantrum done by the McCain campaign.  He has seriously damaged his reputation by frothing at the mouth and John Weaver himself clowned the man.

Obama is conducting a strict discipline shown in the primaries.  When Clinton was doing the same thing he stepped back, assessed the situation and went for the jugular.  

All I have to say it is an excellent response ad.

I see it. Perhaps we see or overlook what we want to.

You'll see passion aplenty- on a certain Thursday night in Denver at Invesco field.  He is just laying groundwork.

I don't like mentioning the rebate first.

Sounds like pandering.

They should mention that at the end of his plans instead of the first thing.

I'm not finished reading it yet, but George Lakoff's POLITICAL MIND is a fantastic book about precisely this subject.

If you don't have time to read it, I'll give you the Cliff's NotesTM version:

1)Voters do not act purely according to Enlightenment principles of reason and rationality.  Our decision making process is rooted in emotion and those emotions are activated by framing devices.  For example "troop surge" and "escalation" both have the same factual meaning but the words give two different emotional responses.

2)Almost all people operate with two different and sometimes contradictory systems of morals.  One he calls "Strict Father."  The other he calls "Caring Parent."  

Strict Fathers know what's best for their children in a dangerous world with good and evil.  In the Strict Father world view obedience=morality, discipline=morality, strength=morality.  We must be disciplined, strong, and obedient (to GW Bush who is the Strict Father) if we are to overcome evil (terrorists).

Caring Parents are empathetic and responsible to all the family.  Its about realizing your part in a larger whole so empathy=morality, responsibility=morality.  

3)Conservatives activate the Strict Father set of morals by using frames that clue us into emotions of obedience and fear.

4)Progressives activate the Caring Parent set of morals by using frames that clue us into emotions of empathy and understanding.

5)Currently, progressives don't successfully activate the Caring Parent frames because they don't want to believe that people make decisions based on emotions.  Consequently the facts they put into their advertising fall on deaf ears.

This ad is case-in-point for Mr. Lakoff.  Missing the emotional framing that McCain just successfully pinned on Obama (that Obama is presumptuous=undisciplined AND disobedient), they simply give a list of facts.

The real question is (and I hope Lakoff touches on this later) what to do when you find yourself in such a predicament as Obama has?  Other commenters are absolutely correct that Obama cannot get angry (thus pushing another as-yet unsuccessful frame of angry black=terrorist=fear).  So what do you say?  

Generically speaking, Lakoff is clear that Empathy almost always trumps fear as an emotional trigger (Hurricane Katrina is a good example of that).  So how to get empathy out of a situation like this one?  I don't think counter-attacks will work either.  It's got to appeal to people's sense of responsibility.

I'm not smart enough to answer these questions, so hopefully other commenters will.

READ LAKOFF'S BOOK. That goes for the Obama team too!

indignation, maybe righteous indignation

Also, I want to see Obama and his campaign strike back at Mcsame using the same tactics:define McSame with his questionable ethics, his temper, his many recent gaffes....personally characterize McSame...when Democrats try to "stay above the sordidness" it only re-inforces the meme that the GOP has worked mighty hard to cement in people's brains:that Democrats are wimps.

Have we learned nothing since 1980?

One more thing I saw on one of the MSNBC shows tonight--I think K.O.

They talked about Leslie Stahl doing a negative story about Reagan, and Reagan's PR wizard Mike Deaver calling the next day and saying "Thanks for running those great photos of Reagan on the stump" or some such.

I'm betting most people see McCain's ad making fun of Obama in Germany and think: "Wow. Look at those crowds. A lot of people really like Obama, don't they?"

he's been at his best in the primary when, yes, he's spoken beautiful words, but when he spoke them with strong impassioned conviction. Where has that Obama gone?

That Obama was giving this speech today in Missouri (especially start watching around 17:50 in the video):

If you just go look at the words being printed on TalkLeft you will see that most of the posters there are saying the same and worse about Obama.

McCain doesn't need to do anything as long as sites like that are around.

If we learned nothing else in 2004, we should have learned that no attack is so beneath contempt as to be unworthy of response.  For one thing, pretending you're not aware of your opponent's scurrilous attacks is a good way to appear 'out of touch'.  But reacting with indignation, even when indignation is fully justified, lends credibility to the attacks -- at least in the minds of 'low-information' voters.

So I say that Obama's best response is to LAUGH at McCain's desperation.  Stay cool, don't overdo it, but laugh.  Ask the voters, with a bemused chuckle, "Can you believe John McCain really expects you to fall for this crap?"  Doubtless Obama can say that more eloquently than I have, but that's the right message to convey.

Naturally, there are people who WILL fall for that crap, because they're predisposed to.  Those people will feel that Obama is laughing at THEM.  But Obama is never going to win the Stupid Vote, so he should not try.  He will do much better by inviting not-Stupid voters to improve their self-esteem by laugh down their nose at McCain and McCain's target audience.

-- TP

You want to pace your emotion and save it for the full bore campaign season.. which this is not. Post conventions I expect there to be a lot more heat. That will be the time of test. Right now is the skirmishes, setting out the playing field and probing the defenses. Granted, up 7 points right now is good, too much too often and too soon can diminish the effectiveness of strong emotional displays and chip into that number. We have three months, if everything stays static Obama wins so no need for the fiery displays yet. McCain has to work 2x as hard right now as he is significantly behind early and this is not multiple votes like the primary, no time for a second chance like Iowa and then NH.

I think the Obama response pattern speaks directly to the the basis of his campaign. Hope. Hope is not angry. Hope does not engage in pettiness. Unfortunately for some though, hope is not visceral or immediate. It is not the emotional counter-point to fear. Hope does not in any way operate like fear. Conceptually, it operates on a completely different plane. Therefore, we as progressives are charged with tamping down our anger at all that has happened since the Reagan administration, and begin to acclimate ourselves to seize the moment with happiness, but also with an understanding that we cannot defeat our idealogical opponents with their own weapons. As Obama is showing, it is beneath us. In many ways, we must learn to resonate with optimism to the point that we explode the tactics of the regressives. Like Neo in the MATRIX. Hokey, but effective.