TITLE: "Love America Enough"
LENGTH: 60 seconds
AIRING: New Hampshire, Boston. It costs more than $200,000 to air between now and Dec. 2, according to data compiled by another presidential campaign.
SCRIPT: John McCain: "Since I've been in Washington, I've made a lot of people angry. I made defense contractors angry when I blew the whistle on a $30 billion boondoggle and the culprits were sent to jail. I upset the special interests and Washington lobbyists when I passed campaign finance reform. I made the Pentagon angry when I criticized Rumsfeld's Iraq strategy, and I upset the media when I supported the strategy that's now succeeding. I angered the big spenders in Congress when I called for earmark and spending reform. No more $233 million bridges to nowhere or $74 million for peanut storage in a defense spending bill. I didn't go to Washington to win the Mr. Congeniality award. I went to Washington to serve my country. I might not like the business as usual crowd in Washington. But I love America. I love her enough to make some people angry. I'm John McCain and I approve this message."
KEY IMAGES: The ad is a simple shot of McCain, in suit and tie, speaking to the camera. As he talks, the words "reformer," "took on the Pentagon," and "spending reform" appear on the screen.
ANALYSIS: This ad has New Hampshire written all over it. McCain is evoking the maverick image that won over the state's independent voters in 2000 and helped him beat George Bush in the state's presidential primary. McCain began this presidential campaign aiming to present himself as the Republican Party establishment, but his campaign faltered amid poor fundraising and an immigration debate that placed him on the wrong side of many GOP base voters. So now he's trying a strategy that worked once before — the reformer who has taken on special interests and his own Republican president. He has a prickly relationship with congressional appropriators for his tendency to highlight pork-barrel projects in spending bills. And he gets a twofer on the war, criticizing the early Bush administration strategy while embracing the new troop escalation that he backed and which has had some success. The ad is a double-edged sword. It highlights his support for changes in campaign finance law, an issue that irritated many leading conservatives who saw it as a muzzle on free speech. And in talking about how often he has made others angry, McCain displays a combative style that could draw unwanted attention to his own reputation for a withering temper.
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Analysis by Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn
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On the Net: http://www.johnmccain.com/tvads/