Miami, Fl:

“…just keeping my word.”

Mark McKinnon, staffer, advisor and a well-known fixture on the McCain campaign trail, last year said he would leave the McCain campaign if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination. He said at the time he did not want to work on a campaign against Obama. McKinnon, today, sent out an email saying he would be stepping down.

McKinnon, and most everyone else in the McCain camp, concluded Clinton lost more than a month ago.

The long time Austin, Texas based Democratic ad man, media strategist and campaign consultant rose to national prominence as an original Bush 2000 insider with then Governor George W. Bush’s start-up team.

In announcing his decision, he tossed out all the one-liners you would expect from a committed McCain supporter in an email this afternoon.

He is still a “1,000 percent McCain man. Just Going off the ad team.”

McKinnon says he is going from linebacker to head cheerleader and he’ll “still be showing up occasionally in my lucky hat.”

The campaign let it be known about a month ago that a top notch team of about half dozen people had been assembled to steer McCain’s media message.

McKinnon’s a Democrat, and will remain loyal to McCain from the sidelines…but will not work against Obama. It’s just that simple.

Get your mute buttons ready, the attack ads have begun.

Today John McCain provided more details on his healthcare plan in Tampa, Fl….he promised to work with states to find creative ways to cover approximately 7 million Americans with pre-existing conditions who would have difficulty getting insurance. At the same time his campaign released an ad touting the already released cornerstone of his plan…a voluntary alternative to employer paid insurance:

While McCain chose healthcare as the focus of his first issue ad as the presumptive GOP nominee, the SEIU in Ohio launched its first attack ad

The ads are not only on domestic issues, the DNC unveiled an attack ad against McCain for his “100 yrs” remarks at a NH town hall mtg in January.

The ad excerpts McCain’s remarks in context then follows with some tough political hits, but the RNC is screaming foul. They want networks to refuse to air the ad asserting that it is “false and defamatory.”

In addition the RNC is threatening legal action arguing that the DNC unlawfully coordinated the ads’ message with the Clinton and Obama campaigns. They are not showing their hand prematurely by presenting evidence of such illegally coordinated communication, but there are a few people who have worked for both the DNC and the campaigns in recent months.

The RNC complaint appears flimsy on the surface, but they may have more cards to play. In the meantime the RNC has pout out a web ad aimed at shaming Obama for countenancing attacks on McCain.

New Orleans, La:
For the second day in a row, John McCain strongly repudiated the negative ad put out by the NC GOP which uses video of Barack Obama’s former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright saying “God**** America.” The ad ends saying, “North Carolina is not ready for Obama”.
When McCain was asked again today by reporters during his tour of the lower ninth ward of New Orleans, he reiterated his dismay and said he wished the N.C. GOP would stop airing it. He did however say there was no way he could force them to cease and desist. When asked if he would censure the NC GOP by not allowing them seats at the Convention he hedged, suggesting that he would wait to see if they would respond to his request to stop running it.

See what he had to say

done

Back and forth, back and forth in the twenty four hours before the polls close in Florida. There is only one ticket out of Florida (winner take all) and McCain and Romney are fighting hard for it. The lead seems to change in the polls by the hour.

In the latest Rasmussen poll from Sunday they are in a virtual tie!

Survey of 578 Likely GOP Voters
January 27, 2008

Today, McCain called Romney a flip-flopper and released a tough new attack on Romney in a web video.

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Mitt bit back on McCain for sponsoring liberal legislation with democrats, the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform, McCain Kennedy immigration reform and McCain Lieberman; a cap and trade carbon offset program.

Mitt is determined to bring the debate back to the economy.

Mitt Romney has pulled his ads everywhere but Michigan on the day he held a phone-a-thon and raised $5 million on that day alone.

We’re not going to just be on air here. We’re going to be in other states, but as to what the schedule is for different states, you’d have to direct that to the campaign. …. I will win Michigan. You know, I don’t know what would happen otherwise. It just depends on what happens to everyone else.

Check out embed producer, Shushannah Walshe’s report on Gov. Romney’s remarks. It’s do or die in the state where he was born. He’ll be in Myrtle Beach with the rest of the field Wednesday for the Fox News Republican debate airing at 9pm.

Gov Huck did no public campaigning with Iowans today. With 4 days left NO RETAIL GET OUT THE VOTE RALLIES??????

If Huck wins the caucuses, his new ads may be credited with halting his slide. If he comes up short people may wonder if this lost Sunday, lost him the race.

After campaigning with her mother for two days in Iowa last week, Hillary Clinton is giving the Hawkeye State even more time with her mom — airing a TV ad featuring Dorothy Rodham addressing why her daughter should be the next president.

Speaking directly into the camera, Mrs. Rodham says she’d like people to know “what a good person” Hillary is, and how much she’s done to help women. She talks about her daughter’s childhood and her empathy for others over childhood photos and video of the Clinton women in the kitchen, with the caption “Hillary’s mom lives with her.”

The ad ends with Mrs. Rodham saying, “I think she ought to be elected, even if she weren’t my daughter.” done

To break up this uninterrupted string of GOP debate updates, here’s the latest ad from Hillary Clinton — a :60 second spot hitting the air in Iowa and New Hampshire. Called “New Beginning” (read: she can bring change), the ad lays out her big big policy goals over some stirring music and images. As Carl says, this is her closing argument of the primary campaign; it uses video from the campaign trail and hits all the highlights from her speeches — from her call for universal health care to ending the war in Iraq.

There are no “contrasts” (read: attacks on rivals) being drawn here, and you’re not likely to see any from any of the Democratic candidate. They’re all a bit gun shy after the two frontrunners in Iowa, Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, engaged in a negative ad war last cycle and built up so much ill will among caucus goers that they both dropped out of the lead, ceding the state to John Kerry and John Edwards.

Pushing his get-tough national security views, Rudy Giuliani’s latest television ad–set to hit New Hampshire airwaves this week–pays homage to Ronald Reagan’s dealing with the Iranian hostage crisis.

In the ad, Giuliani attributes the Iranian decision to release the American captives within hours of Reagan’s 1981 presidential inauguration to the Gipper’s strong hand when it came to foreign policy.

“The best way you deal with dictators, the best way you deal with tyrants and terrorists, you stand up to them. You don’t back down,” Giuliani says, noting that the Iranian government held the Americans for 444 days. “They released the American hostages in one hour, and that should tell us a lot about these Islamic terrorists that we’re facing. The one hour in which they released them was the one hour in which Ronald Reagan was taking the Oath of Office as President of the United States.”

The Republican front-runner often lauds Reagan’s foreign policy on the stump–praising his policies towards Iran and the Soviets–and argues that if he takes office, he also intends to increase and project U.S. military strength.

Of course, Giuliani is glossing over a bit of history in the ad since the Iranian decision to release the hostages after Reagan took the oath of office, was more intended to diss President Carter rather than show any fear of Reagan.

Giuliani first four TV ads have mostly focused on his New York City mayoral accomplishments and this is the first that cuts to the heart of his main electoral argument—staying on offense against terrorism and keeping America safe.

Former NATO commander Wesley Clark is hitting the airwaves for Hillary Clinton, who he endorsed earlier this year. In a new TV ad airing in Iowa, the ex-presidential candidate says “I’ve known Hillary Clinton for 24 years. I know she has what it takes to end the war in Iraq, avert war with Iran, and restore our country’s standing in the world.”

Iran is a major issue in Iowa, where Hillary is still asked about her months-old vote calling on President Bush to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. Her critics have accused her of aiding and abetting the president’s “rush to war” with Iran; she says the resolution promotes more aggressive diplomacy.

Since the National Intelligence Estimate revealed that Iran dismantled its nuclear weapons program in 2003, her rivals have turned up the heat on her vote. This ad, though planned before the NIE was released, could help on that front.

The RNC, meanwhile, points out that Clark once advised a candidate for the House to vote for the Iraq resolution in 2002, saying “it is only fitting Hillary Clinton would run an ad with someone that has a stance on Iraq as inconsistent as her own.” Spokesman Danny Diaz also points out that Clark may not have much sway in Iowa — he skipped the caucuses when he ran for president in 2004.