In a mirror image of infamous the anti-Goldwater nuke ad, Fred Thompson raises the spectre of dukes in a 17-minute video aimed at Iowa voters. Johnson warned about Goldwater’s finger on the button; Thompson warns about bin Laden’s, but with slightly less subtlety.
Sound bite: “Most Americans know that the forces of terrorism will not rest until a mushroom cloud hangs over one of our cities.”
He also goes after his fellow Republicans and media with one swipe, bragging that when asked to raise his hand (the latest debate trick) he refused.
Sound bite: “If those other fellows can’t stand up to an overbearing moderator in a debate, I’m not sure how they could stand up to the leaders of Iran or North Korea…. What you see is what you get. I dance to no man’s tune.”
He hits every conservative chime he can, saying that the Democrats are ruled by the radically secularist ACLU and — here’s the kick to the kidneys — Michael Moore. But Thompson says he’ll protect us from that.
Here’s it’s opposite number, the nuclear “Daisy” ad from Johnson’s campaign:
Mitt Romney comes out with guns blazing as he warns of the dangers of Islamic jihad, a danger he vows to protect us against.
Sound bite: It’s this century’s nightmare: jihadism, radical, violent Islamic fundamentalism. Their goal is to unite the world under a single jihadist religious caliphate.
Coverage is so concentrated on the primary hair-splitting among each party’s candidates that we’re seeing little mention of the battle lines that will come once the nominations are set — and those battles will be lasting a long time. This has already shaped up to be the clearest divide: the are-we-at-war? question.
Amazing how many people are trying to turn 9/11 against Rudy Giuliani. The firemen are forever hosing him. Some families objected to him appearing today at the 9/11 memorial service at the World Trade Center. And here’s Robert Greenwald — who made the documentaries that went after Fox News and Walmart — going after Giuliani for putting his command center in the World Trade Center. Greenwald had gone after John McCain with his Real McCain video, cataloguing his flips and flops. And now, with that candidacy sputtering, Greenwald turns his attention and camera on Giuliani at TheRealRudy.
A longer Greenwald video attacking Giuliani:
I note that someone has already registered TheRealFred.org. Wonder who…
Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo sat down with John Edwards after the candidate’s major policy address on terrorism and the war in Iraq at Pace University in NYC on September 8.
Sound Bite: “Is there a serious threat of terrorism? Of course there is. And the President of the United States has a responsibility to address it globally . . . but what Bush has done is he created this phrase [Global War on Terror] for the specific political purpose of allowing him to do whatever he wanted.”
John Edwards presents his plan to fight terrorism in a speech in New York. Fast-forward past a whopping 10 and a half minutes of introductions. Then skep past another 12 minutes of background we already know and criticisms we’ve already heard. It’s a full 22 minutes into the 40-minute video before he gets to his first specific proposal: the creation of a Counterintelligence and Terrorism Treaty Organization (CITTO). Next: He’ll fund 1,000 scholarships for students learning language and other needed skills. He’ll create programs working with American mosques; not clear how. And then he calls for energy independence.
Sound bite: “George Bush is using 20th-century weapons against 21st-century problems.”
At the AFL-CIO debate in Chicago on August 7, Senators Dodd and Clinton pile on Senator Obama for suggesting that the US unilaterally send forces into Pakistan to fight al-Qaeda.
Sound Bite: [Clinton] “You can think big, but remember, you shouldn’t always say everything you think if you’re running for president, because it has consequences around the world.”
Barack bobs and weaves and the hometown crowd cheers.
Should candidates take money from lobbyists? John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack explain why money from banks, insurance companies, drug companies, multinational corporations is very, very bad. (Now, about that money from defense lawyers and union lobbyists? Hmmmmm.)
Want screamin’ Joe Biden highlights? Here they are:
Gallup asks Americans to rate their confidence in the leading candidates on four issues. On Iraq, McCain, Giuliani, Obama, and Clinton rank within four points of each other, all just over 50 percent. Gallup notes that McCain’s pro-war stand has not hurt him here. Terrorism is Republican turf with Giuliani at 69 percent to Clinton’s 53. On the economy, Obama and Clinton come out ahead with Giuliani close by but McCain much below. And Clinton tops the list in health care with 65 percent confidence.
A top video on the Viral Video chart shows Al Gore in 1992 slamming Bush 41 for ignoring Iraq’s ties to terrorism.
Soundbite: “The CIA reported . . . that Iraq was clandestinely procuring nuclear weapon technology . . . This nation with a record of terrorism continuing was making a sustained effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical, and biological.”
Whether we have a war on terror remains a litmus soundbite and Mitt Romney goes after John Edwards over it: “You see, the terrorists are fighting a war on us, we have to make sure we’re fighting a war on them.”
