New, 'exciting" McCain ad to air tonight

By Rick Moran

I guess I'm supposed to be swooning about this e-mail just in from the McCain camp, but with the capitulationist/McCain-ized GOP platform still burning my eyes and the Obama thug tactics on my front burner, this is just not putting a thrill up my leg. How about yours?

What is it that we're supposed to be all excited about -- so "excited" that the McCain press flak appearing on Morning Joe this morning uses that word about 10 times in the course of the interview:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Apparently the McCain campaign has an ad rolling out tonight. What's it about?

JILL HAZELBAKER: Well, Mika, this is a historic ad. I think this is the first of its kind. Senator McCain is going to speak direct to camera to Barack Obama. I'm not going to give away many more details than that. But suffice to say it's going to be a very exciting ad, and I think it's going to get a lot of attention. ...

BRZEZINSKI: Jill, you've got to give us more on this ad. He's speaking directly to camera, John McCain is to Barack Obama. If you say there's news here, what's the news?

HAZELBAKER: Well, I'm going to keep a lid on it. But I think it's newsworthy to note that Senator McCain is going to have an ad that's going to air in battleground states around the time that Senator Obama is speaking tonight. And he's going to be talking directly to his opponent. So, I'm going to leave it there, but it's going be very exciting and a lot of people are going to focus on it.

Sounds pretty boring to me, actually. Give me those ads with pictures of Wright and Ayers and the half dozen other radicals in Obama's background. Superimpose Obama's face over Ayers body. Photoshop Obama in the audience when Wright is delivering one of his anti-American rants.

Now THAT would be exciting. But John McCain talking into a camera lens? I don't care if he's addressing Obama or Iran president Ahmadinejad himself, I would hardly call McCain Mr. Excitement. And putting him in front of the camera, alone, without something like the Rockettes chorus line from Radio City Music Hall performing next to him would put me to sleep.

McCain is a fine fellow with many admirable qualities. Exciting ain't one of them.