Hillary Clinton’s latest political ad ranks somewhere between a Slomin’s Shield commercial and LBJ’s apocalyptic “Daisy” reel. It features a ringing phone and the peaceful, dozing faces of children with a narrator informing us that it’s 3 a.m. and “something’s happening in the world” (a terrorist attack? a nuclear explosion? Bill ejected from Scores again? we shall go to the grave unsatisfied). Whom do we want answering the phone in the White House–someone “tested,” familiar with global leaders and the military, or the guy who’s already sewn up the Democratic nomination?
It’s a bit of a groaner, what with its too nebulous sense of foreboding and dread.
Jennifer Rubin at contentions says: “The problem is that the answer to the question it poses is . . . John McCain. After all, are Hillary’s national security credentials and expertise that much greater than Barack Obama’s?”
Eric Kleefield at TPM Election Central is a shade more impressed: “The mother looking in on her children, worried about their safety, is a clear play for the so-called “security mom” vote. Should Barack Obama ultimately win the Democratic nomination, it’s hard not to picture John McCain’s campaign running an ad very much like this one.”
The ad is less “Daisy,” more Mondale, argues Steve Kornacki at The Politicker: “Mondale, the ‘experienced’ and ‘prepared’ candidate of the establishment that Hillary is, saturated the primary airwaves with an ad that showed a blinking red phone… bluntly arguing that Hart lacked the experience and seasoning to respond to an international crisis as president.”
Mark C. Eades at Terra Incognita wants “Barack Obama answering the phone.”
Michael Weiss is the New York Editor of Pajamas Media.
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