The Obama campaign released a new, national cable ad on Saturday responding to John McCain's decision to tap Sarah Palin as his running mate. The message could not be clearer: Forget McCain/Palin, this ticket is all about McCain/Bush.

The negative ad comes just after Obama and Biden congratulated Palin's progress, though not her positions, touting her on Friday as a "compelling new voice" whose assent marked an "encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics." Picking up where that praise left off, the ad says McCain offers no change, given his economic policies and support for Bush. "He's made his choice," the narrator sighs, "but for the rest of us, there's still no change." The Obama camp is right to commend the Palin pick for breaking barriers -- I had a similar reaction on Friday -- and immediately return to savaging McCain for his elitist economic agenda and stubborn support for the failed Bush policies of the past.

The ad is below, followed by video of Obama speaking about Palin, and then a clip of an MSNBC debate I did from the Democratic convention. The debate focsed on McCain's outreach to Clinton supporters and the prospect of putting a women on his ticket.

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Update 2: Obama, flanked by Biden, speaks out on the Palin Pick:

Update 1: Politico's Mike Allen says the "biggest risk" in Palin is that voters must embrace McCain's humorous side:

Democrats are now the ticket of experience – 40 years in Washington vs. 36 years for the Republicans. Senator McCain is asking voters to assume he was just kidding about a basic premise of his campaign, both in the primaries and the general -- that national-security experience matters when the country is at war.

Comments (40)

1. "The Obama camp is right to commend the Palin pick for breaking barriers"

   What "barrier" exactly?

   The one for choosing a vice presidential candidate who might have been a popular contestant on American Idol?

   This choice is interesting only for the corniness --and recklessness-- of the decision.

   Sure, we can all now better pretend that the highest offices of the land are open to any average American, but if that is the lesson McCain is attempting impart then why not simply hold a lottery for the veep slot?

   Imagine all the hype as the entire nation and all of its tv stations babble on and on ad nauseam about "who is going to win the veep slot?"

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 10:39am

2. oh my...flippy mac picks a rightwing milf for VP!

   she's a moose burger eatin', wild game shootin', vendetta seekin', abortion hatin', real live conservative babe-a-rola!

   if "puma's" decide to pick this iconically fascist photogenic cougar as their new idol...

   i gotta say a lot of non politically correct crap that would get me booted from this website as a result about them.

   but its a nice sex attack to counter the obama thing. should get some a-political white men from 18 - 50 to get out and vote for the mrs. field and stream milf of the year.

   kind of looks like the female prez from that battlestar galactica series to me.

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 10:54am

3. No barrier broken.

   The Dems had a female vp nominee 24 years ago.

   Unless, of course, an Alaskan qualifies, there never having been an Alaskan nominee before.

   That will surely excite the lower 48 & exotic Hawaii.

   Posted by sloper at 08/30/2008 @ 11:01am

4. "Senator McCain is asking voters to assume he was just kidding about a basic premise of his campaign, both in the primaries and the general -- that national-security experience matters when the country is at war."

   All of which comes AFTER the GOP Convention and the excitement over Palin dies down.

   "Experience" is off the table, which means McCain is running on "new" and "change".

   Which is perfect!

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 11:32am

5. she has that sexy "librarian" thing going...and she shoots moose and pursues personal vendettas from her position of power. and she supports a complete repeal of roe v. wade...but seems to like gays...

   ooooh...i think she needs to be spanked and spanked hard...

   thanks, republicans,for choosing a hot mamma for the old guy's running mate. seriously - i was dreading having to stare at mitt romney or that polenty guy for two months. now i get to vote against the old guy and the rightwing milf of the year!

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 11:55am

6. This is a wonderful example of the hypocrisy and idiocy that is partisan politics.Had a democratic nominee picked someone as a running mate who was under investigation for abuse of power and ethics violations republicans would have said that such a choice showed extreme poor judgment and they would be correct.If that democratic running mate was suddenly cleared of those charges republicans would say that more abuse of power just took place in order to get the democrat cleared and they would,again,be correct,but partisan politics isn't about what a person does,but is about which party the person is in who did it..

   Posted by i'm nobody at 08/30/2008 @ 11:56am

7. at least she's married and non-blond. otherwise cindy might have to invoke the pre-nup agreement when fliipy mac divorces wife number 2 and marries...number 2 within a year of the divorce!!!

   ah...the party of values!

   but she seems to be the paragon of rightwing values and some kind of crazy, kooky, sitcomy, good old character and fliipy mac has that mile high blond lobbyist to distract him from his buzillionaire trophy wife...so...

   still dont think the gimmick will work, but nice try. we shall see...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:01pm

8. Posted by JOMAMMA at 08/30/2008 @ 12:03pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   she IS spankable. definately...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:05pm

9. jomamma-Being a gov in one of the very unpopulated states is quite different from being gov of a more populated state.In Alaska it is the park service that governs large parts of the state.

   Posted by i'm nobody at 08/30/2008 @ 12:16pm

10. its a direct appeal to the homer simpson mob of marching morons of the right, the guys who wanted a president as dull as they twice but cannot ignore the ugly truth about the results of electing someone as moronic as they. she's the anti-hillary, the wife they wish the had. she should appeal also to the angry white conservative christian woman who likes to think herself liberated as she spends her husbands money and has 3 - 5 kids...

    the sitcommy nature of the whole thing is surreal, but such has appeal to the homer j crowd...

    still dont think it will work.

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:17pm

11. and she's not interested in foriegn policy...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:21pm

12. looking forward to her debates with biden...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:22pm

13. "Experience" is off the table, which means McCain is running on "new" and "change".

    Which is perfect!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 11:32am

    i think i've figured this nonsense out.

    see,

    it has nothing to do with experience and blah blah.

    mr. mccain,

    in his fearmongering,

    has co-opted the soccer mom.

    it's all about imagery.

    the strong, protector (grand)dad type,

    and now,

    soccermom heroine,

    who too,

    can show those babyeating terrortowel heads,

    that america will be safe.

    grandpa-man and soccergirl!

    (what scares me is that it just may work)

    grandpa-man and soccergirl!

    the fearnamic duo!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/30/2008 @ 12:22pm

14. Posted by frosty zoom at 08/30/2008 @ 12:22pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    its a new fox family sitcom ordered up by rupert murdoch himself!!!

    mooseburger, anyone??? (cut to canned, uproarious lughter followed by hearty applause)...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:25pm

15. "grampa and mrs. mooseburger"

    he's a crazy, hotheaded, grumpy, dirty old man with a heart of pyrite, and she's a sexy, conservative, mooseburger eatin', vendetta pursuein', gun lovin', alaskan mother of 5...

    the laughs never end and it'll warm your heart and roil your stomach!!!!

    new to fox family this fall!!!!

    nice!!!!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 12:29pm

16. Happy-No one does the knee jerk thing more than you as your post just showed.In fact,you guys were knee jerking all over the place yesterday over a candidate that most of you never heard of and know nothing about.For obvious reasons Obama would be quite ignorant if he took your advice since he has gotten this far without it.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 08/30/2008 @ 12:36pm

17. Obama created and ran the largest most people centric campaign in our lifetimes... taking on and defeating the 'shoe in' that we all thought Hillary was... and did so with a political system built from the ground up... outside the beltway.

    That he has won over and inspired millions and millions... with logic, compassion, and a thorough understanding of Constitutional law... based on 'New World' approaches that acknowledge old world ties...

    ...is the finest testimony to his Political skill and sensibility.

    Trying to characterize Obama as a neophyte like Palin requires a gross mismanagement of intellect... or maybe just a profound distaste for reality.

    Wake up... America!

    Posted by ttr at 08/30/2008 @ 12:37pm

18. Hours after McCain announced Palin as his running mate I was in the hardware store when a guy on the next aisle said to his buddy, "I'll still vote for him but now if the dumb bastard dies we're stuck with her". I suppose they could have been discussing someone else, but I doubt it.

    The truth is if anything should happen to Barack Obama, a healthy young guy, Joe Biden steps to the plate. The grim truth is that if old man McCain kicks it in office our first woman president will be someone I would never vote for who has almsot no qualifications.

    This is pandering gone so awry it would be funny if the country were not in such deep trouble.

    Posted by Pogge at 08/30/2008 @ 12:42pm

19. Trying to characterize Obama as a neophyte like Palin requires a gross mismanagement of intellect... or maybe just a profound distaste for reality.

    ...or just being a right-wing, copy-paste troll on left leaning sites.

    Posted by phnord at 08/30/2008 @ 12:44pm

20. ttr...you must be new here. Here's how it works. The Nation posts an article and within the hour the same righty flame-bait trolls have at it causing some actual readers (mostly the noobs) to get up in arms over completely asinine statements. The trolls operate 24/7 and even on holiday weekends (which of course makes one wonder what their day jobs are?...probably just answered my own question).

    Just how it is around here...the cycle of douchebaggery continues the next day. Welcome to thenation.com. :)

    Posted by phnord at 08/30/2008 @ 1:24pm

21. When trying to ridicule Palins experience you are also cutting down Obamas, who has even less...

    Posted by JOMAMMA at 08/30/2008 @ 1:14pm |

    You really are desperate, aren't you, slick.

    If you want to compare elected experience in an executive role, then Palin has more experience than McNasty.

    Shite, man, think these things through before posting.

    Posted by skeletonman at 08/30/2008 @ 1:41pm

22. Obama's rebutle is another softball move! Why does'nt this ad bring up the fact that this woman doesn't believe global warming is man-made! This position has been widely discredited and at this point to maintain this position is tantamount to saying "the world is flat." This alone should invalidate McCain's campaign, seeing as he now believes the opposite is the case! In addition she is fighting to have polar bears taken off of the endangered species list so she can mine their habitat for fossil fuels and she believes creationism should be taught in public schools! WTF Obama?! Take the gloves off!

    Posted by dnewton at 08/30/2008 @ 1:48pm

23. by JOMAMMA at 08/30/2008 @ 1:14pm...

    Nice try...

    They voted FOR Clinton... and the nonRushians among them will vote FOR Obama.

    There is no rift... you''re grasping at straw men...;^)

    by phnord at 08/30/2008 @ 1:24pm...

    Yep... 24/7... and they track ISPs and do 'research'...

    ...but they don't have souls... ;^)

    Posted by ttr at 08/30/2008 @ 1:56pm

24. jomamma-Actually,Obama has far more experience than Palin.Being a small town mayor and a gov of an unpopulated state gives one little experience in much of anything.This was a very poor choice and it's obvious that guys know that.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 08/30/2008 @ 2:34pm

25. Hey, Sarah Palin wants her "Bring'em on" moment too.

    http://tinyurl.com/5by79t

    &&&&&&&&&&&&

    WOW, Palin fits right in with a hsuB / cHeney / McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS new con repub dic'tator admin:

    "I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said. But Palin said her decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan last month had nothing to do with his refusal to dump trooper Mike Wooten.

    The governor said evidence of what she called a "smoking gun" conversation, and other calls made by her aides, only recently surfaced as the attorney general started an inquiry at her request into the circumstances surrounding her firing of Monegan. Palin wanted the review because a special investigator hired by the Legislature is about to investigate the firing and a legislator has been quoted in a newspaper story talking about impeachment. The majority of the calls came from Palin's chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, according to information gathered by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Talis Colberg and Palin's husband, Todd, also contacted Monegan about the trooper."

    http://tinyurl.com/6embgh

    Doesn't sound so very familiar?

    Just don't Plame me for stating the facts mam...

    er,

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 3:25pm

26. To ignore the 18 million of the dems who voted against Obie and the many more millions who will come out to not vote for Obie is, in your words.. " a gross mismanagement of intellect... or maybe just a profound distaste for reality.' When trying to ridicule Palins experience you are also cutting down Obamas, who has even less... Posted by JOMAMMA at 08/30/2008 @ 1:14pm

    Let me address multiple points. First off. The percentage of those 18 million voters now going for McCain is low. I hate this false assertion people keep making that ALL of them are going for McCain. You sound as bad as Frank.

    Second, the point about Palin's experience is that her choice takes experience off the table why? Because it acknowledges that "experience" is not what's needed in a candidate. To support her is to acknowledge that.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:57pm

27. I'd be ecstatic at 10% average and 15% in the Big Swing States!

    Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/30/2008 @ 5:32pm

    er, but don't forget that Billary's share is 1/2 of 1/2 of the electorate if that and so your 10-15% of Billary is like 2.5% at the most. And of course that's a % that would've never voted for a black person in any case... So in reality -- there's really no loss at all.

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 5:54pm

28. So, explain why all the uproar and accusations of McCain pandering to HRC-friendly women voters w/Gov. Palin?

    Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/30/2008 @ 6:48pm

    Huh, because McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS is pandering to Billary-friendly women voters with Palin.

    So honest criticism is a foreign concept to you?

    You think!

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 7:15pm

29. Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/30/2008 @ 6:48pm

    Isn't HAPP admitting that Palin was chosen merely for her gender then????

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 7:32pm

30. Posted by frankgrits at 08/30/2008 @ 7:41pm

    Translation as always...

    "McCain in '08, means I get Hillary in '12!"

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 9:08pm

31. McLame chose Palin because his preferred choice, Pamela Anderson, wasn't available. Talk about experience!

    Posted by mcasenl at 08/31/2008 @ 03:48am

32. This attempt to piss off women voters by saying that the Obama camp treated Clinton poorly is total BS.

    She lost the party's nomination! Are you saying that because Obama didn't choose her as a running mate she has been mistreated?

    It doesn' make sense on many levels but is not worth addressing after mccain has passed on the obvioulsy qualified people he had to choose from, many he ran against for nomination.

    Just because you say it over and over and over again, does not change the facts.

    The republican party is drowning and grasping at straws. Evidence is the absurd pick for vp running mate.

    LMAO!!

    Posted by Hoot at 08/31/2008 @ 03:57am

33. Best comment on Palin, McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS never commanded a ship-- he's a go-a'loner fighter pilot that wrecked a lot of planes...

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/31/2008 @ 11:22am

34. "Sure, go ahead and burn lots of money, you guys can afford it, trying to tell the people a McCain/Palin ticket is the 'same' as McBush!" challenged "2Happy."

    Right back at ya, "2Happy." If you think WE've got a lot of money, then surely YOU, the ever-gleeful plutocrat, can afford to put yours where your mouth is.

    Your first task is: Demonstrate exactly HOW the McCain/Palin ticket is DIFFERENT from the Bush/Cheney ticket. By different, I mean IDEOLOGICALLY different. Age and gender doesn't count.

    I believe the record shows that McCain/Palin really IS the same as Bush/Cheney - and there's no need to put the word "same" in quotation marks.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 08/31/2008 @ 5:25pm

35. Palin investigation info on local AK TV channel 11

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJ-MHz90TY

    Posted by leftofcenter at 08/31/2008 @ 8:12pm

36. can't believe i came over to a left leaning site, and find there are still republican nonsensical trolls everywhere. their new logic is now 'she's more experienced than obama' like she's the one they had in mind all the time and it was some great big conservative secret conspiracy. riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. he thinks lumberjack barbie would get a few women votes, like women will just vote for someone on gender alone, even if she stands against all of their principles. not gonna happen john. and to put the country in this sort of jeopardy (i remember him saying something to the effect of barack doing anything to get elected..??)he's seventy two years old, and a cancer survivor. seventy two. she's a seventy two year old heartbeat away from the presidency, and two years ago was mayor of a town of less than 7k. yet this is equal to obama/biden. riiiight. whatever makes the trolls sleep at night. hillary supporters are going to vote for obama, i had no doubt about that, being a white mother and all. i know i am, because he supports my beliefs, saving the middle class,of which i am a member. jeeeeez, they're not gonna vote for the hockey mom, the one not believing in abortion even in case of rape or incest. or wants to teach creationism in school, rather than church. or homeschooling, what, at the cost of not investing in our public school system? she's not anything like me, or millions of other suburban working middle class moms. you'll bring in the 'right wing evangelical nuthood' and the guns rights activists, but they would have voted for mccain, maybe grudgingly, but they'd have voted for him anyhow.

    Posted by vertigo23 at 08/31/2008 @ 9:47pm

37. Vertigo23 ... welcome to the zoo!

    http://home.avenuebroadband.com/~dvaughn58/GOP2008.html

    Posted by leftofcenter at 08/31/2008 @ 10:28pm

38. I think Democrats' ads in general are not too effective because they are too ideological and therefore do not engage the public.

    I would say about Ms. Palin something like: "we adore our soccer (and hockey) moms, they protect and care our kids, do all the grassroots works in our states, they build communities throughout the US....but isn't it too much of a burden to handle them our foreign policy? Ms. Palin will only support McCain's policies not only because she's a veep candidate adhering totally to the principal, but because her endeavors have been basically those of a hockey mom and should continue to be so..."

    By the way, this is NOT exclusion of women. Hillary is NOT a soccer mom, nor for ex. Barbara Boxer. It is submitting to the public the evident, to reach the national scenes one wants to put some years on it and develop critical opinions on several matters.

    Posted by Frank42 at 09/01/2008 @ 01:12am

39. 9/11 changed his intentions!

    Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/31/2008 @ 5:58pm

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/01/2008 @ 09:40am

40. "Bush ran on, and intended to be, a non-interventionist administration after Clinton's many foreign entanglements....9/11 changed his intentions!"

    He didn't intend anything of the kind. He surrounded himself with neo-con interventionists. The fact that he asked if a way could be found to pin 9/11 on Iraq indicates that he had that country in mind from day one.

    "McCain just wants to tinker with taxes a little bit to give the middle class more of the cuts. You will call this mostly `status quo' while ignoring the fact that it is a CHANGE from what the activist role Bush sought and got on tax changes."

    He is campaigning on extending the very tax cuts that Bush got. No change there.

    Posted by brunowe at 09/01/2008 @ 2:05pm