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Opinion: Sarah Palin shows that the best defense may be a new television ad

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The best defense is not necessarily a strong offense. It may be a new ad, at least in the view of the ad team behind the John McCain and Sarah Palin campaign.

As they did on Thursday, Democrats today are pouncing on Palin’s apparent missteps, contradictions and flubs in her interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson.

As our colleague Michael Finnegan writes in today’s Los Angeles Times, the Alaska governor may not exactly know that the Bush Doctrine holds that the United States can attack another country first.

But Team Palin certainly is proving that it knows how to launch a preemptive ad attack.

The latest spot is entitled “Disrespectful.” Released by the Republican National Committee, the ad opens with a female narrator slapping at Barack Obama, calling him the “world’s biggest celebrity” but saying his star is fading.

Then the ad takes a line from Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, and says the Obama-Biden ticket dismisses Palin as “good-looking.” Taking a line from Obama strategist David Axelrod, the ad says “they” claim she is doing “what she is told.” Then “they” called her a liar.

The ad concludes with a shot of Palin on stage with McCain: “How disrespectful. And how Gov. Sarah Palin proves them wrong every day.”

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RNC spokesman Alex Conant said the spot is appearing in some battleground states. That means the only place Californians can see it is on YouTube.

--Dan Morain

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