1st?

Nice add by Mr. Obama. But it's clearly a fast shot. The sound work is awkward.

Good ad. It makes me wonder what John McCain knows about the middle class. Does he know what it means to pay for college or work for your first pay check or how much it really helps when your employer provides health insurance benefits? I get that he's a POW and he spent years in a prison camp, but that doesn't help him understand the everyday concerns that many of us have, does it? The difference between Clinton and the two Bushes is that Clinton looked out for working people because that's where he came from, the two Bushes didn't really understand the concerns that everyday people had and their presidencies reflect that.

McCain seems to have forgotten that he's not campaigning for partisans. From his VP pick to this commercial, he's been preaching to the choir.

He fell into Obama's post-partisan trap. The one thing I imagine independents liked most about Obama last night was he wasn't a hard core ideologue.

Thanks McCain, for continuing to highlight that message.

I realize logic isn't McCain's strong suit, but doesn't the fact that Obama agrees with McCain on so many foreign policy points undermine McCain's argument that Obama is naive and doesn't know what he's talking about?

If Obama is so naive, why is he agreeing with the guy who supposedly is the expert? Why is McCain pointing it out? Dumb.

The wingnuts at RedState LOVED the McCain ad and thought it showcased how McCain is the teacher and Obama is the student. They definitely thought showing agreement with your opponent is a sign of weakness. These people truly are weird.

Brilliant.
No: Super-duper insanely brilliant.

This election is all about seizing the middle path. Hoisting that idea up the mast, right on the fair winds of this debate, is pointing the prow in the right direction.

Check out the wake in the rear folks...
Now that's seamanship!

But there's a factual misstatement in Obama's ad. I'm pretty certain that the debate went overtime--so the "Number of minutes in debate" was actually more than 90. It was at least 95.

Disgraceful, no?

(By the way, my answer to my own question is "no.")

I don't think McCain's ad is that terrible.

Clearly, the intention is to present Obama as someone who just follows what the sage McCain says because he does not know anything in these subjects.

There's no way anyone impartial could agree with that from watching the debate. But in the ad, without the context, with just snippets of Obama saying he agrees with what McCain just said... who knows. It may convinced some undecided that did not watch the debate at all.

In any case, I seriously doubt any of these ads will be a deciding factor.

As one might expect, the poll at www.drudgereport.com shows McCain having won the debate: 68% vs 30%

Let's get on over there and vote for Obama!

Watch out. The house Reps are prepared to spin any new deal as the "McCain plan" because his stern leadership during his visit to Washington scared the weak, liberal Dems into abject surrender to Reps' principles. And he has national campaign ads ready to proclaim this fantasy. And so it goes.

Fantastic message, Obama is the middle class champion--And it needs to be his new campaign slogan...along with change--no more of the same Bush-McCain years.

But he REALLY needs to play this message on a much stronger emotional and visual level.

A pundit asked (Chris Mathews): Has Obama ever himself had a hard time? Naturally he has, but he comes across as though he hasn't, while McCain milks his POW martyr war hero status who sacrificed so much.

What about his finances? What about his record of voting for all the wealthiest and neglecting the middle class. He claims to be a man of the people, but he's anything but with his seven homes and 13 cars..

Obama's message needs to be expounded upon by use of emotional annectdotes--really tell a story (or two or three) to the Americans--show he really gets intimately how individuals are specifically struggling, how he will be their voice, how Mccain only cares about the wealthy oil companies and supports golden parachute packages like that of Carly Fiorina, etc...

Obama needs to bring up health care horror stories of denial of coverage or seniors who can't afford to pay for the medications--talk about Medicare and the importance of Government involvement.

Government is not a dirty word! Americans are smarter than that.

When you hear that, know that's code for rich folks like CEOs and oil executives who want their cake and eat it too, is what I'd say.

It's lack of oversight and enforcement for the right programs within government--a complete divorcing, a complete hands off mentality that has enabled the current crisis--this is a fairly clear and simple message that can and should be made.

WRT the McCain ad:

Whenever any gooper gets caught saying something boneheaded, what is the first thing out of the Wurlitzer? "(S)HE WAS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT!" So, when they set out to make an anti-Obama ad, what do they do? String together a set of soundbites out of context! Brilliant!

This ad is a schoolyard taunt dressed up as a political commercial. At a time when people are deeply worried about the future, the GOP offers up transparent juvenile namecalling. And they wonder why they are losing.

The first thing I noted when I watched the new McCain ad is that their color adjustment was wrong. But these ads are too professionally done for such a gross mistake to have been made. The Republicans just don't do that with their TV advertising. The effect of the color maladjustment was that Barack Obama appeared to be quite a few shades darker than his natural skin tone. I don't think this is an accident. Their ads are too good for that kind of mistake to slip through. Someone in the McCain camp thinks they're being subtle in trying to emphasize Senator Obama's African heritage. Perhaps it is subtle. I haven't heard anyone else mention it.

Great ad from Obama! Too bad they didn't insert some shots of McCain's snarling, sneering, and eye-rolling antics while Obama is talking about the middle class. That would have effectively made the point that McCain really doesn't give a crap about the middle class.

I was wishing Obama had said, "I agree that XYZ" instead of "McCain is right that XYZ." But since some think it made Obama look gracious, so maybe it wasn't a bad tack...

Damn. That may be the best ad I've seen from Obama yet.

Since it has become obvious that John McCain is a spotlight hog (no lipstick I guess) it's painfully obvious when he does these things.

For example, he "suspended his campaign" (but didn't really) and went to Washington to save the day. But, what did he do when he got there? He said NOTHING. He led the House Republicans to abort any plan and then walked away.

That's not leadership. That's grandstanding.

John McCain has never led anything and he doesn't really know HOW to lead. He just sees a parade and runs to get in front of it where he can be seen smiling, waving and saying "My friends, I was a POW."

Donna Burns

Actually, many images of Obama in Mc Cain ads have been "adjusted" to emphasize darker skin color, more sinister looking eye highlights, etc. It is very far from subtle. Few of us mention such things anymore because it is old news & to keep complaining about it is whining, which leads to immediate blowback from the right. Most of us are aware of these shenanigans; we are better off sticking with the issues in our comments