How long does it take to go from gaffe to attack ad? Five days, based on our most recent example.
You’ll recall that on Sunday, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden said, “Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy…Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
Biden is famous for flubs, and this seems to be his biggest during the general election. Or as the New York Post put it, “JOE D’OH PUTS O IN ‘CRISIS’ MODE.”
So that was Sunday. Already McCain, Palin and conservatives have rubbed it in Obama’s face. And now, Let Freedom Ring has launched an ad in battleground states with the audio of Biden’s remark. It starts running tomorrow and will eventually be up in Nevada, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and the pricey Virginia-Washington D.C. market. The ad also features Reagan appointee Frank Gaffney arguing, on something of a tangent, that “weakness invites aggression.”
It’s guaranteed that Biden didn’t look as happy as he does in the ad when he realized the impact of his gaffe. But let’s not put all the blame on Biden.
One of Obama’s most memorable “oops” moments — in a remarkably similar setting — was when he told a group of supporters at a San Francisco fundraiser last winter that some small town voters “cling to guns or religion” because they are “bitter.”
Let Freedom Ring lets Obama relive that moment over and over, with an ad (below) featuring some bitter, small town Pennsylvania voters. Guess what? They’re all voting for John McCain.
This originally appeared on The Secret Money Project Blog, a joint project of CIR and National Public Radio tracking the hidden cash in the 2008 election.
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