In the closing days of the presidential race, John McCain and the GOP are returning to a theme that was previously a centerpiece of their campaign against Barack Obama but faded during the past several months: that electing a president with as little foreign policy experience as Obama is dangerous during this uncertain time.
--Following McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his No. 2, the experience argument seemed to drop off a bit. But, a comment from Joe Biden at a recent fundraising event, where he told the audience that America's enemies would test a President Obama early within his first six months in office, could have been just the excuse Republicans needed to revive this message. -->
Our Country Deserves Better PAC is also seizing on the experience mantra in a humorous new ad (subscription) released on national cable and on broadcast TV in several targeted states, including Michigan, on Wednesday. Actors playing world leaders hostile to America, including Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, are shown sitting around a conference table under a banner that reads: "The League Of Rogue Nations." The phone rings and is answered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Obama wants to meet," he tells his colleagues. "No preconditions!" Castro cheers.
Given the option of choosing the time and place, Ahmadinejad goes on to dismiss the person on the other end of the line. "Tuesday is no good. Thursday we enrich uranium. I mean, we have our bowling league," he says. Insisting that they are busy "all week," he tells the imaginary Obama representative: "We’ll get back to you." An announcer chimes in, concluding that Obama is "no match for America’s enemies."
"We wanted to cut through the clutter of so many political ads with something that was funny and different," said PAC coordinator Joe Wierzbicki, adding that the group is putting at least $150,000 behind the new spot. "We think this will be an effective means by which to remind people that Obama has almost zero foreign policy experience, and has already provoked controversy over remarks he has made in the realms of foreign policy and national defense."
Our Country Deserves Better PAC wrapped up a 15-day "Stop Obama" road trip in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, after hitting battleground states Nevada, Colorado, Michigan and Ohio, among others.