It's 3 a.m. -- and that darn White House phone keeps ringing

DENVER -- That new bewitching hour in political circles -- 3 a.m. -- once again is anchoring an ad. And in it, John McCain once again is using Hillary Clinton's words to diminish Barack Obama.

Back in the late winter -- when Clinton faced do-or-die primaries in Ohio and Texas -- her strategist Mark Penn came up with the idea of a spot built around a 3 a.m. crisis call coming into the White House as a way to raise doubts about Obama's readiness for the big job.

That fits the McCain attack strategy to a T. His campaign used the 3 a.m. concept in a previous spot targeting Obama; in the new ad featuring that pesky pre-dawn call, one of Clinton's more acerbic cracks about him is recycled.

Check it out below.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[scootmandubious]

The only reason John McCain might not have a problem being up at 3AM would probably have to do with his age.

At 72, bladder control could become an issue.

I think the Dems need to focus on McCain's trigger-happy temperament, consistently wrong positions on Iraq, and his focus on military force over diplomacy.

Then we'll see how the American public views him.

Once they get to know the real McCain, I suspect America would prefer that Obama take that 3AM call.

Unless, of course, they are the war profiteers that eagerly seek World War 3.

[McCain is Bush]

Doesn't it seem like John McCain has not had even one original idea throughout his entire campaign?

[Hobo Joe]

It is inconcieveable that Hillary's Army (the millions who voted for her to be their presidential nominee) would support the candidate hand picked by Howard Dean and the DNC to be the Democratic Nominee for president since both Dean and the DNC Swift-boated Hillary to assure their candidate would be selected. It is also inconcievable that a nation would allow Barack Hussein Obama (The Crown Prince of Terror) who consorts with Criminals and Terrorists to be an eligible candidate for president.

[emily]

Mark Penn never "came up with the idea" of the 3 AM ad. It was a rip off of two earlier ads going back to Mondale. Just like the slogan Penn claims to have "devised" for Tony Blair ("Forward, not back"). Cute, but a lot funnier on "The Simpsons," from which he stole it. Mark Penn is an idiot.