N.M. GOP pre-empts attack ad against McCain

MoveOn.org plans to begin airing a controversial television ad in New Mexico on Thursday attacking Republican presidential candidate John McCain, and the state’s GOP is attempting to pre-empt the ad with its own strike.

Here’s the ad, which has already been running in other states and drawing a great deal of attention:

The ad plays audio of McCain saying he doesn’t think Americans would be concerned if the United States stayed in Iraq “for 100 years, or 1,000 years, or 10,000 years.”

“100 years in Iraq,” the ad’s narrator then says. “And you thought no one could be worse than George Bush.”

The MoveOn.org ad could be interpreted to imply that McCain was referring to combat missions, not peacetime presence. But as the non-partisan FactCheck.org reports, McCain was speaking specifically about a peacetime presence, not the continuing of combat operations, and that’s made clear when you consider the context of the quote:

“We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as Americans, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed,” McCain said in the speech in which he gave the 100-years quote. “It’s fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world.”

State Republican Party Chairman Allen Weh pointed out today during a conference call with reporters that Republican and Democratic presidents alike have made the decision to keep American troops in certain nations around the world long after combat operations ended. He said the MoveOn.org ad is “misleading” and takes McCain’s quote out of context.

“Am I surprised that MoveOn.org is disingenuous? Absolutely not. They are a left-wing, radical organization and they are going to stretch the truth,” Weh said. “He’s making reference to peacetime presence. … He clearly did not mean that we’re going to be fighting combat missions for 100 years.”

The ad is going to begin airing Thursday in New Mexico and Iowa, the two states that went to Al Gore in 2000 but went to George Bush in 2004. In a news release announcing the New Mexico ad buy, MoveOn.org’s executive director, Eli Pariser, said voters “need to know Senator McCain would continue President Bush’s failed policies – in Iraq and elsewhere.”

“A vote for him is basically a vote for a third Bush term,” Pariser said.

The ad will run for a week on broadcast and cable stations in New Mexico, the news release from MoveOn.org said. The organization will spend $160,000 to air the ad in both states as part of a $1 million campaign it plans in May to air the ad across the nation.

Weh said the party may consider asking New Mexico television stations to reject the ads. He said the Democratic presidential candidates should denounce them, as McCain has done when conservative groups have run ads attacking them that were unfair.

Weh also said he believes voters will see through the MoveOn.org ad.

“They can tell a flaky ad from a bona-fide ad,” he said. “They understand B.S. and this one is a B.S. ad.”