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Posted Monday, August 11, 2008 5:02 PM

Haiku'd! The Latest Ads from Obama and McCain.

Andrew Romano

As we've said before (more than once, in fact), Stumper knows how painful political ads can be--even if they're only 30 seconds long. Today, we make haiku of the latest releases from Barack Obama and John McCain. First up is the newest--and most effusive--spot in McCain's two-week-old "Barack Spears" series, followed by the Democrat's belated response. Find out what the candidates are actually trying to tell you--without suffering through their cheesy commercials: 

"Fan Club" by John McCain 
Web Ad, Aug. 11, 2008



"Hot chicks dig" Barack--
Hot WHITE chicks. Not frightened yet?
He'll raise your taxes!*

Advertisement

P.S. Oh, and about that "tax increase on everyone earning more than $42,000 a year"? Not quite true. According to FactCheck.org, "Obama's plan promises cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates only for persons with family incomes above $250,000 or with individual incomes above $200,000."

"Celebrity" by Barack Obama
National Cable, Aug. 11 2008  


"Same." "Old." "Washington."
Same as Dubya--but older
By "decades." Like Washington.

A few points of interest, while we have your attention: 1) Some pundits say that Obama waited too long--two weeks--to bite back on the "celebrity" front. But we think his timing was savvy. At this point, the "McCain takes the low road" meme is firmly fixed in voters' minds--which allows Obama to attack without damaging his "high road" brand. 2) The Obama spot will run only on national cable, which means, as the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder notes, "that for the most part it's intended to make an imprint in the minds of political elites." Another smart move: no need to go fully national, because with Obama away on vacation, Chris Matthews and Co. will lavish the ad with plenty of free coverage. Cable abhors a vacuum. And 3) according to the Politico's Ben Smith, "a cynic might see [Fan Club] as a bit of Putinesque skirmishing on the border of race designed to provoke the other side into a broader war." Call us cynical.
 

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Member Comments

Posted By: Rogerniko (August 14, 2008 at 11:37 AM)

I think people need to get there heads out of hateland, I mean what experience does  one need?  I mean you would think Obama once Presdent would actually be making all the decisons without consulting experts and all!!

For crying out aloud, even the dumbest person knows that a politician cannot make decisions without consulting technocrats of the relevant departments and consulting with his thinktanks to come up with solutions to a problem...

So thee naysayers are you sure it is not just because he is HALF BLACK that all the mud is being slung.  Wake up America and smell the coffee!!  The things and drivel that I read makes me sick to my stomach....."hes the son of a Muslim father who served an incredibly brutal and corrupt Kenyan government".....If you do not have your facts right please do not post things that actually expose your ignorance.

You must be getting some of those misguided McSame half-truths that make no sense...so can you imagine electing someone who will soon go senile on the JOB...Look at how B.Clinton Aged so fast after the 8 Years in office do you think it is easy being a president?

There comes a time in life that people like Obama are raised into a society to correct a wrong and this is exactly what America is going through right now, a time that the next president will bring healing and hramony to a nation that is at crossroads! It is upto you Americans to determine that.  And thats why GOD(Jehovah, Allah) has brought you a leader who though "Islam Born" and as most would want to have people believe that Islam is an orge!! He is also a Christian and a practising one to BOOT!!

he is Half -n-half and the other half from the original land where all these brothers and sisters were cruelly grabbed and taken to places unknown....lest some say he is just another one of those African-American's with a monkey on their shoulder...See how God can confound you!!

Guess what! This is what makes people angry, because he has excelled where most have not, even though they went to Harvard!!  I mean give  the guy a break and see what he can do if in four years you think he has done a lousy job then for christsake vote in another white president then you wont worry and think they have no experience!!

Bush sent you to war, McSame is drooling to attack Iran...cant we just leave together and not allow oil interests to cloud our judegement...How many of you have been outside of America!!!  You would certainly have a totally different perspective of yourself...and your country!!

My advise to any American young person...JOIN THE NAVY AND SEE THE WORLD for Free!!!


Posted By: josh62 (August 12, 2008 at 8:17 AM)

Obama is an empty suit. From the day he was sworn in to the Senate to the date he declared his run for the presidency, is only 145 days on the job. He has literally no experience. (Not figuratively, literally!) He's not qualified to run a Dairy Queen.

Proven Obama has most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate. Obama is to the left of Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold, Pat Leahy and Barbara Boxer. That's extremely difficult to do. Obama is a textbook big-government, tax-and-spend liberal. He plans to raise income tax rates, capital gains tax rates, Social Security taxes (by virtue of eliminating the cap), dividend taxes, inheritance taxes, and introduce a slew of new taxes. His plan will destroy this country

To ALL the obamakins and of course the bias CNN & MSNBC I have one simple request. Please spare me the hope and the change bull, and the Bush's third term,  McSame etc… Please just tell American voters what qualifies Barack Obama to run this country. What qualifies him to oversee our $14 trillion economy, the largest on earth? What qualifies him to be commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces in a time of war? Please just give me one single solid qualification. And race does not qualify!! That would be one more than anyone including cable media has provided to date. WE ALL HAVE GROWN EXTREMLY TIRED OF MEDIA SAINTED OBAMA….

Obama keeps reaching back to Chicago political past for policy advisers, and pulling one despicable, vile, and even evil “rabbit” after another out of his hat.

The list of Barack Obama’s radical associations is long and it keeps getting longer. Some are now well-known, but many are not. They need to be.

23 years at TUCC with Jeremiah Wright and James Meeks. racist sermons on Youtube.

He chose the most radical church in the country; chose to immerse himself in hard-core ideological radicalism. Never before has this country considered such a radical leftist for its chief executive.

Michael Pfleger and his hateful and race-hating ramblings, Obama met while carrying out his own radical social activism as community organizer at ACORN, (radical organization)

Penny Pritzker, heads Obama camp National Finance Committee was president of Superior Bank - massively failed and she literally bought her way out of jail paying $460 MILLION fine; was the very epicenter of subprime loan scandal” that would come to eat this nation’s financial system alive.

Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, former head of Obama’s vice presidential selection committee, discovered he benefited from sweetheart loans from subprime king Countrywide.

Tony Rezko certainly and his federal indictments and financial dealing with Obamas of course and William Ayers, US terrorist bomber, Obama-co-lecturer, fellow board member, neighbor, and friend.

Communist Frank Marshall Davis,  obama mentor; Saul Alinsky and Gerald Kellman (Kellman’s Woods Fund is how Obama hooked up with terrorist William Ayers)

Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi, appointed as Obama camp national coord for Muslim n affairs also stepped down after news about his stint on the fund’s board - which includes fundamentalist imam - prompting The Wall Street Journal inquiries about relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and his long personal relationship with Hamas Jamal Said.

Obama desperately needs voters to forget hes the son of a Muslim father who served an incredibly brutal and corrupt Kenyan government; to forget he attended a madrassa in Indonesia and practiced Islam;  forget that he campaigned in Kenya on behalf of Raila Odinga, who relied upon chaos, corruption, and violence in his campaign; numerous associations with  radical Muslims; forget the photographs of Obama in traditional Muslim clothes, hanging with Muslim radicals such as Mazen Asbahi and anti-Semite Rashid Khalidi.

The mainstream media has frankly put the security of our great country at risk with an Obama coronation media like CNN & MSNBC is the only way Obama managed to steal the Dem nom. It’s extremely concerning that so many Americans could care less about who their candidate really is?? simply amazing and frankly scarey.


Posted By: katiekh (August 11, 2008 at 10:03 PM)

sorry, but mccain's ad speaks about a truth, and obama's response is just downright lame.  obama has very few years experience actually governing, and that's why the draw of hundreds of thousands of people to hear him speak hit people viscerally with the notion that he his only feeding them needed rhetoric -- just like a rock star would in their songs, say, like bono...  

and mccain is clearly not washington's biggest celeb, so Obama's ad really comes off sophomoric