'I was tied up at the time' (0.00 / 0)

Hanoi Hilton inmantes for the truth?

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by: Valatan @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:20:42 PM UTC

Smart Ad (0.00 / 0)

Actually I think it's a very smart ad. If you want to attack a candidate, you attack their strength. Hillary's strongest support comes from un-educated women 60 and over. Those are the people of the right age and class to remember the culture wars and be swayed by this kind of an ad.

This ad is McCain's best move all election.

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by: D'arby Salt @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:25:24 PM UTC

smart for the GOP primary (0.00 / 0)

but I agree with Matt on this one--the Republicans will not do well if they appear to be stuck fighting the battles of the 1960s all over again. Hell, that didn't even work for Poppy against Bill Clinton, and the 60s were a more recent memory then.

Join the Iowa progressive community at Bleeding Heartland.

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by: desmoinesdem @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:29:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Bush v. Clinton (0.00 / 0)

It didn't work for G.H.W. Bush because his election was a lost cause. He dug his own grave with "Read my lips." Imagery from the late 60s is still a strong cultural signifier, among people old enough to have lived through it and people born 10 years later.

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by: D'arby Salt @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:36:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Agreed. Very smart move for the primary not so much for general (0.00 / 0)

Is McCain setting himself up to repeat the Kerry trick - frontrunner to dead-in-the-water to nominee? His poll numbers do seem to be on the rise. Anything is possible I guess because their field is so wide-open. Frankly, it isn't hard to make a reasonable case for McCain, Giuliani, Thompson, Romney or even Huckabee. I still think though that if Romney holds on in Iowa and NH it is gonna be tough to stop him thus he probably has the edge at the moment but it is tenuous at best.

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by: conspiracy @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:40:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

What's 40 years? (4.00 / 1)

As I read many of the posts and diaries on this and other sites, the history is relatively current, or some would suggest that the historical context should be more prominent.

While this ad, and McCain's comments during the debate, present a limited and derrogatory view of the "1960s", the historical context is relevant and still drives some aspects of US politics today - especially as defined by the Republican "back-lash" to the social and political reforms psoduced in that era.  This ad has the added plus of, indirectly, pointing to Bill Clinton's "I didn't inhale" issue, which always plays well for the GOP base.

Of course, the unsaid part is important too - McCain's experience during the Viet Nam war era are not only diametrically opposed to those of the Clintons, but those of GWB and Cheney, as well.

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

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by: SpitBall @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:51:39 PM UTC

The One Point (4.00 / 1)

everyone is missing here is the One Million Dollars for a museum TODAY.

In a time of pork, pay-go, proposed budget cuts, and trying to squeeze every deserved dollar out for S-Chip the timing for a pork project cultural museum was ill thought out IMO. Granted one million is not a lot relatively speaking but for Clinton to do this now in the middle of a Presidential race was not the smartest move she has made. She obviously left her jaw out there to be hit and McCain seized on the opportunity.

Again, McCains main point was the one million today. The jokes about drugs and being 'tied-up' was just humor built around the main point which in a advertising sense is a good move. Humor around the selling point is evident in most commercial ads we see today because it is effective.

From the links provided:

Arizona Senator makes the case against Hillary Clinton bigtime. This thirty second clip sums up her big-spending habits in a fashion that anybody can understand and grasp- in a such a way that can't be denied.

So yeah there is some minor culture war here but the main point being made by McCain and the links provided is Big Spending.

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by: progressivesouls @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 16:17:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Not Hip Enough (0.00 / 0)

A million dollars for a Woodstock museum *is* actually pretty stupid.

So, the content of the ad is right on. You can pick on the style of the ad all you want --- saying it's out of touch with the younger voter. But the younger voter is just a small portion of the population. The style of the ad is in fact *in* touch with a lot of people. Some old fart's vote counts just as much as one of ours. Decrying the ad because it fails to appeal to today's hipster is nothing but hipster hubris.

It is in fact a very good ad, which make a very good point.

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by: D'arby Salt @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 16:49:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

True enough (0.00 / 0)

if the museum is pork, then its pork - but I don't know enough about the details of the project to conclude that it is so.

Yet, strange as it may seem - some folks might actually think that a memorial, or museum dedicated to the Woodstock Music Festival is a right and proper use of federal tax dollars.

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

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by: SpitBall @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 17:59:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

she is long established gop punching bag (0.00 / 0)

If she is the dem nominee they will laugh at her, demean her, and bully her for nine long months.  this is just the beginning. they are just warming up.

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by: aiko @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 16:56:02 PM UTC

Backwards (0.00 / 0)

I just realized something. The ad does not make McCain look out of touch. It makes Hillary look out of touch. Hillary is in fact the one who voted for the pork bill on the blast-from-the-past Woodstock museum. McCain is using 60s imagery to make Hillary appear like a 60s relic.

I'm sorry, but I think you're totally backwards on this ad. It works.

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by: D'arby Salt @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 16:57:43 PM UTC

I was tied up... (0.00 / 0)

...elect me president. Yeah, right.

I have a feeling that Americans don't think so highly of vietnam vets. The most common portrayal of the vietnam vet in popular culture is a crazy, irrational person (Rambo for one) or someone who is shell shocked and unable to adjust to normal life. I think this ad hurts McCain and makes him look crazy and irrelevant. "I was tied up at the time." It may have been the line of the debate but it doesn't help McCain any. (That says a lot about the current slate of candidates.) You don't want to enforce the idea that you've been psychologically damaged in some way.

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by: Paul Blumenthal @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 17:12:45 PM UTC

Ooops! Wrong '60s! (0.00 / 0)

I think what most commentators here are missing is that they're talking about the wrong '60s.

Sure, the visuals are all about the 1960s, but the underlying issues are all about the 1860s.  And if you don't believe me, well, check out Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, by Barbara Goldsmith.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 18:49:10 PM UTC