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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



McCain's terror hit on Romney

Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 1:18 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: , , ,

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
McCain turns the negativity way up against Romney in a new 30-second terror-image laden Web video. The 30-second video begins with images of terrorism from around the world -- car bombings, sirens, a body being dragged through the streets, masked men with guns pointed skyward. All over ominous piano music as it then dissolves into an image of Romney speaking.

"Mitt Romney says the next president doesn't need foreign policy experience," an announcer says, before an audible yet distance boom. "John McCain for president," the announcer continues, before McCain gives his approval over his photo on screen.

This video, called "Experience," is no soft negative; it is harsh and almost reminiscent of the "Daisy" ad, though not nearly as dramatic.

*** UPDATE *** The Romney campaign responds: "Governor Romney has earned the support of grassroots Republicans across the country because he is the candidate offering the most promising vision for our nation’s future.  He is bringing together national security conservatives who agree that if we are to confront the threat posed by radical Jihadists around the globe, we need a stronger military and an aggressive plan to destroy the roots of terrorism. Governor Romney’s strength of purpose on national security and foreign policy is one built on the belief that America’s future requires that we lead the world in defending the principles of liberty and freedom."

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Mitt Romney Flip Flopping!
This guy will do anything for a vote....

Last week, Bay Windows, a Boston gay newspaper, reprinted excerpts from a letter Romney wrote to the Log Cabin Republicans in 1994, hoping to gain the group’s support in his campaign against the veteran Democratic lawmaker and Massachusetts institution.

“If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern,” Romney wrote. “My opponent cannot do this. I can and will.”

Romney lost that race by a wide margin, but came closer to defeating Kennedy than had any previous challenger in recent memory. Romney’s support for the gay community did not end with his loss, however, as his political aspirations dictated otherwise. At the Boston Gay Pride Parade in 2002, when he ran for governor, he and his running mate Kerry Healey distributed pink fliers stating, “Mitt and Kerry wish you a great Pride weekend.”
If McCain wasn't so old and cranky he's be amusing.  We all respect ANY veterans of war - but Mr. McCain - YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE!  My dad has two purple hearts - but sentiment and appreciate wrongly spent will only bring problems to this nation.
McCain and his tag-team partner Huckabee would lose by a landslide in November.
The difference between Romney and McCain's ads?  Romney tells the truth that hurts - McCain just tries to hurt.  McCain and his infidelities are the last thing this nation needs.
The only thing "flip-flopping" right now is Huckabee and McCain - foolishly scrambling to create more smokescreens for themselves.  
Mitt Romney is the ONLY GOP front runner capable of standing up - and shutting down - Barack or Hillary.  Let's be smart with our republican vote and not waste it on McCain or Huckabust.
Surprise folks, terrorism has been around longer than recorded history.
Now I send you back to the constant GOP message of 'everybody live in fear'.
McCain would do better to tell us HIS views - instead of attempting to smear Romney's.  He and Huckabee are obviously trying to form a ticket - but neither has an intelligent leg to stand on.
McCain may be old - but his new hottie young wife isn't! You got my vote john!
The main "fear" republicans should have regarding world wide terror is the chance that Huckabee would receive any votes!  I took a look at the guy - but what kind of Christian would I be to vote for someone who would disgrace this "One Nation under God"???
Huckabee's huckabust comes from his lousy record in Arkansas - he's a disgrace to Evangels!
McCain's infidelities aside - I think his old age is a major factor.  I also see him pulling the nation apart when we need to be reunited.  (Huckabee/McCain '08?  YUCK!)
This is really find of humerous. All these gasbag repubs trying to out fear monger each other. They are all a bunch of flakes and phonies. If you are going to vote repub-at least vote for Ron Paul, the only one who isn't a cookie cutter image of the moron in chief, and the only one who knows what the Constitution is.
Looking at the ads....I would have to agree that Romney will bring hope and positive change to America and McCain will continue to add to the fear and discouragement felt by so many in America.  He is harsh,  often hard hearted, and quick to anger (I don't like how he swears all the time).  I think he craves power.  Money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is.  I am sure you can say the same for POWER.
Count the flip flops and you'll find that Huckabee and McCain beat out Romney. (Really go count!)  Interestng.....Romney got the title for his change on abortion.  Unfair to say the least.  At least he flipped in the right direction
May the three of them tear each other into teeny weeny pieces.I have no trust in any of them.They have all flip flopped told lies and remind me of the movie mean girls.You go girls---keep it up ---------they would all be stand ins for Bush to have another 4 years.
I found this New Article and I will not vote for a man like mitt romney that supports the man boy love association.

We Love Mitt Romney,

Romney allowed his office as governor to fund Gay/Lesbian SEX-ED to GRADE-SCHOOL CHILDREN as young as KINDERGARTENERS--with NO PARENTAL NOTIFICATION OR CONSENT! NO U.S. POLITICIAN SHOULD ASSUME SUCH CONTROL OVER CHILDREN/THEIR PARENTS!!

The Man Boy Love Association

I gave money to Romney (and will vote for him if he wins the nomination) but I am NOT blind or have my head stuck in the sand: the man obviously flip flops on many issues - not  just abortion but gay issues, gun control, etc.

He makes John Kerry look like a tiny flip-flopper in comparison.

I've switched over to McCain ( whose son is currently serving in Iraq.)
Almost better than the ad itself was the source of the ad...."Hannity & Colmes". Sean Hannity, who no doubt is Romney's favorite toy poodle among the many at FoxNews, is leading FoxNews right down the toilet as a credible news outlet.

But whether or not Huckabee, McCain and Giuliani pass from the scene, Michael Bloomberg will enter this race as an Independent after Romney sweats out Iowa and New Hampshire...win or lose. And Bloomberg can buy Romney, Clinton and Obama, collectively, ten times over. He will also seriously bleed Romney of votes.

Romney is devoid of any LONG-HELD policy positions, or a record to back them up, and the American public isn't buying his transparent, artificial and counterfeit "cut and paste conservative" message.

So, would we like to talk about business accomplishments between Bloomberg and Romney? How about media juice or pull with true fiscal conservatives? How about executive experience? And for those who worship at the altar of money, let's talk bank accounts. Romney will get absolutely steam-rolled at his own game.

Too bad you can't buy honesty and consistency, Mitt.

OK, so McCain has a son serving overseas and a Hottie wife...So what has got that to do with a politician who was elected to represent Arizona and has used his office to run for president and sice his last election... He has done NOTHING for Arizona and he will be recalled as soon as he loses the nomination fiasco...
McCain shows us what has gone on during his days in the ruling elite. Shows us where his experience has taken us. Then he quotes Mitt Romney saying he doesnt need THAT kind of record...errrr experience. I agree
Edna,
That article on sex-ed for kindergartners is false.  Please check your facts.  He does not support this at all.
I'm starting to lose respect for John McCain day by day. Which is tragic in my mind because I think America owes him a great debt. This ad that he put out is nothing but fear-mongering at its finest. On one hand we have a decorated veteran in McCain selling fear, and on the other hand we have Huckabee who regards foreign policy as somewhat of a joke. Romney is clearly the only one of them who realizes the grave importance of it and wants to drastically support us militarily while realizing that economically we have just as many threats. I've come to realize that he is the "total package". No other candidate has the skills and the ability to get the job done. I know he's had some slip-ups in what he's said and the media sure has hammered him on it, but the other candidates have had just as many if not more. However, what he promised to do as a Governor, he did. All his campaign promises he made as a Governor, he kept. Think about that the next time you think of how many times you've been to the polls hoping and believing the rhetoric of your candidate and to have been let down time and time again. America's politicians are just as bankrupt as our financial system. And we keep re-electing them! This must stop. This has to stop. You can vote for change or we will only have ourselves to blame as America slides down backwards into oblivion.

Just remember McCain, as the good book says, those who live by the sword die by the sword.
" "Governor Romney has earned the support of grassroots Republicans across the country because he is the candidate offering the most promising vision for our nation’s future. "


uh huh. He has the support of the only SOME of the same stooges who love GWB. He's not even the REPUBLICAN candidate offering the most "promising vision for our nation's future" but being a know-nothing moron is no obstacle in gaining the GOP nomination. Go, magic underwear!
Draft Romneys kids - you are so filled with hate! Can you even see what you are? Does your Christianity teach you to do this? If so, show me where it does, and I will show you how wrong you are.

"He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace." (Prov. 11: 12)

To which one of those do you belong to?
Interesting that LBJ, as is McCain, was known for arm-twisting the monied and companies for “contributions,” and had also produced for a political campaign his so-called "Daisy" attack-ad, which was created in part by another politicized Baptist preacher, Bill Moyers (now on PBS) and that bag-man for organized crime, the late LBJ protégé, Jack Valenti (long with the motion picture industry as "spokesman").  Given McCain's storied reputation (see yester-day's detailed Washington Post article about McCain’s contributors and "contributors") for fleecing persons and companies that came before the Senate Commerce Committee when chairman (1997-2004), which continues to-day by means of his well-greased pipelines of connection to K Street's lobbyists and its plethora of campaign money-bundlers, the similarities to LBJ become not just startling but incarnate.  Assume, for more fun, that the Hick-he-be is Moyers transfigured, and uses his religiosity to fool his adherents and proponents, and who will even call our LBJ cum McCain figure an "American hero," which indeed he has, and LBJ cum McCain reciprocates by calling the Hick-he-be a "good person," to help him politically in Iowa to McCain’s advantage, while the Hick-he-be attempts to lambaste Romney in Iowa, in order to boost their respective chances with voters on two political fronts, and to perhaps enable the vacuous Hick-he-be to later propose himself as McCain's White House assistant, if McCain should win, when he invariably loses his bid for the nomination, like Moyers, his equally shifty brother in faith.  And like LBJ, who when confronted with all those exclusive television and radio licenses discovered by regulators in his wife’s name, for which he had personally and feverishly lobbied, McCain likewise distanced himself, at the cost of whomever other than himself could be scapegoat-ed, charged with a crime and convicted, from the infamous Keating (of “Keating 5” infamy) by dent of becoming the fastest reformed reformer on the face of the planet, and thus cleverly allowed time for people’s abbreviated political memories to fade altogether.  And McCain, unlike LBJ, who was in fact truly cheated of his party’s nomination in 1960 by John and chiefly Bobby Kennedy, has with time and the mind-tricks of aging convinced himself alone, though with a certainty bordering on obsession, that he too was cheated out of what was rightfully his by the unholy machinations of the Bush team, by their use of attack-ads, which the newly minted reformed reformer or self-appointed deity of wisdom as conferred by the over-eager press then forever eschewed – maybe, until next time!. But memories are indeed short, as our elderly Reformed John knows, wizened by experience.  There too, pre- and present Reformed John’s near zero experience internationally is most identical to Johnson’s, who, having continued an unnecessary war in Asia to which he sent pre-Reformed John and thousands more of unfortunate others, gave them everyone a very lasting experience, though still limited in scope much like his own.  Other than the experience of war and a number of  taxpayer-footed Congressional “working” trips abroad, most recently to Iraq to be photographed and filmed with our troops for future campaign usage, that limited experience remains at stasis, no less but no greater.  He is more fortunate in his several selection - though probably the final one - for a wife, in a decades younger heiress-distaff who can herself afford a number of spousal bills, campaign travel or otherwise.  Power is a magnet and an aphrodisiac at one, as Johnson also with reason believed, and may even work for advanced age-related dysfunctions, which some may want to remark.  McCain can, it is said, differentiate a general’s from a sergeant’s insignia with proven alacrity, and was for many years a POW.  But so what?  Seriously!  That’s not meaningful international experience.  The fact that Romney has very successfully conducted business in many countries overseas for many years, and speaks a foreign language, surely provides a much broader and personal understanding of foreign affairs and related matters.  And that is the very experience that is pertinent to the occupant of the Oval Office; not war stories, or “what I did to win the Great War” stuff and iterations.  More disturbing is the fact that McCain unmistakably states and relentlessly projects the curious notion (or pathology) that simply because of the perceived tragedies befallen him in this lifetime, such as his debilitating stint as a POW and his apparently unexpected loss to Bush in the primary season eight years ago, you must unquestioningly support, work for, and vote for him alone.  While he clearly thinks he is owed, I strongly believe he is owed nothing whatsoever; not your or my support or my or your precious vote.  But should you falter and disdain his message, or worse, challenge his carefully constructed persona and assertions, you are beyond the pale; in short, anathema.  You are then, Nixon-like, an enemy to be chastened and pummeled.  McCain is also in much the same situation as Goldwater when against Johnson in 1964.  Other than the Hick-he-be, McCain is the weakest candidate to nominate against the eventual Democrat, which the press know, too, and the simple explanation for their support of him.  Every knowledgeable Democrat knows this as fact, as well they know Romney is the strongest candidate the Republicans can nominate and field, which is exactly why they and a complicit media are focusing on him and conscientiously, furiously opposing from the outset.  Romney is the only Republican that has a realistic chance of winning in 2008.  It is hoped that the polity will look upon McCain’s new attack-ad for what it is: an act of desperation and sadly based on increasingly irrational behaviors, sophomorically tinged with his untoward envy of a successfully challenging and opposing candidate, who is much younger, smarter, better educated and experienced, and who by his own efforts was highly successful in international business and become independently wealthy.  Although his attack is more than just the simpleminded advertising stunt the Hick-he-be arranged yester-day to foist on the press and public, McCain’s attack-ad should be equally disapproved, and the person authorizing its production and dissemination should with justice be reprimanded and repudiated by the voters when it comes time for them to vote their displeasure for these childish antics and his insults to their intelligence.
I won't vote for  Huckabee or McCain because they support the shamnesty for illegals.  Do your research on these guys and you'll see its true.  I'm glad that Romney continues to bring this out.
Wow, Gordon you got something!  Thanks for sharing
So in John McCain's bitter and vengeful mind he can now rationalize taking nasty personal shots at Romney becuase Romney dared to tell voters the facts about McCain's record.  McCain has lied about his position on immigration and taxes.  The record is VERY clear.  He voted with Ted Kennedy against the tax cuts that we all now enjoy and that kept our economy alive the last 6 years.  His spending restraint BS is just that - Washington insider BABBLE.  If the economy had tanked, our deficit would have been much worse.  He says he has never been for amnesty, but that is just a blantant lie.  Now he and his buddy HUCK are calling Romney dishonest for simply getting their records before voters.  Has HUCK described what is dishonest about Romney's ads.  No!  He is just hoping to draw attention away with his deceptive "I am not going to run this nasty personal attack ad that I am about to show you." Huck is not the victim.  The people of Arkansas are the victims of tax hikes, pardoned criminals, ethics violations and rewards for illegals.
Rudy Wins!!!!!
Wow! I am amazed at the nietivity of some people on these posts. First off if we look at the polls John McCain has the best shot of beating every single Democratic candidate then any other Repub. If we want to even stand a chance in Nov he should be our first choice. Secondly what has McCain flip flopped on? Ok so he tried to reach out the Jerry Falwell. What would you have him do? Increase the partisanship in this nation or alienate an important part of the GOP. Next McCain Feingold. Republicans get over yourselves the courts are ripping McCain Feingold to shreds so that it means nothing. Get over it. Immigration. Ok McCain supported "amnesty"(which for the record it wasn't) but Romny supported the plan initially until the backlash the only difference was Romney didn't stick out his neck. I also find it ironic that Romney demands apologies from McCain and Huckabee for criticizing George Bush and criticizing them on not being in lock step with the President and then attacks the Presidents immigration plan. Tax Cuts. Ok McCain voted against the tax cuts but look at the circumstances we went to war. Do you all not think that might require a little money you bullets and armor are kind of expensive. John McCain voted against them because they did not cut spending in other areas forcing our budget to become unbalanced and for us to go into debt. Iraq war. McCain stuck his had and reputation out on Iraq while Romney hung to the back and only came full out in favor of the surge when is began working. Romney did not support Regan Bush, he voted against Regan and claimed publicly, and now he expects us to believe that he is Regan reincarnate. Excuse me while I go throw up in a corner. Ron Paul would be preferable to Romney. At least I know where he stands and I can trust him. Luckily it wont come to that though because their is a man who I agree with, I respect, and I trust. John McCain. The only Republican who stands a shot in 2008 against the democrats and who can reunite this country and lead us in the future.
John McCain 08
Rich, Fredericksburg,VA - you completely underestimate the Republican party. I love John McCain, but NO Republican will choose him because of his amnesty position when we have many other candidates in the field right now. Sure, if you take all of them out, who wouldn't vote for him over Hillary. Heck, I know a lot of Democrats that would. Problem is, he'd just throw our borders wide open.

A country that can't protect it's border can't protect it's own sovereignty.
How would you trust McCain as a president not to use the NUCLEAR option when he apparently has no problem using it on an opponent.  Did Mitt make him MAD?  Poor old codger.  Mitt won't roll over and play dead.  McCain has stabbed republicans in the back before.  I'm sure he will continue to do so.


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