Air War!

Update: Yep, this "McCain Bio" ad is running in Michigan, too...at first I wasn't sure if it was the same one...

"gag me with a red spoon"!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to go back and read this whole post, but a new ad has started in MI...

starts with pictures of the "Love Hippies" of the 60s and contrasts those pictures with McCain deciding to serve in Vietnam.

The underlying premise (IMHO) is that "Love Hippies" = Bad; McCain = Good.

"...hated it!"  *snap snap*

 

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

 Rove is a has-been hack. Everytime Rover chimes in with his so called analysis it makes me laugh! Them-there days of Rover is over. FINALLY!

Al, did I hear correctly?  McSame actually saying "Don't hope for a better life."

WOW!  What an empty hand he's holding.  I'm sorry he was shot down & tortured many years ago fighting a war my friends and I were actively protesting to end.  But what has that got to do with running for President in 2008?  If we go back to those days, I expect someone is going to bring up the Keating Five & the S&L crisis, and of course, that's all behind us.

sorry - didn't mean to add another post - clicked wrong button!

...say "Don't 'hope' for a better life, 'vote' for one..." in that ad I referenced above now playing in MI.

I look forward to seeing the one above.

MICHELLE's coming to Pontiac MI tomorrow! (Wednesday...)

 

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

"Don't hope for a better life."  It actually works.  Don't just hope - DO something.  That is, in fact what he is asking of people.

 

Just got the latest email stating that there will be Platform planning meetings in July with feedback sent up the line for finalizing the platform.  Wow.  He really means it (we already knew that) and this demonstrates that to people.  Maybe I'll host again.

Bush narrowly won IA and NM, so Obama's actually only advertising in three Kerry states (out of 18).

The last line from the newest McCain ad, by the way ("Don't hope for a better life; vote for one.") was lifted directly from an old ad for the British Conservative Party. Hillary would call it plagiarism.

And yes, it's fantastic that he's running it in Mississippi. That's like Obama having to run ads in Connecticut.

is getting double smacked. We get half of our broadcast television from the Minneapolis/St. Paul market and half from the western Wisconsin markets. I don't know how much McCain has spent in the region but I've seen a bunch paid for by the RNC. Obama's ads are better, of course I'm not predisposed to prefer them or anything, no, of couse not, open mind and all, yeah. :-)

lack of Obama's apparent lack of rebuttal of RW and media innuendos/smear against him.

So, my question to you is, is Obama ground game underway just below the radar of msm and the talking heads (just like in primaries). I would like to hear from the fieldhands how the ground game is in their states.

amk

I really doubt that Obama thinks he can win every one of those states. Instead, I think the ad buys are for three main reasons. The First is something Al alluded to. This will cause the McCain campaign to spend money where it would prefer not to. Cash on hand is not one of his camapigns strong suite right now. These ads allow him to define himself before the 527's get there. This was one of Kerry's big mistakes. But finally, and for me one of the most important reasons, his advertising in those states revitalizes the Democrats in those states who have always felt deserted by the national party. As they become more energetic they work harder to elect officials all the way down the line. In effect, Obama is saying I've got your back to the grassroot Dems in states where they have felt they had to go it all alone. This is a step up from Dean's strategy mainly because of the power of Obama. Oh, and I do believe he has a good shot in some of those states, particularly CO,FL, GA, MO, MT, NC, OH and VA and NH. Best guess is he wins 2/3 of them.

Correction now noted above.

Muthu - Some bloggers ought to worry more about what they do and say and the innuendo/rumor-mongering/Chicken-Little-ism they bolster with it. I don't worry about what they do (or what any campaign's strategists do). It's enough to keep track of the quality and accuracy of my own words.

Al - Not to nitpick, but there's another place in the article you'll need to change due to Emma's correction:

What's interesting is where the McCain campaign has chosen to run the ad. It's up in only four states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico. And now McCain has to play defense (and deplete scarce resources) in seven states won by Republican George W. Bush four years ago: Colorado, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Thanks for the frequent posting, by the way. Helps to keep focus on the important stuff!

glad to see this Al. so there was a post about a week ago in TPM arguing that McCain had made a huge ad buy in Missouri and that this explain his ticking up in the pollsthere. And some analysis by apaper that 'proved' that McCain was really buying mroe air time there.

I am all about hard data but the inferences made by the paper and TPM seemed wrong to me--all this chicken littling that the Obama camp is not ready for prime time.

So Al, and all, what gives here? Yes I would like Obama to do more to drive the media message and to do more jujitsu but all these articles saying that Obama is new but not improves (see NYT oped this weekend) and then that he is tailspin (Rich). My take--come on! No one is paying attention (except us few) at this point so why is the media, and the liberal blogs, clucking about this way?

And for those of you getting the adds (and getting back to that point made by TPM) is the number of ads about even or what?

But then we're all set :)

this made me smile:

"The point is this: For as long as Obama continues to inspire his million-and-a-half small donors to keep tossing a little coin into the cup, he'll continue to be able to play offense, putting the rival team on its heels and in a perpetual defensive posture. In sports as in politics, that's the mark of any coach's dream team game."

I wish Obama would do fewer big donor events. Is it just me or did these really pick up after Hillary introduced him to her big donors last month? I am in Atlanta, Georgia, where Obama hosted one last night. I don't like the idea of selling pictures with the candidate for $10,000 a pop. This goes into the category of same-old ways. Bleh.

What thrills me, however, is that Obama held a town-hall meeting this morning in COBB County, the heavily republican Atlanta suburb that produced Newt Gingrich. I second the opinion that holding events and advertising in places that have been republican strongholds offers support for the downticket dems and voters who consider themselves blue dots in a sea of red.  It does wonders for morale, in a way that early primaries have done. And making us feel connected instead of isolated helps the entire campaign.

sorry for all the typos and lack of spaces between words. I am sure (hope) you all got the point though.

Since Obama opted out of public financing, he depends entirely on what he can raise through his own campaign. That's why he has to push hard for every dollar he can get. Also, he's doing joint fundraising with the DNC - which badly needs the money. That is part of his responsibility as de facto leader of the party, and most of the money at these events is actually going to the DNC.

Emma, Jason - Thanks again. We fast-on-the-draw types are grateful for readers that moonlight as editors!

I also just read on Halperin's page that there are 500,000, yes 500,000, more registered Dems than Republicans in the state of Nevada. Looks like the voter drives are working.

And now with Barack opening up the Dem Party platform to everyone for input (email went out this morning) and word out that infighting has started within McCain's campaign (Front page Huffingtonpost). This is starting to seem more and more like the Primary war everyday. Seriously, this team continues to blow me away and if you haven't read the new Rolling Stone article about Barack Obama's team of people, you should. It's an incredible indepth look into who's doing what and how everyone is working together without ego for one purpose-to get Barack elected.

How exciting! Thanks for the post, Al.

Agoram/Muthu, over a week ago two paid staffers set up shop in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Granted, Vigo county is something of a bellweather county, being traditionally Democratic but now more of a swing county, but two paid staffers organizing in this one county out of Indiana's 92 counties 5 months from the election suggests that one hell of a ground game has taken the field!  We have an established and substantial volunteer base from the primary and if we can bring the Clinton folks fully on board, the ground game here in this one mostly rural county will be extremely daunting. Add to this the voter registration that has gone on here through the primary and up to last weekend... Something special is happening.  

On another note, @Helen Pope, I am tired of Obama supporters embracing unilateral disarmament where money is concerned.  That Obama does "big donor" events to raise money largely for the DNC is hardly a betrayal of the vast small donor base.  I cannot give $2300.  If my neighbor is willing to donate $2300 for a photograph, more power to her. Welcome to the team. And this was key in canvassing for Obama during our primary--the number of wealthy Dems canvassing door to door in poor neighborhoods--and vice versa was very impressive.  We are all in this together. 

You said "if we can bring the Clinton supporters on board."  Are you aware of examples?

 

Also regarding donors, I see a pretty substantial backlash on Kos regarding his not contributing his money to the effort while others who are much less able to afford it give whatever they can.  Eyes on the Prize.

Al, Democracy Now! mentioned your organization, Narco News, on this morning's news run-down--they mentioned the Mexico torture story.

Nice, Democracy Now! is great publicity, as it reaches millions of listeners all over the US.

I have been waiting to hear you on the program when subjects under your radar are discussed.

Yes, I know, I know--the politics and clashing egos and goals make this difficult sometimes.

Bottomline: I think that you and your authentic journalist cohorts are on a role.

 

 

John McCain -- the hopeless candidate!

Sure, if the ad had said "don't JUST hope ..." it might sort of have worked, though it would still be conceding the terms of debate. But it does not ... 

Helen, he really does need all the money he can get -- and the DNC needs it even more.  Last check, they were down to the RNC by more than 10-to-1 in cash on hand, and the convention committee was way behind as well.  The overwhelming majority of the money at these $5K & $10K events is by definition going to the party (given contribution limits to the campaign).

But he needs every penny as well.  Yes, the McCain campaign will never catch up to the O campaign in cash, but they'll almost definitely max out their matching of the federal $$, which means they'll have about $160M for the "general", i.e. September & October.  And there's plenty more money on the Repub side.  The media narrative portraying Repub 527s as a red herring only reinforces the fact that the media is one of the forces he'll have to fight.  Between the RNC & the 527s that are sure to spring up in the next 4 months, there'll be at least $250-300M spent against him from here to November; and given the fundamentals and their candidate's weaknesses, the Right understands that their only chance is to sow fear of the scary black man and win "by default".  Most of that money will be spent smearing him.

Latino for Obama, there's barely any polling data from Missouri. Obama dropped 4 points in one SurveyUSA poll, which had a margin of error of 4.3 points.

People Power Will Donate $2,300 Instead, Markos

The author calls on DailyKos readers to donate what they can to the Obama campaign to make up for Kos' decision to refrain from doing same.  Donation total is mounting quickly! 

It's kind of the reverse of the folks using mybarackobama.com to organize dissent with Obama's FISA stance.  And both prove that the future really does belong to each of us, and that it's up to each of us to decide what we're going to do to make it a future in which we can thrive.

But he's really not. I think the sooner Obama supporters realize that, the better it is for Obama. It makes people complacent about donating. Obama and the DNC hardly have a money advantage-- if at all.

Michael and yellow are both right.  Yes, Obama needs the money to fight the R machine.   But I think the verdict is still out on whether he'll have an advantage or not.  It's certainly possible that he will.  I'm not being complacent about it and am doing what I can with my fundraiser.  But we saw during the primary $100M raised in February alone on the Dem side.  If he could generate those types of numbers, he will indeed have a cash advantage.  Let's hope so.

 

Isn't that a great diary, Allan?  I was very pleased to see it.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog

 I would guess that you might be getting comments not passing the sniff test.

I love being a co-publisher. You can go back and edit your comment later and your comment appears instantly.

I am happy to be a co-publisher.  But I must say, I don't really like being able to Google myself and see all of my comment activity.  It kinda creeps me out.

Newsweek-Andrew Romano  Who's the underdog?

"McCain currently holds a significant--and given what happened in the Democratic primaries, surprising--advantage over Obama in one of the most important measures of where the race stands at this point in the election cycle: cold, hard cash".

A little off-topic...but I just heard that Howard Wolfson is going to be a commentator for Faux News?!?!?!?!?!?!?

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

 

I guess we can count on being screened out for any open jobs at the DOJ for the next 6 months, eh Tara?

 I wonder if my clients use google too? I guess I won't be getting to many McCain supporters as new clients this year. Oh Well, it is worth it. Check out the new discussion I started at fieldhands, it is a very good cause.

Vote for one. That is, for someone who already HAS one, and really couldn't give a shit about yours....

on the reassuring ground game activites. More than anything else, Obama's ground game is the only thing that is going to win this thing for him.

And thanks Al, on your reassurance too. Being far removed from the US msm (which is a blessing as well as a curse), I was getting worried the msm will steal the elections this time around too with the librul blogs are helping them unwittingly and liberally.

Good to have you back latina. (have you thought about co-publisher thing ?)

To David Briones  and Pam - How do you embed images here ? I tried <img> and it is not working.

amk

What immediately hit me about the McCain ad is how wordy and long-winded it is. Someone needs to tell the campaign that simple messages work best in television ads.

Loved how quickly the Obama campaign responded to the McCain ad. His campaign is one for the history books.

While McCain's base (the media) continue to support him, the folks he wishes made up his base do not. Had two separate conversations today with two different Republican co-workers in two different states who said they are sitting this election out. Literally no enthusiasm for McCain. Was actually surprised by the levels of indifference.

btw - check this out:

 

"Abraham Obama" mural in Boston's South End by mural artist Ron English. Story behind the mural is here.

Because Bay said a couple of months ago that this was all about Obama, and McCain was incidental.

@ amk:  I am no expert, but I do know that you have to have a link for the picture...keep the link/page up in another tab so that you can then cut and paste into the little picture icon.

@ nepat:  beautiful!

@ donna: that ad from *the other candidate* makes me puke!  I hope someone comes out with a counter ad that dissects each of those points with the *back story*...

 

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

 

Just wanted to post this image (courtesy a kos blogger) of how the librul blogosphere went nuts over the last few days

amk

Harking back to Al's post regarding the Latino vote - sounds like it went well for Obama at LULAC yesterday:

"Obama brought the audience to its feet when he entered and exited the stage. He had them cheering throughout. His speech used the theme of diversity to argue for immigration reform and economic policies aimed at the Latino working class. This is LULAC's bread and butter, and the audience ate it up. The room clearly supported the Illinois senator."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/303eesko.asp

KD

may have won round one. After reading the article Karen posted, It could be round one is almost over if not already over even before the La Raza Convention. The last line in the commentary seems to say it all.

"Which means the issue has been ceded to Obama--and with it the Latino vote."

@ amk...that's hilarious!!

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!