First, the ad excludes a good chunk of McCain's full comments, including the portion that indicates he's not talking about spending 100 years in Iraq under the current conditions.
Second (and here's where the images below are pertinent), the DNC's use of footage from the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 is included in order to suggest -- erroneously -- that McCain is talking about spending 100 years in a bloody, perilous and costly war. Of course, he is not.
Any pretense of accuracy they hoped to gain by linking McCain's words to footage is completely undercut by the other images used in the ad -- which are better suited for a Michael Moore conspiracy film aiming to shock -- than for legitimate political discourse.
RNC Chairman Duncan's letter about this to Howard Dean is after the jump. [# More #]
Dear Chairman Dean:
I write regarding the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) advertisement attacking Senator John McCain titled “100,” which was released on Sunday, April 27, 2008.
As you are already aware, and as has been widely reported, the DNC’s ad is troubling for at least two reasons. First, its message is factually false; the DNC is deliberately misleading American voters. Second, it constitutes an illegal excessive in-kind contribution from the DNC to its presidential candidates. Now the Republican National Committee has learned that the ad features footage from Michael Moore’s 2004 conspiracy theory, “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
According to ABC News, the ad features “an IED blowing up near US soldiers,” an image ABC confirms that was used in “Fahrenheit 9/11.” It is no coincidence that the same Democrat advertising firm that produced this ad also was responsible for producing over $6.5 million worth of Democrat political advertising using themes from “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004.
The DNC’s combining its gross mischaracterizations with footage made famous by a movie director who meets with dictators and continually expresses caustic anti-American rhetoric only further reveals the DNC’s utter lack of respect for Senator McCain and his service to our country. Further, “Fahrenheit 9/11’s” director has compared Iraqi terrorists with American Revolutionary heroes. For the DNC to deploy such footage in a political advertisement suggests at best a lack of appreciation, and at worst a disrespect, by the DNC for the sacrifices America’s brave men and women have made and continue to make to protect our freedoms on the front lines in the war against radical Islamic extremism.
As a national party chairman you have an obligation to be straightforward with American voters. Continuing to air this ad, and others like it, is inconsistent with that obligation. Your responses to the falsity and the prohibited financing of this ad demonstrate that the DNC does not feel constrained by the law from running the ad. I am hopeful, however, that in light of this new revelation, simple common decency will prevail upon the DNC, and you will pull this advertisement off the air immediately.
Sincerely,
Robert M. “Mike” Duncan
Chairman
Join the conversation as a VIP Member