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Friday, September 12, 2008

McCain & The RNC On Earmarks, Immigration And Palin

Filed under John McCainFiled under Television AdFiled under Radio Ad
Posted at 5:20 PM
Click here to watch "Disrespectful."

Between solo and joint ads released today by John McCain and the Republican National Committee, the GOP is covering a lot of ground. Indeed, they had to make up for an ad-free day Thursday, in honor of 9/11 -- though some are questioning whether the McCain camp violated the truce the candidates agreed upon.

An ad the McCain camp released this morning calls out Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., for being "disrespectful" (subscription) to McCain's VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. An announcer asserts that Obama and Biden "lashed out at Sarah Palin" and "dismissed her as 'good-looking.''' FactCheck.org contends, however, that the ad takes the quotes out of context and distorts them.

Also out today is a joint ad from McCain and the RNC, a Spanish-language TV spot running in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. "Which Side Are They On?" (subscription) suggest that Obama and his "congressional allies" -- including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., whose images pop up on the screen, sandwiching Obama -- are guilty of pushing "poison pill" legislation that "made immigration reform fail."

Both McCain and the RNC released radio ads today as well. In "Change Or More Of The Same?" (subscription), the RNC claims that Obama has requested a "billion dollars in earmarks" and that Biden has been requesting them "for decades." An announcer also praises McCain for never requesting an earmark and Palin for vetoing wasteful spending and cutting earmark requests "by hundreds of millions of dollars."

McCain's radio ad, "Stem Cell" (subscription), promises that McCain and his own team of "congressional allies" will invest "millions" in stem-cell research, to find cures and relief for conditions such as cancer, heart disease, spinal cord damage and strokes.