I’ve been traveling all day for a quick trip (less than 24 hours) to New York, so I haven’t had time to really say anything about the television ad we released at VoteVets this morning. Anyway, if you haven’t seen it yet, it features U.S. Army Captain and VoteVets Senior Advisor Rose Forrest challenging John McCain on Iraq. Here it is:
Within hours, John McCain had his former lobbyist buddy campaign manager Rick Davis send out an email blast to the McCain base asking for money to defend against "all the usual liberal suspects" like "the liberal group VoteVets.org." Here's the email:
Dear Brandon,
Today we witnessed the first of the negative TV attacks that will be waged against John McCain. The liberal group VoteVets.org has begun airing an attack ad on cable television that flat out lies about John McCain's positions. And this is only the beginning.
National Liberal Democratic groups are rolling out their strategy for the General Election. It appears that the politics of "hope and change" are euphemisms for even more vicious attacks than we've ever seen before. All the usual liberal suspects; MoveOn.org, the Democratic National Committee, The New York Times and others are adding to the efforts under way by VoteVets and are plotting to spend over $20 million to smear John McCain. A line has been drawn in the sand.
The smoke and mirrors of the democrats' rhetoric betray the negative campaign tactics of their confederates. Now the shadowy 527 groups allied with them are spending unchecked millions. For them, it's not about what's best, it's all about winning. It is a sad day in our county's history that it has come to this.
We need your immediate help to combat this attack from the angry Liberal Left. There is nothing they will hold back, no limit to what they will spend, and we have to be ready to fight back and tell voters what we already know: that John McCain is the right person to lead our country on day one.
Please make an immediate contribution to help stop these attacks. The election is not until November, but these groups are already buying television ads to spread lies about John McCain. We have to prepare now so we have the resources to respond.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Rick Davis
Campaign Manager
P.S. We need your immediate help. Please make a contribution today so we can fight back against the Liberal Left that will stop at nothing to win.
The funny thing is, we haven’t even really gotten started yet. If John McCain considers it an "attack from the angry Liberal Left" when a soldier-mom and her one-year old son tell him that we don’t have unlimited money and an inexhaustible military, then he’s going to be really surprised when we actually start attacking his record on Iraq. Because it’s coming.
The 15,000 veterans of VoteVets.org didn’t attack John McCain today. We put him on notice. And as Jon Soltz said on VetVoice earlier today,
This is just the beginning.