McCain Ad: The Wolves Are Out Against Palin

McCain doesn't vet his VP pick, so the media is doing it for him -- and they try to twist this around to Obama's campaign being wolves?!

The latest is an ad featuring wolves or Alaskan huskies leaping out of the wilderness to attack Governor Palin. This one reminds us of the bear in the woods ad from years past during the Reagan era. And one in 2004, when President Bush put out a wolves’ ad about terrorism.

The McCain ad also showcases a pack of wolves, or maybe hungry, lean Alaskan huskies (it’s hard to tell in the scary darkness of the video), which the campaign says will be broadcast in key states. It’s not hard to make the leap from the ad’s use of a wolf to the generic derogatory term of a preying man, a wolf in that parlance, on a woman. And it ultimately suggests that Governor Palin is a victim of Democratic attacks.

Part of the script for the ad, with that sultry woman’s voice from other ads, says, “As Obama Drops in the Polls, He’ll Try to Destroy Her.”

And the latest lie:

The journalists asked repeatedly about the presence of any Obama campaign or Democratic National Committee staff members in the state checking into her record...

Michael Gehrke, research director of the Democratic National Committee, scoffed at all of this:

“Sadly, I don’t have 30 lawyers, researchers, investigators or even wolves at my disposal. We have sent a grand total of zero people to Alaska to research Governor Palin. We’ve got all these McCain houses to keep track of.

“The ironic thing - which you all reported - is that the only people who sent lawyers to Alaska to research Palin was the McCain camp, who belatedly thought it was a good idea to vet her after they picked her to be one heartbeat away from the leader of the free world. They say all us political types look alike so maybe that’s what led to the confusion.

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McCain Ad: The Wolves Are Out Against Palin

By Kate Phillips

Forget how worn that “lipstick on a pig” talk is getting at this point. Let’s, uh, put a little gloss on that for a second, even though the liberal blogosphere and others have been awash in media-bashing today for anyone even writing about Senator Barack Obama’s comments that the McCain campaign is putting “lipstick on a pig.” He contended that it was all about the McCain-Palin ticket representing no change.

(And there’s no question that Senator Obama did not refer to Gov. Sarah Palin as a pig during his talk last night in Virginia. Although the allusion to lipstick within a week of Ms. Palin’s popular line at the Republican convention has prompted a great deal of chatter around the Internet.)

Today Mr. Obama called the McCain campaign’s upset over it “phony outrage.”)

But the McCain campaign has struck back, twice today. The latest is an ad featuring wolves or Alaskan huskies leaping out of the wilderness to attack Governor Palin. This one reminds us of the bear in the woods ad from years past during the Reagan era. And one in 2004, when President Bush put out a wolves’ ad about terrorism.

The McCain ad also showcases a pack of wolves, or maybe hungry, lean Alaskan huskies (it’s hard to tell in the scary darkness of the video), which the campaign says will be broadcast in key states. It’s not hard to make the leap from the ad’s use of a wolf to the generic derogatory term of a preying man, a wolf in that parlance, on a woman. And it ultimately suggests that Governor Palin is a victim of Democratic attacks.

Part of the script for the ad, with that sultry woman’s voice from other ads, says, “As Obama Drops in the Polls, He’ll Try to Destroy Her.”

It ends on a note that the McCain campaign has used in several ads. “Empty Words,” with a picture of Senator Obama.

Earlier today, the Obama campaign held a conference call for reporters to rebut an account in the Wall St. Journal that it, or perhaps the Democratic Party, had “air-dropped” into Alaska an army of vetters, to scrub Governor Palin’s record.

Josh Earnest, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, got into a testy exchange with several reporters on the campaign’s “Alaska Mythbusters” conference call. The journalists asked repeatedly about the presence of any Obama campaign or Democratic National Committee staff members in the state checking into her record.

“I’m not sure how many times this question has to be answered, but hopefully this will be the last time,” Mr. Earnest said in response to a reporter’s question. “There are no Obama or D.N.C. staffers or researchers that were air dropped into Alaska.”

We asked the McCain campaign for a response to the conference call. Brian Rogers, a spokesman, wrote back: “Please. Most folks trust the Wall Street Journal more than the Obama campaign any day of the week.”

Michael Gehrke, research director of the Democratic National Committee, scoffed at all of this:

“Sadly, I don’t have 30 lawyers, researchers, investigators or even wolves at my disposal. We have sent a grand total of zero people to Alaska to research Governor Palin. We’ve got all these McCain houses to keep track of.

“The ironic thing - which you all reported - is that the only people who sent lawyers to Alaska to research Palin was the McCain camp, who belatedly thought it was a good idea to vet her after they picked her to be one heartbeat away from the leader of the free world. They say all us political types look alike so maybe that’s what led to the confusion.

… And F.Y.I., Mr. Gehrke says, “My sources say Wilmington is crawling with Mercedes,” suggesting that the Republicans are all over the hometown base of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee.

What’s the upshot today? Last night and this morning, the McCain campaign complained that the Obama campaign was engaging in sexist portrayals of Governor Palin. But what does an ad, featuring wolves attacking or going after Ms. Palin suggest? That she is a victim? In this post-feminist world, would Governor Palin — who has held herself up as a pit bull/reformer while wearing lipstick — want to be portrayed that way?