That ‘Summer of Love’

Tue, July 08, 2008 - 4:13 PM

In a new campaign ad, John McCain refights the culture wars of the 1960s, contrasting himself at the time— a dashing young warrior surviving captivity and torture at the hands of the enemy—with hippies and protestors back home in the U.S.

“It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change. The ‘Summer Of Love.’ “ the ad begins, showing footage of hippies and protests.

“Half a world away, another kind of love—of country,” the ad continues, showing the young McCain.

In the ad, Obama's name isn’t mentioned. But the narration contains not-to-subtle swipes at him and his "message of hope."

The narrator says at one point:

"Beautiful words cannot make our lives better.

"But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics can."

Equating Obama in voters’ minds to 1968’s protests, bell-bottoms, and legal or illegal tune-ins and turn-ons, with McCain's his own record in battle and as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war would be a striking contrast. Except that it's a false one.

Obama can't seriously be linked to a cultural divide dating from when he was still in elementary school. And aren't we past the Archie Bunker era?

Perhaps the ad was actually planned BEFORE Obama clinched the Democratic nomination and really designed for Hillary Clinton, who is 14 years older than Obama. Before Obama won the nomination, McCain used the same tactic against Clinton, with an ad about her support for a congressional earmark to help fund a Woodstock museum.

McCain also mentioned the museum in speeches, saying he didn’t go to Woodstock or revel in the 1960s because, “I was tied up at the time.”

Here’s a better idea. Maybe the McCain camp can put out another ad linking Obama to disco or those gaudy, weird 1970s major league baseball uniforms, leisure suits, gas shortages or even Jimmy Carter.

Here's the ad: here.


-- Billy House, Media General News Service and William March, Tampa Tribune.