While John McCain and Barack Obama met with Rev. Warren at the Saddleback Church this weekend, the progressive Christian PAC Matthew 25 unveiled a new ad featuring religious leaders supporting Obama. In the ad, Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell - the Methodist minister who married Jenna Bush - takes a not-too-subtle dig at McCain over what McCain acknowledged to be his “greatest moral failing” at the forum - the failure of his first marriage.

h/t Dan Manatt at techPresident.

More background at Strategy ‘08.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that John McCain would match Barack Obama’s $5 million ad buy during the Olympics with a $6 million campaign of his own. Surely McCain wouldn’t be dumb enough to sour the uplifting national mood fostered by the Olympics by running a fear-mongering attack ad, right? Wrong.

Here’s Obama’s positive ad about the direction in which he wants to take America:

Which do you find more effective?

I’ve seen these ads at least five times each over the past few days. Putting myself in the shoes of your average voter, McCain’s ad (by the second viewing or so) comes across as overly offensive and divisive while trying to drive home the exact same point. Obama’s positive message is “I want to take the energy policy of this country in a different direction.” McCain’s negative message is “Obama is a celebrity who can’t be trusted to take energy policy in a new direction, which is what I want to do by proposing the same policies as Obama.” The McCain campaign must have internals numbers showing the “celebrity” meme gaining some traction. It’s going to be interesting to see if McCain’s decision to go negative backfires. To rational, level-headed undecideds, it just might.

(Here’s s link to the ad) John McCain attacks Obama in another low brow ad, but uses Taco Bell to attack Obama with. Say, what? Since Rove and his pals have been calling Obama an elitist who eats arugula salads and goes to exotic places—the use of Taco Bell only weakens their argument. And that has been much of what they are trying to do to Obama. Make him a light weight. A fly on the wall of big thinking politicians.

I do disagree with Josh Marshal about the race angle on this ad though. I think we have to be careful because we run the risk of losing the argument if it’s not clearer to the American people when McCain’s camp actually does use it. (And you know it is part of their playbook.) It will only give Rick Davis the opportunity to come out yelling and screaming to the media that Obama is the one actually playing the race card again and he will win because the media is intimidated by him. By the way, the AFL-CIO in Ohio wants Davis fired because…

The trailer to Oliver Stone’s upcoming film about President George W. Bush, draws on his “heavy partygoer” days.

CBS:

Though Stone’s depiction seems sure to draw some criticism, Bush has “openly admitted to past drinking problems” and to having done “things as a youth that he was not proud of.” Despite a few appearances that could plausibly suggest otherwise, Bush has long claimed to have gone “cold turkey in July 1986″ and not had a drink since.

Also, you may recall a couple of weeks back when two members of the cast of Stone’s movie, including Josh Brolin, the actor playing “W,” were arrested following a bar fight in Shreveport, Louisiana that apparently began after “a couple of good ‘ol boys” taunted Brolin and co. with a “few profanity-laced barbs about Stone, his politics and the reported anti-Bush tone” of the film.

C&L posted earlier this week about FOX News possibly trying to make McCain look a little younger, well now it appears that the McCain campaign is going out of their way to make John look like a new man—25 years younger or more with this campaign ad.

 Download | Play   Download | Play

Check out this ad that was picked up off of this article Germany’s English  paper called The Local. At the very end there is the above graphic to represent what John McCain looks like.   Hmmmm, looks like a completely different man to me. One that is much younger. Is this running only in foreign markets? I emailed the McCain camp for comment.

“You don’t know insurance company rules? Oh, they’re so sweet…”

Disclaimer: “Insurance company rules not compatible with Health Care for America Now. Which side are you on?”

h/t Jax

UPDATE: John Amato: Progressives fire back at insurers

UPDATE:  There appears to be a coding problem with the YouTube.  The original video is at John McCain’s campaign website.  

Or try this:  Download | Play   Download | Play  (h/t BillW)

Did you catch it?  At the beginning of the ad, the title burns onto a picture of Obama, but the order is striking.

A L   Q   D   C MT RY

(screengrab courtesy of JedReport)

al Qaeda Commentary?  al Qaeda Cemetary? al Qaeda Documentary? Who knows?  But it’s not accidental.   In fact, Alex Castellanos is reportedly now working for the McCain campaign.  Who is Alex Castellanos?

  FDL offers some more on Castellanos

Senate Guru:

“No wonder” is right. Franken’s vow to work to change the rules to prevent members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists is one other Democrats would do well to emulate.

A 2005 study by Public Citizen found that 43% of Senators and Representatives who left office since 1998 went on to become lobbyists, and that was well before likes of ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert and ex-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott abandoned their elected offices before their terms expired to join their ranks. Instead of running for office to serve their country and the public good, politicians (53% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats) increasingly have instead (ab)used their offices as a stepping-stone so they can cash in, and it’s no secret we all suffer for it.

John McCain clearly wants to make unflattering Barack Obama comparisons, but he seems to be having a little trouble with cultural references.

A couple of weeks ago, McCain said Obama reminds him of William Jennings Bryan. Given that Bryan last ran for president literally 100 years ago, this was something of a dud. Shortly thereafter, McCain went with a Jimmy Carter reference, which is likely to fall flat with about half the voters.

Now, the McCain campaign is going with an ad, riffing off the first James Bond film, “Dr. No,†which was released just one year after Barack Obama was born.

First, of course, is the generational problem. James Bond movies remain popular, but if the campaign is sensitive about McCain’s status as a septuagenarian, picking a 46-year-old movie as a cultural reference might not be the best idea. (As Oliver Willis recently noted, “McCain went from a 19th century comparison to a 20th century comparison. At some point in his campaign I suppose he might join Sen. Obama and the rest of us in the 21st century.â€)

Second, and more importantly, is the substance. Obama has said no to various McCain campaign ideas, but only because they’re bad ideas.

Besides, if anyone’s been saying no to an effective energy policy, it’s McCain, not Obama. 

Statistics showing that McCain’s claims are not fact-based below the fold.

(Read the rest of this story…)

Courtesy of the genius behind The Daily Show and Shoot the Messenger, Lizz Winstead, we give you one of those late night commercials that might even tug on the heartstrings of Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan.

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Cover your keyboards first, kids. If you didn’t think they were lying liars before….And BillO is particularly talented in keeping a straight face for this one:

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While this video of the ad goes after Rep Nancy Boyda (D-KS) (btw, whose response so far has been really good), she is just one of many “Freshman Dems” targeted by this fear-mongering ad campaign so far. As the Minnesota blog Bluestem Prairie notes:

The ad is similar to one posted last week by House Republicans on gop.gov, that also misleadingly blames the expiration of the “Protect America Act’ on the Democrats. The fact is that “there is one reason, and one reason only, that the Protect America Act expired. Its name is “George W. Bush.â€

Not surprisingly, the group The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies‘ list of “Directors, Fellows, Personnel” includes many PNAC-neocons like Kristol, Krauthammer, and Perle (a lot more on the group here). The list also includes, however, several prominent Democrats, which begs the question: Why would Democrats be affiliated with a group that would be running these ads?

Update: Begged question answered. mcjoan:

VoteVets.org has a new ad out to confront John McCain’s warmonger stance and question–in flesh and blood terms–exactly where his priorities lie. From their email:

VoteVets needs your donations to keep ads like this going through the election season. If you are able, please consider donating here.