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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.

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Interest group ads galore!

Posted: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 12:51 PM by Carrie Dann
Filed Under:

From NBC's Carrie Dann
This morning, we noted the steady stream of independent Democratic groups hitting the Republican ticket with hefty – and sometimes pretty tough – TV ad buys. 

Here’s another, this one  from the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association. The ad goes after Palin hard for everything from Troopergate, to the rape kit controversy, to her alleged plan to ban books during her days as Wasilla mayor.  Complete with a cheesy faux love song soundtrack, the spot emphasizes that the seventy-two year old McCain's vice presidential nominee is “one heartbeat away” from the presidency.  It airs this week in battleground states Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri. 
 
We also wrote this morning that there’s a comparative dearth of interest-group ads from the GOP side.  The folks over at Vets for Freedom flagged us to their newest offering, which hammers Obama over troop funding and for neglecting his role as the chair of a Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over Afghanistan.


 

“Barack Obama skipped 45% of Senate votes but did manage to show up to vote against emergency funding for our troops,” says the ad’s narrator. “Obama was chairman of the committee overseeing the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but never held a single hearing.”
 
(see First Read’s fact check on those hearings here)

The Vets' ad, "Skipped," is a $2.2 million buy for airplay in California and on cable stations nationwide.
 
In addition to the Vets for Freedom spot, here’s another new interest-group buy to put in the "R" column. The conservative Judicial Confirmation Network is up with a new battleground market buy that questions – via Obama’s associations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers -  the Illinois senator’s judgment to choose Supreme Court justices.  (Hat tip: Marc Ambinder) 

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“Barack Obama skipped 45% of Senate votes but did manage to show up to vote against emergency funding for our troops,” says the ad’s narrator. “Obama was chairman of the committee overseeing the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but never held a single hearing.”
-------------------

As has been stated over and over and over again, it is Joe Biden's committee that holds hearings on Iraq and Afghanistan, NOT Obama's.

First Read, if you're going to embed the ad directly in your post, at least put up this fact alongside it so people don't walk away with the wrong impression.

That said, if you're going to embed this lie from a republican group, at least you can embed the video from the democratic group directly rather than just linking to it.

Thanks.
And dear old John missed even more votes. So your point is...?
Geez.  These are some uplifting ads, aren't they?  Ugh.

http://thepajamapundit.com/
And now the trolls come out from under the bridge to reinforce the lies and half truths...crap that has already been adressed.  And soon we will have a slew of chumps from both sides coming here repeating this junk verbatim because its on tv so it must be true.

*sighs*

no jo, no bo, nj...aka Donna, Lincroft, NJ,

How tough is it to have abandoned your economics bluster for your ACORN rantings?

Will the Palin diehards have the courage to watch tommorow night? Why not?

Because you know your candidate is not ready for prime time?

Vote Obama/Biden.
Do the "vets for Freedom" want to actually address votes for vets in the senate?  Because McCain has the worst record of voting on bills to benefit vets.  This ad will open a can of worms for McCain.

yea... to me the music was distracting and overpowered the content but I don't think it matters. There are many indicators that the Unstable/Unable McCain/Palin debacle is becoming more and more apparent.

The Couric interview finishes tonight with two side by side questions posed to Palin and Biden. The comparison will STUNNING!!!!
Please, there is enough positive to talk about on BOTH sides that we don't need these adds.  As Senator Obama said "Enough!"
How would McCain know if the ads he runs contain the truth? Is he beginning to fail mentally? Does he really believe Sarah Palin is qualified to be President? Is this all some big joke he is playing on the American people?
Obama is the smartest politician in American history. He proved this by beating Clinton in the primaries.

McCain has been falling for Obama's political mastery. Obama started by not Airing attack ads. McCain started his attach ads even before the convention. During the Convention, while the GOP went full throttle attacking Obama, the DNC concentrated in calling the American people to come together.

Now, Obama is attacking and they are going to be very effective Ads because people already have the perception that he is telling the truth and McCain is lying. Now McCain has to play defense like Hillary did while Obama concentrates on getting his Electoral Map blue.

Another thing is that Obama is putting more of his energy and money on the grassroot GTVO effort while McCain burns money running Ads in CA.
So the 527s are set for take-off,great as lil bushie once said "bring it on"the dems will not be swiftboated by a bunch of chicken hawks that hide behind the curtin,like Rove, Bush, Chaney have.You see this time you are dealing with someone that knows your game and has a plan to fight your lie,distort,slime,destract tactics,.Just a reminder to you neo=consKeating Five,Mr.Deregulator,Trooper gate,Mr Flip=Flop McCain,old man has lost it.Crashed more them one airplane,next to last in his class at OCS,No college at all,daddys rank got him his wings,Cheating on first and second wife,mister corperate jet man,10 houses.13 cars. has limited knowledge of ecnomics,the list goes on .
So what? I'll be the first to admit there are vets that are against Barack Obama.

Guess what? There are vets that are for Barack Obama and don't believe what the Republicans or the Neo-Cons tell them.

I am one of those vets - any smart person, vet or not would not fall for this BS ad.

The Republicans have to know by now that ads like these are just a waste of their money.

But, that's no surprise the Republicans have been wasting the tax payers’ money for years.

So I guess they can waste their's - now
Why is it that you can embed the GOP vets for freedom at yet not the Dem one? Also, where is some sort of fact check on these ads? People can do a quick youtube search to find whatever partisan ads they want, but as a reputable site, you should provide some sort of analysis for the ads.
I am a nurse and yes it scares me the Sarah Palin would be "One heartbeat away" from the presidency. It should scare everyone. I see the results of  abstenence only programs. 13, 14, 15 year old kids having babies and our tax dollars footing the bill. These do not work.  We need strong leadership that will support all educational programs. this nurse is a proud Obama supporter.

Obama/Biden 08!!
Ads smads, McCain and Palin look like the tortoise and the Hare only this time a third guy has already crossed the finish line. Those Palin ads just infuriate conservatives but do little else. The independents and Reagan democrats see McCain and Palin ticket as the blind leading the broad.
And so begins the dizzying descent into slime. It's not up to the press and it's not even up to the campaigns. It's up to us, the voters, to be better than the filth that will be regularly slung our way between now and November 4th.

Election Day is a national IQ test. No one needs to have an Ivy League degree to pass it nor do we need to pretend we're all dumbed down in order to be regular Americans who love this country.

Every single one of us can answer the question, "Am I better off now than I was eight years ago?" The choices are clear from top to bottom of the ballot.
Someone please stop the madness!
And the good Senator from Arizona missed 60%.
His trip to Washington reminded me of a kid who skips class, tries to cram for it the last minute and then gets 30% (the % of Republicans that voted for the bailout the first time through).
No wonder he finished fifth from the bottom of his college class!
Do they want to get into that? How about McCain making his Senate return to vote for the first time since April...heck, to even appear on the floor or in a committee meeting? He's missed a great majority of votes this year.
MSNBC's First Read wouldn't like to show BOTH ads, would they?
Love listening to Mika report the news this afternoon on MSNBC TV and her bias too... "I"m rooting for her(Palin). I know you don't think I am, but I am."
Hey, I'm a big Obama supporter, but I have to admit I got a chuckle out of that picture...

And that "never held a single hearing" line is getting old...it just isn't completely accurate, these types of hearing are held by the full committee...not a sub-committee...

Silly Republicans...
I like how the Dems' ads are definitely biased but essentially accurate, while the Vets for Freedom spot is absolutely chock full of bull crap and misrepresentation.
I agree that Mika is not too impressive...rooting for Palin, leading questions and laughing while the Obama representative is questioned. bad...I just switched the channel.
There they go again!  Wright, Ayers, Rezko and who else, am I missing anyone?  McCain still has to bear in mind Palin's own flaky Reverends and her extreme and radical religious views (dinosaurs walked the earth with humans?) together with her hard core anti-abortion rights issues.  I think Wright, Ayers and Rezko look tame in comparison to some of the liars McCain has running his campaign, such as, what's that guy's name who's in hiding right now, gray hair, glasses, oh yeah, Rick Davis.  Why is McCain hiding him and Fiorina??  And we all know Rove is throwing in his 2 cents for McCain.  Palin too, has tried to go to court to eliminate the subsistence hunting rights of Alaska Natives but her case was thrown out.  This is a woman who the republicans brag is a "moose hunter".  What, are her rights to hunt moose more important than the Native people of Alaska who's livlihood has always depended on their right to hunt moose??  Go figure!  Palin's husband too, is part Eskimo and because he's considered Indian, he and his children get FREE medical health care for the rest of their lives.  Palin never has to worry that her family won't get health care, they're covered, by the federal government.
McCain is number one in missing voted.  More votes than a Senator recovering from a Stroke.
Obama is number 3.  But I truly believe and you can hear it in his speeched that unlike McCain he is fully aware of all Bills that are being discussed. Obama as well as Kennedy came back for the Medicare vote.  Where was McCain

I'M so glad Nevada has early voting.  We are getting the vote out early here so the crap ads won't matter here.

The vote will be almost done before the REAL GARBAGE hits the airways.

THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE.  THINK ABOUT ALL AMERICANS NOT JUST YOUR ONE ISSUE.  AMERICANS NEED TO STOP BEING SELFISH AND THINK OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE LESS THAN THEM..

OBAMA/BIDEN 08
once again, slime and lies from McCain
The title of your article says something about ads galore. So, where are the rest, particularly the ones from dem leaning groups? Or all you wanted to show was your obvious right-wing bias? If so, you did. Congratulations.
do you think that 2.2 mill would have helped any
of our brave military with they're injuries that
McNEOCON didn't support!!!
Like I said. The ruthless and calcualting Obama has surfaced. It is time to put the final nails in McCain's and Palin's coffins.

And you McCain supporters thought Obama was weak, lol. You have no clue what you people are dealing with here.

And some Dems thought that Bill and Hillary Clinton were the masters of political strategy, ha! Obama is the Master. You people just never looked close enough or deep enough to see what Obama is capable of.

You are seeing the very best in organizational ability and a unmatched keen sense as to when and how to deploy the right political tactics. Enjoy the slow death between now and Nov. 4 McCain, Palin and those who support the same.
I can't wait for the VP debate.  I was wondering, though, when Hillary was still in the running, did anyone caution Obama, Biden, Dodd, Kucinich (sp) and the rest about how they debated her.  Yesterday, all I heard on the cable news show that Biden has to "tip-toe" around Palin; he can't sound too knowledgeable or too experienced, because if he does it would be too condescending and attackful.  They hit Hillary hard in the debates as they should have, just like Hillary hit them hard.    Hillary belonged in the mix, Palin does not.  Why is it they when Palin is asked a question about the world, economics, policies does the McCain camp say it's a "gotcha" question.


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