Hillary Clinton, John McCain battle via 3 a.m. calls

Coming soon: a quickie John McCain response ad to the spot Hillary Clinton's campaign unveiled earlier today that, using the 3 a.m. phone-call motif that served her well a month ago against Barack Obama, targeted the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The first ad in this back-and-forth -- which presumably helped Clinton win the Ohio and Texas primaries -- aimed to raise questions about Obama's readiness to serve as commander in chief. The new one -- the first by either Democrat to drop McCain's name -- takes him to task on the domestic front.

The pesky early morning ringing at the White House this time concerns an economic crisis, the Clinton spot posits. To wit:

"Home foreclosures mounting, markets teetering.

"John McCain just said the government shouldn’t take any real action on the housing crisis, he’d let the phone keep ringing.

"Hillary Clinton has a plan to protect our homes, create jobs.

"It’s 3 a.m., time for a president who’s ready."

The Times' Maeve Reston, traveling with McCain and his entourage, e-mailed from the campaign plane that, although the final script for the response ad still was being refined, its thrust would be:

“It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep and this time the crisis is economic

"Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama just said they’d solve the problem by raising your taxes. More money out of your pocket

"John McCain has a better plan … grow jobs, grow the economy

"It’s 3 a.m., time for a president who’s ready."

Clearly, whoever ultimately claims the presidency better rest up before Inauguration Day.

Initially, the McCain campaign ...

had shrugged off the Clinton ad with the quip of the day from the political trenches.

Key McCain strategist Steve Schmidt had said, "It’s more likely the call at 3 a.m. is, ‘Senator, you just lost another superdelegate.’”

Indeed, within the last 24 hours or so, three of these party honchos chose Obama over Clinton (see here, here and here).

-- Don Frederick

UPDATE: Here's the McCain camp's final product:

Comments

[Todd Busch]

Threats to withdraw from NAFTA by Democratic Presidential candidates are off target. The underlying issues are clearly the appetite of Americans for a life-style whose expenses require increasing credit balances and payments. A pattern that is subsidized by investments of money by people from outside of the USA, with the most recent fire sale being the repackaging of mortgage debt as treasury securities that will not, ultimately, generate much return on investment given the convenience of printing presses, although the investors may still gain some sense of security. Only time will tell if the "suckers" from outside the USA that buy these treasuries will actually gain anything consequential. Bernanke gets to play the latest version of a confidence man and perhaps keep his job. Why go the NAFTA distraction route? It makes it look at long last that Americans are admitting that they can't win a fair fight on a "level playing field."

Regards,

Todd Busch
New Westminster, Canada

[rleb blco]

Mac, Cain hates war??? He said he will be in Iraq, 100 YEARS , how much more time would he be there if he did like war? Republicans don't like wars, were no richness on those countries are involve (Oil, Mines, Diamonds ,Etc) if a region is poor and miserable and there is dead and desolation, they don't care about it, at all!! AND THEY PROCLAIM THEY ARE THE PARADIGM OF CHRISTIANITY!!! ( THEY CONSIDER THEMSELVES THE BEST CHRISTIANS IN THIS WORLD)Christians usually don't proclaim to nobody, their own GOODNESS!!
Mac Cain knows how to grow WARS, he does not how to grow the ECONOMY nor tho help the poor on America, he also knows how to help the OIL PROFITEERS, an the big Corporations which are financing his campaign, He knew how to scale the latter of politics, getting a advantage marriage, wit a rich lady, and letting , his first family, sick and, alone,

[NinaK]

Why is McCain addressing Senator Obama? Hillary is the one who came up with her ad, NOT Senator Obama! Shame on you, Senator McCain, you SHOULD HAVE ONLY ADDRESSED HILLIARY!!

[john]

most problems occur during day time.

[dave]

the extensively media-crooned mccain, seemingly technically still handled as the allegedly-purported presumptive, precipitately and provisionally media-crowned, republican nominee, like everyone else including obama, would do well to take a nap. especially at 3 a.m.
then after sunrise, ron paul, who has the constitutional remedy for the problems all worked out, will timely set to work with confidence, well rested and wide awake, knowing exactly what to do.

[variezn34gm@gmail.com]

Is the current republican party drunk on the blood of four thousand, driving driving this country down the road to ruin asking us to give them "4" more??

[shunaki]

Interesting color choice for the child's blanket. See if you can place those colors with a particular "friend" of this country. You can tell where this a-hole will lead us. He is really a traitor - to his former wife, his war buddies, and his country.

[N.E. BodybutHillary]

Please stop with the 3:00 AM hype. By her own admission, Hillary has claimed to be delusional due to lack of sleep. If you cant jump the bar at the height you yourself set, you should not be in the running.

[Tom J]

The real winner of the Battle of the Phone Ads is whoever owns the stock footage they're using. I hope the Obama supporter who played the little girl gets residuals.