I also have a new piece in this morning’s USA Today, about the lessons the McCain campaign has learned from the Hillary Clinton campaign:
“Clinton’s campaign was a fabulous real-time laboratory in how you run against a movement candidate,” Nicolle Wallace, a McCain adviser and spokeswoman, told me a few days ago. The McCainiacs have studied the New York senator’s losing effort very, very carefully, and they’ve drawn some lessons from it.
Lesson No. 1 is that the “3 a.m.” ad worked.
“The ‘Is he ready to lead?’ question in our Celebrity ad is the same question that the 3 a.m. ad asked,” Wallace said. Clinton portrayed a blissfully sleeping child threatened by unspecified world events, while McCain went over the top with images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, but the message was the same: Obama is not ready.
Look at the results in the Democratic race before and after the “3 a.m.” ad. Before the ad — Clinton loses. After the ad — Clinton wins.