Everything In Washington Happens At 3 AM.

It's great that Hillary Clinton is going after McCain, although this ad is a little too nonspecific to be effective - it's essentially just "McCain doesn't want to do anything." The problem is it takes too much time in the windup trying to recreate lightning in a bottle with the ridiculous "3 AM" imagery.



It just kills a good message. The only thing that happens economically at 3 AM are bar transactions in New York City and the Asian markets. What's next, the "3 AM" phone call about changes to the parceling of national monuments in New Mexico? A study on the efficacy of postal rates? Can business be done within business hours?

Matt Yglesias is also right - McCain needs to be attacked on his strength, his perceived knowledge of national security issues when in actuality he doesn't know what the hell he is talking about. I would also like to see attacks on McCain for Republican failures generally. This is the point of tying McCain to Bush, but there are very specific failures that are actually failures of conservatism, and it'd be good to tie THOSE to McCain since his only out would be to say "I'm not a conservative."

For example, the federal government has been found to be completely negligent in the Utah mine collapse that killed nine men. This was a function of lax regulation and oversight, which is a watchword for the conservative deregulated world. John McCain would do exactly the same and leave miners and all workers at risk.

Example number two, almost 40,000 Americans are still living in mobile homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. What's more, these homes are extremely vulnerable in the upcoming storm season. Conservative ideology dictates that nothing be done for these people, that they simply be left to rot. There's no reason to believe that John McCain would do any better.

Now, work THAT into an ad, Democrats!