New McCain Ad: To the Moon, Alice

Why does McCain insist on making pop culture references that are only meaningful to folks over 60? This week he called Obama “Dr. No” — a reference to the first James Bond movie that came out in 1962. In this ad, he cites sending the first man to the moon as an example of the kind of technology innovation America can do, which he suggests he would repeat in a McCain administration with his approach to energy policy. That’s right, the most exciting technology achievement McCain can think of was a rocket launch nearly 40 years ago.

But the energy/innovation message is secondary. The real point of this ad is to associate the words “country first” with “McCain.” Of course, this is the lastest of many brand message shifts for McCain. It’s also an obvious twist on Clinton’s 1992 theme of “putting people first.” Frankly, putting people first successfully conveyed a vision and theme of the Clinton/Gore campaign — that they would shift from Bush 41’s uncaring administration to focus on the economic problems suffered by regular folks playing by the rules. I’m not sure exactly what vision “country first” communicates. Is McCain’s stubborn insistence that we keep our troops in Iraq for the next 100 years at great cost putting country first, despite the enormous needs of our country here at home?

In our weak economy, the old Clinton “people first” theme is much closer to where the voters are now than this patriotic “country first” message. Most voters, polls seem to be showing, are looking for a leader with empathy, who understands their problems trying to pay for gas and their mortgage. This ad doesn’t send that message. It’s really just tossing a bone to older, conservative voters — and it’s pretty late in the game to be trying to wrap up your own base. McCain should have accomplished that task between March and May after he locked up the nomination.

Clearly “country first” is also a dog whistled challenge to Obama’s patriotism. It seems Karl Rove and Bill Kristol have McCain’s ear. They’ve been arguing that the only way for McCain to win is to “disqualify” Obama by questioning Obama’s patriotism and attacking his character. I think McCain would be better off listening to Peggy Noonan, but McCain’s not taking my calls.

Note also the use of the phrase “Energy Security” — seizing any excuse to use the word security. I guess we can look forward to the McCain campaign speaking of “Economic Security”, “Medicare Security”, and of course, “Social Security Security.”

UPDATE (7.1):  With a hat tip to Olbermann, check out the early frames of the video in which it shows the gas pump price:  it’s roughly $2.50 a gallon!  How could they release an ad highlighting a gas price that’s almost half the market rate?