Wednesday, November 21, 2007

THE AD: Here they go again. The same old Republican attack machine is back. Why? Maybe because they know that there's one candidate with the strength and experience to get us out of Iraq. One candidate who will end tax giveaways for the big corporations. One candidate committed to cutting the huge Republican deficit. And one candidate who will put government back to work for the middle class. The strength to fight. The experience to lead.

ANALYSIS: Hillary Clinton is attempting a form of political jujitsu with this ad, portraying herself as the victim of unfair Republican criticism without specifying what that criticism is. (One ad pictured, from John McCain, chides her for helping secure a $1 million grant for a Woodstock museum, which is true.) The commercial, airing in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, also evokes the years of GOP assaults during her tenure as first lady, including ones over the Whitewater investigation and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which Clinton initially blamed on a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Clinton has not offered a plan to end corporate tax loopholes, saying only that she would end tax subsidies for oil companies and charge them royalties for drilling on public land. Nor has she unveiled a blueprint for wiping out the $163 billion budget deficit -- which has fallen by half in the past two years -- even while proposing increased spending on health care, housing, energy and education. She has called for ending abuse of no-bid contracts and cutting 500,000 government contractors, but those would be a drop in the fiscal bucket.

In mentioning the words "strength" and "experience" twice, this spot draws on what polls show are Clinton's greatest assets with Democratic voters, as opposed to questions about her candor and ability to foster change. Her argument, in effect, is that she draws the most fire from Republicans because she is the candidate they fear most.