- Daily Photo: Obama Jokes Around at G-20
- Blackwater gets replaced in Iraq
- Daily Photo: U.S. Marines Look Out for Taliban in Afghanistan
- Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
- Obama Administration Sudan Envoy Headed to Region
- Daily Photo: Potential Flashpoint in Iraq
- Clinton Says New Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Depends on Diplomacy
- Exclusive: Three Israeli Airstrikes Against Sudan
- Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
- Daily Photo: Navy Submarine Trains in the Arctic
- Alarm Over North Korea Missile Prep
- Anti-Terror Stimulus? US Offers Rewards for Top Terrorists
- Daily Photo: Pakistani Women in Refugee Camp
- Condoleezza Rice Appears on "The Tonight Show"
- Diplomat and Aid Group Sound the Alarm on Darfur Camp Situation
- auto industry rescue
- Ballotwatch
- Biden, Joe
- Bush, George W.
- Clinton, Bill
- Clinton, Hillary
- Dodd, Chris
- Edwards, John
- Giuliani, Rudy
- Gravel, Mike
- Huckabee, Mike
- Hunter, Duncan
- Inauguration
- Iraq
- Kucinich, Dennis
- McCain, John
- Obama, Barack
- Palin, Sarah
- Paul, Ron
- Romney, Mitt
- Tancredo, Tom
- Thompson, Fred
- Veepstakes
- Vote 2008: Democrats
- Vote 2008: Republicans
- Washington
- White House
« Previous | Main | Next »
Clinton Goes Nuclear; Obama Camp Fires Back
Email
ShareFebruary 29, 2008 8:38 AM
ABC News' David Wright, Sunlen Miller, Andy Fies, Eloise Harper, Kate Snow & Nitya Venkataraman Report: Closing in on the March 4 contests, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., debuted a campaign ad on Friday with ominous undertones.
"It's 3:00am and your children are asleep," a voice over says in the ad entitled "Children". "There's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something is happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call."
"Whether someone knows the world's leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead. It's 3am and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?" the ad concludes.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., pushed back hard against the new ad, which ABC News' George Stephanopoulos described as "the nuclear option" on Friday's "Good Morning America".
Addressing a group of veterans at an American Legion post in Houston, Obama said: "We've seen these ads before. They're the kind that play on peoples' fears to scare up votes."
The tone of the ad -- which echoes the infamous Daisy Ad from the 1964 Johnson-Goldwater presidential race and the red phone ad former Vice President Walter Mondale ran against Gary Hart in their '84 race for the Democratic nomination -- indicates that the Clinton campaign is pulling out the all the stops leading into the Ohio and Texas primaries.
Mondale's ad, where a red phone rang threateningly in the middle of the night while a voiceover asked voters what kind of leader they wanted to "answer that phone", ultimately worked in his favor: Mondale defeated Hart and secured the party nomination, though he lost in November to Ronald Reagan.
"The question is not about picking up the phone," Obama said. "The question is: what kind of judgment will you make when you answer? We've had a 'red phone moment'. It was the decision to invade Iraq. And Senator Clinton gave the wrong answer. George Bush gave the wrong answer. John McCain gave the wrong answer."
The Clinton campaign rejected any comparison to the LBJ "Daisy Ad" saying Clinton's ad was a "positive ad" that featured "very soft images" and was not at all like the Johnson ad.
Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson responded to Obama's accusations of campaign scare tactics by saying, "It is an absolute insult to voters to suggest that a discussion of national security constitutes fear mongering."
"It's a legitimate question," Wolfson said of the "Who do you want answering the phone" ending note of Clinton's ad, pointing out that Obama had agreed on that point in a Friday morning speech at the American Legion. (In fact, Obama did say it was a "legitimate question" quickly following to clarify "the question is not about picking up the phone, the question is 'what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone? In fact, we have had a red phone moment: it was the decision to invade Iraq. Sen Clinton gave the wrong answer.")
It seems Roy Spence, the creator of Mondale's red phone ad, borrowed from his own portfolio in creating Clinton's latest ad. Spence joined the New York senator's presidential campaign after New Hampshire.
The Obama campaign also set aside the traditional game of lowering expectations ahead of Tuesday's vote and instead predicted doom and gloom for Camp Clinton.
"They're going to fail and fail miserably," campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters on a conference call.
The Obama campaign says, given the closeness of the polls in Ohio and Texas, it's unlikely Clinton will be able to close the gap among pledged delegates.
According to the Obama campaign math, if Clinton fails to win both states by a comfortable margin -- 10 points or more -- Clinton would need to win 74% of the 611 remaining delegates in order to close the gap.
Officials with the Clinton campaign dispute the Obama math, noting that this scenario does not take into account superdelegates, party leaders who are free to vote for whomever they like.
Clinton officials accuse the Obama campaign of setting an "artificial standard," arguing that neither candidate will reach the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination without the help of superdelegates.
February 29, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (1175)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
What a cheap, cowardly ad. Clinton and her people should be ashamed at following the Republican fearmongering playbook.
Posted by: adam | Feb 29, 2008 8:46:31 AM
Goldwater used similar ad and lost and the Republican Party became a minority party until 1994. This ad will be demise of the Clintons. This is a good thing for the Democratic Party because finally we would get rid of the cancer this couple has been to the Democratic Party.
Mondale did not beat Hart because of the ad. He won because he was the establishment candidate and superdelegates. Get your facts right.
Posted by: mdiogu | Feb 29, 2008 8:54:46 AM
Adam, how naive are you? This is a very real question deserving of a realistic answer. John McCain or Hillary Clinton would be our safest bet. Never, never Obama. He would have to call someone else first to tell him what to say. This is what happens when your words are not your own and you can't think for yourself.
Posted by: Bill Elliott | Feb 29, 2008 8:55:21 AM
Hillary's obviously desperate, and willing to place herself ahead of the best interest of her own party. What a surprise. Pathetic!
Posted by: david Glass | Feb 29, 2008 8:56:07 AM
What kinda Bs is that here we go again.Trying to use fear to get votes I will tell you right now and there are a lot of my friends that feel the same way i am a reg democratic but if hiliary wins the nomination i will cross party lines and vote for Mccain.The way Hilary has conducted herself makes me sick and i will never vote for her EVER
Posted by: rene ford | Feb 29, 2008 8:59:49 AM
What kinda Bs is that here we go again.Trying to use fear to get votes I will tell you right now and there are a lot of my friends that feel the same way i am a reg democratic but if hiliary wins the nomination i will cross party lines and vote for Mccain.The way Hilary has conducted herself makes me sick and i will never vote for her EVER
Posted by: rene ford | Feb 29, 2008 8:59:58 AM
Having a tea party with a foreign leader does not mean that you know these leaders. Fear tactics by ill-minded politicians will destroy the US economy, image and relationship with the rest of the world. That is very cheap politics and does reflect how Hillary looks down the american people. Desparate moment call for desparate actions.
Posted by: BKMC | Feb 29, 2008 9:00:09 AM
Last time I checked, the voters are looking to hire the next PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! This is not American Idol or a popularity contest. Mrs. Clinton's ad is necessary and timely.
Posted by: billy j roderick | Feb 29, 2008 9:05:24 AM
Obama was in Beaumont Texas yesterday all he pulled was a bunch of kids, Bill was here and he had 2000 grown people, go figure,
Posted by: pespiloverforever | Feb 29, 2008 9:07:40 AM
Tnis latest tactic by the Clinton's will only backfire on the Clintons.
Bill Clinton "Red Nose" looks more and more like WC Fields (heavy drinker) who worked for the circus for many year before he started acting.
Obama wins Texas and Ohio by a large margin @ 65%
McCain best days are behind him.
Posted by: Lookup | Feb 29, 2008 9:20:15 AM
Well Obama would call his spritual advisor Rev Wright who went to Lybia with Farakhan to meet Ghadafi as friends in the 80's while Ghadafi was planning attacks on the US and its allies.
Yeah. Who do you want answering that phone? Good question.
Posted by: s.b. | Feb 29, 2008 9:20:43 AM
Tnis latest tactic by the Clinton's will only backfire on the Clintons.
Bill Clinton's "Red Nose" looks more and more like WC Fields (heavy drinker) who worked for the circus for many year before he started acting.
Obama wins Texas and Ohio by a large margin @ 65%
McCain best days are behind him.
Posted by: Lookup | Feb 29, 2008 9:25:46 AM
Please tell me again just what Hillary has done that gives her the edge in answering the phone?
Just because she tells us she has the experience, doesn't mean its true.
Posted by: Alox | Feb 29, 2008 9:26:26 AM
By going nuclear she has effectively destroyed any chance that she had and taken the party with her. That desperate move is just adding more talking points to the coming Republican ad program that will bury the democratic choice – Obama.
What a selfish and egotistical move!
Posted by: Allan Eizinas | Feb 29, 2008 9:27:55 AM
rene ford: i agree with you 100%
pepsiloverforever: by "a bunch of kids" do you mean voters who happen to be in their 20's? news flash for you, those "kids" have every right to vote that your "2000 grown up people" do. in fact, these kids that you look down could very well be a deciding factor in this year's vote and, subsequently, affect your life in some way when Obama gets the nod.
Irony? I think so.
Posted by: chris | Feb 29, 2008 9:28:10 AM
Do we recall Jimmy Carter with his inexperience in forein policy? If it wasn't for George Bush senior, the current president would have been lost as we well remember if we look at the early comments made by him. When we start a new company we look for experience so that we can be successful are we not tired of ON THE JOB TRAINING?
Posted by: mary mcintosh | Feb 29, 2008 9:28:19 AM
Good ad Hillary! It is sad that people can not see through Obama. Not matter what comes out on Obama, his supporters will defend him to the end. This the same thing that happen with Bush. Supporters agreed with him about everything he said and did and look what kind of mess he got us in. It appears that people want to live in an illusion rather than in reality--the reality that Obama is all talk!! I want the security of a real leadership in the White House! Hillary 08
Posted by: Df123 | Feb 29, 2008 9:28:47 AM
This thought actually occured to me when I saw how Obama acted during the debates. Most of the serious questions were asked of Hillary first and Obama always answered that he would do what she just said, never having a coherent detailed thought. Who will have the answers at 3:00AM when Hillary isn't there to bail him out. Michelle? The one who was not proud of our nation until Barack Hussein Obama became a candidate for POTUS?
Posted by: Bill | Feb 29, 2008 9:28:55 AM
We have Bush answering the phone now. Any of the new candidates sacares me. Can we just have Bush stay on? He is so brave.
Posted by: Slurps Johnson | Feb 29, 2008 9:29:19 AM
After all the anti-woman hysteria is over...ask yourself who DO you want to answer the phone.
A rosy-eyed idealist singing Kumbya...or a mean, hard-hearted pragmatist Mom that says, "America First - right or wrong our kids eat first!"
My kids already told me ....vote for the person that will protect them.
Posted by: Robert Anderson | Feb 29, 2008 9:29:58 AM
Post a comment
