Ad Roundup: Sarah Palin VP Announcement Inspires Ads

Following John McCain's surprise choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Barack Obama's campaign released an ad declaring that a McCain presidency—even if he is teamed with Palin—would still be four more years of the same. A new McCain ad compares Palin and Obama, making the case that Palin comes out on top in terms of reform efforts and experience. Other ads compare Obama to other congressional Democrats, and McCain to President Bush.

Barack Obama: "No Change"
This ad says that a McCain presidency would bring "four more years of the same," even with Palin as his vice president." "While this may be his running mate," the ad says, as the video shows Palin and then transitions to McCain hugging Bush, "America knows this is John McCain's agenda." According to the ad, that agenda will not help the troubled economy and will "keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq."

South Carolina Republican Party: "Home"
The South Carolina GOP Party has released this pro-McCain ad in response to Barack Obama's comments and ad attacking McCain's inability to remember how many houses he owns. The ad, which ran throughout the Republican convention in St. Paul, tells viewers that Obama forgot about one of McCain's homes in his attacks—his prison cell in the "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp in Vietnam. While showing black-and-white photos of the cell and the desolate conditions in the camp, the narrator says, "This is where John McCain was starved, beaten, tortured, and maimed for life. So the next time Barack Obama talks about one of John McCain's homes, remember this one." McCain himself has pointed to his time as a POW when defending his housing comment.article

John McCain: "Expensive Plans"
This ad, released by McCain's camp and the Republican National Committee, opens with a familiar approach likening Obama to a celebrity who gets crowds going with "empty words." While flashing images of Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Christopher Dodd, the narrator says that both Obama and "out-of-touch" congressional leaders have "expensive plans...Billions in new government spending. Years of deficits. No balanced budgets. And painful tax increases on working American families." FactCheck.org says the ad, the first from McCain to explicitly link Obama to congressional Democrats, "is plain wrong about higher taxes on working families." It also describes other ways the ad distorts Obama's tax plan. The McCain campaign has released several other ads attacking Obama on taxes.

John McCain: “Alaska Maverick”
"Alaska Maverick" compares Sarah Palin and Barack Obama to drive home the point that Palin is a true bi-partisan reformer, while Obama will always vote along Democratic Party lines and will not be a candidate of change. The ad cites quotations from news sources that give examples of efforts that earned her a reputation as a reformer. "[Barack Obama's] reputation?" the ad asks. "Empty words." The ad continues the ongoing argument over Obama's and Palin's experience and who is more ready to be president, quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial that says "Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's." MSNBC's First Read points out some misleading quotes in the ad.

Barack Obama: "Abortion"
Barack Obama's new radio ad is the first to directly address the divisive issue of abortion in this presidential campaign. In the ad, a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner says, "If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the lives and health of women will be put at risk...McCain wants to take away our right to choose." The narrator then says that "John McCain will make abortion illegal." We then hear a sound bite from Meet the Press where McCain says he's for a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions. Obama spokesman Bill Burton told Politico, "This is a straightforward ad about the very well-documented fact that [McCain] wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and supports a constitutional ban on abortions." In response to the ad, Republican Party communications director Danny Diaz e-mailed Politico and said, "Barack Obama voted against a bill that would have protected infants born alive having survived an abortion attempt. He has offered misleading statements on the issue and is now trying to confuse voters by attacking Senator McCain." McCain's website says, "John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned...Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states...However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion." With this ad and McCain's choice of a anti-abortion running mate in Sarah Palin, abortion could become a major campaign issue in the coming months.

Click here to listen to the ad.

Barack Obama: “Same”
This ad, released the first day of the Republican National Convention, "highlights how George Bush and John McCain truly are two of a kind," according to the press release. The ad says that they "share the same out-of-touch attitude...the same failure to understand the economy...[and] the same questionable ties to lobbyists." The ad then shows a clip of McCain declaring that he voted with the president "over 90 percent of the time, higher than a lot of my even Republican colleagues." It concludes with a familiar tag line, "We just can't afford more of the same." While PolitiFact.com confirms that McCain did support President Bush's policies 90 percent of the time, during his speech last night at the Republican Convention McCain eagerly talked about his "maverick" reputation: "I've been called a maverick, someone who...marches to the beat of his own drum...I don't work for a party...I work for you."