Scott Paul took on the Clinton campaign for pushing the high-fear button in a television ad. Now the Obama campaign has fired back with its own 3 am ad. They are both depressing.
Jonathan Chait humorously skewers the Clinton staging here — but as far as Obama’s comments are concerned, I’m glad he had the right judgment on Iraq and cites that Afghanistan and al Qaeda were the challenge at hand — but there must have been more criteria for him deciding against the war and I don’t hear much about those.
I guess I don’t like the 3 am premise at all — in either ad. Obama’s issues about the Iraq War and trying to prevent loose nukes don’t sound relevant to the sort of 3 am crisis calls being suggested — but then again, I’m groggy.
It happens to be 3:00 am now in Israel — and I’m about to leave for the airport to catch a plane back to the U.S.
I have to admit when I saw the ads — and the mention of kids — I was reminded of this neocon front organization I wrote about some time ago called Family Security Matters. It’s webpage doesn’t seem to be loading — but I don’t think the group is out of business.
More soon.
— Steve Clemons
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