Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> Althouse

Legal Commentary

: Althouse

Let's compare the candidates' post-debate ads.

Here's Barack Obama's:

Here's McCain's:

Okay, McCain's ad is way funnier. It's clever, though it's not really fair. If you look at the transcript, you'll see that every time Obama began with an acknowledgment of agreement with McCain -- which shows generosity and willingness to reach across the aisle -- he proceeded to distinguish his opinions from McCain's. For example:

Well, Senator McCain is absolutely right that the earmarks process has been abused, which is why I suspended any requests for my home state, whether it was for senior centers or what have you, until we cleaned it up.

And he's also right that oftentimes lobbyists and special interests are the ones that are introducing these kinds of requests, although that wasn't the case with me.

But let's be clear: Earmarks account for $18 billion in last year's budget. Senator McCain is proposing -- and this is a fundamental difference between us -- $300 billion in tax cuts to some of the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country, $300 billion.

And what's with that brown and gold radiating background they've put behind Obama? It looked like some combination of the Japanese war flag and a religious icon and a hypnosis pattern. Is that fair? It's fair enough.

Now, Obama's ad is simple, but a little boring. Is it a good gotcha? Ha ha, you forgot to say "middle class." We have a buzz word. A shibboleth. And Obama said it -- ta da! -- 3 times! Yay!!! He cares about the middle class!

I love the lame class warfare of the middle class. Does anyone care about the poor? Obama never said "poor" or "poverty." Nor did he say "working class."

Anyway, those are the ads these characters came up with.

Who's got the better post-debate ad?
	Obama
	McCain
	Eh
pollcode.com free polls

Full post as published by Althouse on September 27, 2008 (boomark / email).