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Obama: New Clinton ad playing 'on people's fears'

BY GLENN THRUSH AND KEITH HERBERT | glenn.thrush@newsday.com
keith.herbert@newsday.com

10:19 PM EST, February 29, 2008

WACO, Texas - Hillary Rodham Clinton released the the most controversial ad of the 2008 campaign Friday, a 30-second spot showing slumbering boys and girls she implies would be imperiled by Barack Obama's presidency.

"It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep," a male narrator says as the camera pans over boys and girls sleeping peacefully under the covers. "But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something's happened in the world. Your vote will decide who answers the call."

Reminiscent of Lyndon B. Johnson's famous 1964 spot superimposing a mushroom cloud over a girl plucking a daisy, the spot makes no direct mention of the Illinois senator. But it ends with a bespectacled Clinton reaching for a handset under a lamp in a darkened room with the words: "Who do you want answering the phone?"

The ad -- the brainchild of embattled Clinton aides Mark Penn and Mandy Grunwald -- will run in Texas but Clinton aides didn't say how long it would air or how much they're spending on it.

Obama wasted little time responding, accusing Clinton of playing the fear card and releasing an updated Internet version of the same ad touting his opposition to the 2002 vote to invade Iraq.

"We've seen these ads before, trying to play on people's fears, trying to scare up votes," Obama told backers in Texas. "But I don't think they'll work this time. The question is not about who will be picking up the phone. The question is what kind of judgment will you exercise when you answer the phone."

Later, speaking in Waco, Clinton quipped, "I don't think people in Texas scare all that easily."

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe compared the ad to a 1984 Walter Mondale commercial showing a red hotline phone in the White House that was intended to portray his opponent Gary Hart as soft on defense.

"She had her red-phone moment in 2002," he said, referring to Clinton's initial Senate vote in favor of the war. "And she and George Bush and John McCain made the wrong decision."

In a conference call, Clinton aides dismissed the suggestion by reporters that the ad -- titled "Children" -- was comparable to LBJ's "Daisy" commercial, which was intended to suggest Republican Barry Goldwater was irresponsible enough to start a nuclear war.

"This is not at all like the ad -- it envisions basically the apocalypse, that is not what our ad does," said communications director Howard Wolfson.

"This is a positive ad, it has very soft images not at all like that ad," said top strategist Mark Penn, who conceived the idea behind the spot, according to the campaign. Penn dismissed questions about the ad's veracity given that Clinton has never held an official position in the executive branch.

The commercial repackages one of Clinton's oldest campaign themes -- her relative experience on national security -- in a way the campaign hopes will appeal to Lone Star State voters, who are more conservative on national security than Democrats on the coasts.

It comes at a time when Clinton is slipping behind Obama in Texas polls -- and as her advisers are starting to downplay expectations she'll win here and in Ohio, where she clings to a 7-point lead.

On Friday night Clinton's campaign announced that she will spend part of her pre-primary Monday evening appearing on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

As Clinton and Obama cris-crossed Texas Friday, officials with the Texas Democratic Party reported that Clinton's lawyers were planning a suit to stop the state's hybrid primary-caucus election, arguing that it was unfair to some voters. A Clinton spokesman said the campaign was only requesting clarification of rules, adding, "There was no threat of legal action veiled or overt."

Herbert reported from Waco, Thrush from Columbus, Ohio