Obama ad knock McCain for supporting bill Obama voted for

Jim Geraghty:

Having been raked over the coals for half-truths in his first two ads, Obama tries to avoid too many specifics in his third. But he still runs afoul of those inconvenient truths, hitting McCain for supporting a bill that Obama voted for. For those keeping score, Obama has now touted his support of a bill he didn't vote for, and criticized a bill he did vote for.

This ad, by the way, is I think the first general election television ad to visually depict the opposing candidate. (McCain's version of the "3 a.m." ad mentioned Obama and Hillary Clinton wanting to raise taxes.) We can argue whether it is sufficiently negative to qualify as a negative ad; the RNC is pointing out an Obama pledge from not too long ago.

Obama: "Now, one of the things I'm proud of at the beginning of this campaign I said, this is a different time. This is an extraordinary time. We've got to run a different kind of campaign. So we're not going to go around doing negative ads. We're going to keep it positive. We're going to talk about the issues." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event In Wilson, NC, 4/28/08)

I figure Team Obama will argue that this is a "contrast" ad.

Obama's ad begins, "On gas prices, John McCain is part of the problem. On McCain and Bush support a drilling plan that won't produce a drop of oil for seven years."

That production schedule does seem slow, until one remembers Obama opposes opening any areas to new drilling, which means his plan won't produce a single drop of oil... ever. "Better never than late" seems to be the slogan.

...

There is much more. Obama's team looks really sloppy with this kind of ad. Perhaps they need to do opposition research on their own guy, who can't remember what he voted for. Obama also uses as a source for his gripes against McCain the same group that found Obama the most liberal member of the Senate. These guys are not looking to sharp.