About This Ad

» Candidate/Organization: John McCain
» Other Candidates Mentioned: Barack Obama, Sarah Palin
» Year: 2008
» States: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
» Race: Presidential
» Party: Republican
» Funded by: Candidate
» Disseminations: TV

Ad Content

» Cues: Candidate Present, Color, Distorted Picture, Flag, On-screen Writing, Photographs
» Tone: Negative
» Types: Attack, Personal
» Music: Ominous
» Characters: Candidate
» Narrator: Female
» Language: English

Analysis

By The Trail: This John McCain commercial, which contains two significant distortions, is part of a larger effort to rule criticism of his running mate out of bounds and paint her as the victim of unfair attacks from both Democrats and the media. The "they" is never specified here, but the notion that Barack Obama's campaign "dismissed" Sarah Palin based on her looks twists what was clearly a self-deprecating joke by his running mate, Joe Biden. The Delaware senator laughed as he compared himself to the Alaska governor: "'Well, there's obvious differences. She's good looking." More...