I have a front row seat I tell ya, but I do think by November, we're going to be tired of ads. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer Openers blog:

With Barack Obama poised to raise and spend money unencumbered by federal campaign finance limits, the Republican National Committee says it will help remedy any imbalance suffered by John McCain -- starting with a $3 million ad campaign to run in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to an online news alert from Roll Call.

The independent expenditure ad campaign will highlight differences between the candidates' energy proposals. It will take advantage of the fact that the RNC has vastly more money than the Democratic National Committee: $53.5 million on hand for the RNC, compared with $4 million for the DNC.

"Following Barack Obama's decision to become the only major party presidential candidate in history to not adhere to campaign spending caps, the Republican National Committee has begun an independent expenditure campaign in accordance with FEC regulations," RNC I.E. consultant Brad Todd told Roll Call in a statement. Todd's firm, On Message Inc., produced the ad, which Roll Call says will run from this weekend through July 15.

It's a nice effort, but the problem is that the average age of the TV viewer is 50. And while they may be the most likely to actually vote, it appears that there is a whole new demographic that has quit watching TV. I just hope this isn't a portent that the GOP is fighting the last war with the last war's weapons.

Well, it looks like Democrats are trying their hand at "red meat" politics. As Caleb Howe noted yesterday, MoveOn debuted an ad that tugs at the barfstrings, in an effort to get people who don't mind the current level of death among Iraqis and US military personnel, to suddenly give a shit about a baby with an annoying mom.

Another group, Truth Through Action, is also trying its hand at the manipulation game, to better effect, by suggesting that if you aren't a Democrat, you yourself will soon be...trying your hand.

Here's the short film, entitled, "Blue Balled." Relax, it's rated about PG or so, maybe PG-13? Afterwards, let's relax, have a nice drink, talk things over.

Last week, MoveOn debuted a general election ad titled "Not Alex," in which a young liberal mother is tearfully terrified her toddler might one day be conscripted into the Hundred Years War by the still-surviving head of John McCain, Dictator for Life of the post Obamalyptic nightmare of the future.

OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. Suffice it to say, the worried mom seems a little confused about a number of facts. Hot Air's Allahpundit said it best:

"... mom here hasn't yet grasped that (a) President McCain won't be setting Iraq policy for the next 18 years, let alone the next hundred, (b) MoveOn's candidate of choice has himself been dropping some dark hints lately about "tactical readjustments," and (c) whether McCain and the military can have her son is, um, up to her son, not her. The left (or at least the segment that MoveOn represents) still hasn't quite accepted the idea of a volunteer military."

Dave wonders why MoveOn would use the Politics of Fear™ that Senator Obama and many other Democrats purport to despise.

Well today, Confederate Yankee writes about a response ad now online from the family of Eric Egland.

Read on ...

John McCain's campaign has released a new web video mash-up. It's simply Barack Obama, in his own words, all in context. The one minute video is titled "Words." It takes on Obama's most recent public lie.

Barack Obama advisers today slammed John McCain's energy stances - saying the Arizona senator has flip-flopped on issues such as CAFE standards, and that his support for drilling in the Outer Continental shelf is just one example of energy solutions that merely "tinker around the edges" of our very expensive problem of oil dependence.

"He just has rhetoric but doesn't back it up with any substance," Obama's economic policy director, Jason Furman, told reporters during a conference call.

Despite all the "rhetoric" on how it's vital to our national and economic security to reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil, McCain "looks the other way when the tough decisions come," added senior energy adviser Jason Grumet. They called his gas-tax holiday proposal the "perfect storm of political pander."

Advisers were asked about an article today that looks at the close relationships some of Obama's advisers and supporters have with the domestic (corn-based) ethanol industry. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, for example, is an adviser who serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works on renewable energy issues at a Washington law firm.

Obama's people said the candidate has always stressed that corn-based ethanol is a "transitional" fuel and has argued that we need to accelerate to a new suite of advanced ethanols. They hailed his past work on CAFE standards as brave, given the fact that the issue used to be a political hot potato, and noted that the fuel economy bill Congress passed last fall was almost exactly the same as what Obama introduced the year before. See how Obama wasn't afraid to "roll up his sleeves" to tackle tough issues? That's the kind of president he would be, they argued.

At the same time, McCain today released a new TV ad entitled "Energy Security." View below

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) produced a video for its President Dinner fundraiser. It's narrated by Fred Thompson, five minutes in length, it is titled "Freedom."

RNC Hammering on the Free Trade Issue.

Tommy had a good post up earlier pointing out that there are a lot of shades of grey here. Which is correct. Obama was not nearly as against NAFTA as he wanted certain people to believe, and he is not as pro-NAFTA as Fortune makes him out to be. And therein lies the problem. It is simply that Obama words his issues carefully enough that anyone can read their preferred meaning into them, whether it's pro/anti NAFTA, or pro/anti public financing. It's a nice showcase for his skills as a rhetorician, because each of those statements sounded great as a standalone. It's when you put them together, as the RNC has done here, that you have a problem.

Uh-oh! Looks like some of Obama's ardent supporters (Moveon.org) are still using the "Politics of Fear&qutot;

This despite Obama saying quite clearly that we should not use fear to score political points. Or maybe that's just fear of terrorists. Fear of Republicans is apparently quite alright.

Hotair, from whence I was tipped to the moveon ad, has a good response for the worried mom:

mom here hasn't yet grasped that (a) President McCain won't be setting Iraq policy for the next 18 years, let alone the next hundred, (b) MoveOn's candidate of choice has himself been dropping some dark hints lately about "tactical readjustments," and (c) whether McCain and the military can have her son is, um, up to her son, not her. The left (or at least the segment that MoveOn represents) still hasn't quite accepted the idea of a volunteer military. If you enlist, it can only be because you were somehow forced - through a draft or, per Charlie Rangel and Waffles, through economic hardship.

John McCain's campaign released a new TV spot to air in key battleground states. The :30 spot is titled "Global."

The Michigan Republican Party has a new web video greeting Barack Obama on his two-day swing through the Great Lakes state. The 1:30 video is titled "Barack Obama...Where Have You Been."