Over the last couple of weeks, the McCain campaign has sunken to a new ethical low. Yesterday, they actually accused Obama of being some kind of pedophile, and today they are out with a new ad which so completely misrepresents Obama's "lipstick" remark...
And while this ad will no doubt gain some traction and have an effect, it has opened the door for Obama to once again take back control of this campaign and set the narrative. The McCain campaign's recent litany of lies has actually started to get noticed by the MSM, thanks to Obama's pointing it out in the strongest language possible. But it's not enough to simply float the "LIAR" meme and expect the MSM to carry it through. Obama needs to start putting out some ads that speak to this very issue - HONESTY. He needs to resurrect the "new politics" argument and the "Say anything, Do anything" accusation that worked so well against Hillary when she tried to go negative. Specifically, we REALLY need a couple of campaign ads that do a few things:
- Display the quote from his book about his motives for running for president in 2000 (i.e. not about the people, policies or patriotism, but merely a grasp for power)
- Contrast McCain's claims of civility with the scurrilous lies he's been telling lately.
- List newspaper quotes talking about the McCain campaigns latest string of lies.
- Most importantly, set the record straight about those last two deceptive ads (Education and Lipstick).
Now, the fact that their lying has (finally) been notice by the MSM gives us the opportunity to PROVE that McCain is being dishonest, instead of just making the claim. Looking at the front page of HuffPo right now, we see this...
Although this looks great, we need this "image" to reach people who do not read HuffPo. The dominoes are in place now, but the Obama campaign needs to knock them over. There is a genuine opportunity here to make a McCain/Rove association as strong as that of McCain/Bush.