Ad Roundup: Lipstick, Sex Education, and Mavericks

John McCain's campaign released two controversial ads this week attacking Barack Obama on education legislation and his recent "lipstick on a pig" comment. The Obama campaign released strong statements in response to the ads, saying one of the ads contains a lie and the other is a "discredited attack." Obama's camp also released an ad attacking McCain on education and another that responds to McCain and Palin's "maverick" reputation.

John McCain: "The Original Mavericks"
This ad highlights the theme that both John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin are mavericks. The ad cites the example that "he fights pork barrel spending; she stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." This claim that Palin opposed Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere has angered Alaskans, who say that she supported the bridge before she rejected the funds for it. PolitiFact.com reports that Palin backed the bridge when running for governor, but once she was elected her position shifted. In response, Barack Obama's campaign has released an ad called "No Mavericks" and sent a press release. In the release, spokesman Bill Burton said, "Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." On September 8, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds appeared on MSNBC and said of the bridge, "It is true that early on in her political career she saw a project...that she saw use for. But as it became more wasteful, the budget ballooned, it became a staple for wasteful spending, she said, 'No.' And she was the one that drove the nail in the coffin that killed the bridge to nowhere."

Barack Obama: “No Maverick”
This response to the McCain campaign's "The Original Mavericks" ad argues that John McCain and Sarah Palin are "anything but" mavericks, they are just "more of the same." The voice-over says that Palin is lying about her record on the Bridge to Nowhere, because "she was for the bridge...before she was against it." And "John McCain is hardly a maverick when seven of his top campaign advisers are Washington lobbyists." CNN reports that McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said that there are no registered lobbyists currently on the payroll for McCain's campaign.

John McCain: "Lipstick"
In this Web ad, John McCain attacks Barack Obama for his recent "lipstick on a pig" comments, suggesting that the pig he was referring to is Sarah Palin. The ad shows a clip of Palin saying that "the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull" is lipstick. We then hear Obama's comment that "you can put lipstick on a pig...it's still a pig." The final clip is of Katie Couric saying that "one of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life." The ad concludes that Obama is "ready to smear" but not "ready to lead." In response to the ad, Obama aide Anita Dunn said in a statement that the ad "is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy—the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's healthcare plan just last year." Obama has also used the phrase before, such as in a recent Washington Post interview. Obama has said that the McCain campaign's exploitation of the comment is an example of "phony outrage and swift boat politics." McCain supporter Jane Swift, former Massachusetts governor and a member of the "Palin Truth Squad", said on a media conference call that Obama "owes Governor Palin an apology" for the "disgraceful" comment.