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» Candidate/Organization: John McCain
» Other Candidates Mentioned: Barack Obama
» 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: Web

Ad Content

» Cues: Capitol Building, Cited sources, Color, Distorted Picture, Narrator, On-screen Writing, Opponents, Soldiers
» Issues: anti-Washington, Military, War (Iraq)
» Tone: Negative
» Types: Attack
» Narrator: Female
» Language: English

Analysis

By Howard Kurtz: This John McCain ad blatantly distorts Barack Obama's words in an effort to paint him as callous about the role of the U.S. military. The commercial truncates a comment that Obama made to a voter in New Hampshire in August 2007. According to the Associated Press, the Illinois senator brought up Afghanistan when asked whether he would withdraw troops form Iraq to fight terrorism elsewhere: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." In short, Obama was saying he wanted to avoid just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, not that this was all that American troops were doing. His meaning was the opposite of what is portrayed in this spot. Civilian casualties have been rising in Afghanistan this year, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month apologized for U.S. airstrikes that have killed civilians. Obama voted against Republican legislation to continue an open-ended commitment in Iraq after President Bush vetoed a Democratic bill to link funding to a timetable for withdrawal. He did not intend to cut off funding for American troops any more than McCain did in urging Bush to reject the Democratic measure. More...