...but his militant supporters sure play the hate card, as evidenced by many of the commenters here.

His supporters scare me more than Obama does. In fact, Obama is benign, IMO, but also inexperienced.

Well, since Obama and McCain both have compelling personal stories, I suppose one could view this web ad as an attempt by McCain to puncture the hype surrounding his opponent's magical image.

Including Charlton Heston in the web ad is brilliant (at this level of brilliance). Even if you find this ad offensive, it'll work. Now when Obama delivers his moving, emotional, stirring, quasi-preachy speeches, some people will have a different image of him in their minds.

Then again....if this ad is web-based only, how many people are going to see it? Unless, of course, the media turn it into a cause célèbre.

P.S. However with that said, I agree with the first commenter -- where is the approval endorsement from John McCain?

So, what is MoveOn gonna do about this ad now that Obama has flipped on offshore drilling with his oh-so-clever-heavily-nuanced-craven capitulation for political reasons? Leadership? Fergittaboutit!

FROM THE AD:

"Senator McCain, you let me and my kids down. From the very beginning, I told them, 'This is a principled guy.' So when you said you were going to help me drive affordably again, I believed you. And then your idea is to do offshore drilling, which I find out won't produce any oil for 10 years and then barely save us any money anyway. That's not a solution, Mr. McCain. That's a gimmick. We expected better."

Get me re-write!!! That's not a solution, Mr. OBAMA. That's a gimmick. We expected better.

Barack Obama should call for a full Congressional committee investigation of the anthrax case.

nail a few votes.

The polls are reflective of our nation's ignorance of the facts. That's about it.

Sort of OT, but it chaps my hide that Obama has put out that new ad claiming McCain is in the hip pocket of Big Oil, TOTALLY IGNORING that he (OBAMA) voted for Dick Cheney's Secret Oil Bill in 2005.

win Chet Edwards on the ticket as Veep.

http://edwards.house.gov/html/bio.cfm

From the group's (below) press release on February 14th, 2003:

The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI) is pleased to welcome Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) as an Honorary Co-Chairman. Bayh becomes the third U.S. Senator to join the committee after Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced their participation on January 28.

The Committee is considered a neo-con group by many anti-Iraq War types, which was formed to propagandize the country into war.

If Obama picks Bayh, he'll surely muddy up his message of hope and change, IMO.

Obama, as usual, is given a free pass by his hero-worshippers. Hey, it's okay to disagree with him and still support him, folks! He's not perfect. He's not god. Really. He's not.

Sure, we need some solutions to complex problems, but when Obama originally vehemently claimed he was against offshore drilling, then accepts a "compromise" that allows drilling, he doesn't show leadership. He shows that he's influenced by the realities of political campaigning and is willing to validate Republican arguments by surrendering to them when he's backed into a corner.

A leader puts up a fight. He doesn't constantly "compromise" for political gain.

No wonder Democrats lose campaigns.

No, wrong.

A leader leads first, then "wins" through the effort expended by using his commanding influence and (with luck, moral) authority.

You've got it backwards.

so, he's not exactly reliable on this issue.

But, all his whining aside, Clinton did infuse race card in a very subtle way into the South Carolina primary last January, because I saw him do it.

You and a lot of other Clinton-haters see what you want to see.

Your idle threats might make you feel important but to everyone else you're a clown.

Everyone else? For crying out loud, speak for yourself.

You might feel important speaking for "everyone else" but you make yourself look....

Oh, nevermind.

Obama is humor-challenged, so it's not likely he'll laugh anything off and move on.

The chattering class searches for all sorts of reasons why Obama isn't further ahead of McCain.

But, one of the reasons that Obama's barely holding his own in the polls, is hiding in plain sight. Voters are getting more and more annoyed with him for his perceived arrogance -- and lack of a sense of humor.

Take The New Yorker cover: Obama's campaign and surrogates implied that some voters in the fly-over states weren't sophisticated or informed enough to appreciate the satire from the slick-paper media elite. Those voters who felt insulted by his campaign's implication of ignorance will never be in Obama's column -- no matter how much money Obama spends in their states, he will never win them over now that they have been insulted.

These are the same people Obama insulted with his comments about "bitter" gun-clinging voters in battleground states.

I don't know if Obama's campaign can fix the damage they've leveled at key constituencies. Arrogance, coupled with no sense of humor, is a losing combination.

John McCain's payroll?

She just expanded on the "is he ready to lead" meme, to Obama's detriment.

Obama is losing the initiative on bread-and-butter issues.

Obama had better have something BIG up his sleeve, because his foreign lollapalooza sojourn has turned out to be a waste of his time in terms of his middle class message appeal.