While Democrats lavish attention on voters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana during their continuing primary showdown, presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain is taking advantage of his head start on November’s vote with the launch of his first general election campaign ad.
The ad, entitled “624787” — McCain’s Navy serial number — drives home McCain’s personal narrative as Naval aviator and former prisoner of war in Vietnam. It even includes video of an interview with a young McCain as a POW.
In the last line of the ad, narrator Powers Boothe says McCain is “the American president America has been waiting for,” a variation on the popular slogan of Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama: “We are the change we’ve been waiting for.”
By airing the ad in New Mexico, the McCain camp is hoping to build on momentum started in 2004 by President Bush, who won the state over Democrat John Kerry. In 2000, New Mexico went to Democrat Al Gore.
McCain’s campaign focused on the candidate’s appeal as an American war hero during the primary contests, and this first ad suggests it will be a major selling point in the general election.
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