The Obama campaign is up with a new spot hitting John McCain on the economy, directly linking McCain's stay the course no matter what Iraq policy to the current maladies in the United States.
There are a lot of good things in this ad. For starters, it is important for Obama to make the case -- which Americans already intuit, but the way -- that the Iraq War is at least part of the cause of the economic problems facing America today. But the case could and should be made more explicitly. Instead of just saying that the Iraq War hurts the American economy, show it. The ad goes half the way in the direction of surplus deficit, noting that the Iraqi government has $79 billion more in its coffers than it is spending; why not also say specifically that this comes at a time when the U.S. federal deficit is reaching historic proportions? Why not link Iraq's record oil profits with the record price at the pump in America? The ad is almost there, but it's not quite specific enough.
The only other difference I would make in the ad relates to the inclusion of "better schools". Is this in contrast to McCain on the economy? If so, I'm failing to see the connection, outside of "better schools" being something that Obama is in favor of and something that theoretically polls well. The more focused an ad is, the less scattershot it is, the better it is -- and throwing in one and a half seconds on schools into an ad that is about Iraq and the economy doesn't really achieve this.
Overall, though, I think this ad is moving in the right direction.
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