McCain ad puts distance with Bush on environment

[June 18, 2008]  (AP)  TITLE: "Global"

LENGTH: 30 seconds

AIRING: National cable and broadcast markets in Colorado, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Iowa.

SCRIPT: Announcer: "John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming, five years ago. Today, he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse gas emissions. A plan that will help grow our economy and protect our environment. Reform. Prosperity. Peace. John McCain." McCain: "I'm John McCain and I approve this message."

KEY IMAGES: Jarring music and a quick black and white succession of video images -- heavy traffic, smokestacks belching smoke, glaciers collapsing into the ocean, capped by a color clip of the sun setting. McCain then appears on screen behind a microphone above a superimposed newspaper headline: "McCain climate views clash with GOP." The music softens amid images of windmills, water turbines and solar panels. The ad concludes with McCain outdoors, pines and mountains behind him as a breeze ruffles his untucked shirt.

ANALYSIS: The ad is built on a foundation of five central words: " ... stood up to the president." Democrats have been trying to portray the Republican presidential candidate as an extension of President Bush. McCain and the Bush administration have clashed over how to control greenhouse emissions. And with McCain embracing Bush's current policies on the Iraq war and tax cuts, the issue of climate change gives him a chance to distance himself from the unpopular president. McCain has favored a plan that would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 60 percent by 2050 and supports more nuclear power.

But the ad aired a day after McCain's announcement Monday that, like Bush, he favors lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. The announcement, a reversal from his position in his first presidential campaign in 2000, when he said he favored the ban, upset environmental groups.

McCain also had indicated he was open to a windfall profits tax on the oil industry, but on Tuesday criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for demanding the same thing. The Democratic National Committee criticized McCain's environmental record, noting his policy changes and some votes against tax credits for alternate energy sources.

This is the second ad in McCain's expanded general election media campaign. The first described his family's tradition of military service and his more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. If there is a narrative in the ads it is to establish his biography as a war hero and independent politician.

McCain currently has the airwaves to himself. Obama has yet to begin broadcasting his general election themes. McCain is spending at least $2 million a week on the ads, a modest expenditure that focuses on key battleground states.

McCain often has said he aspires to be as great a conservationist as his role model and fellow Republican, Theodore Roosevelt. While the ad sought to assure independent and environmentally conscious voters, global warming also stands as an important issue with the evangelical and Christian conservative voters McCain is trying to court.

[Associated Press]

Analysis by Jim Kuhnhenn

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