On Hardball last night, I saw two consultants more or less agreeing on the persuasive power of the MoveOn.org ad charging that McCain was going to send babies to Iraq. The ad, as described by the AP:

In the ad, an actress with an infant child speaks as if she were addressing McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee. “Hi John McCain,” she says. “This is Alex. And he’s my first. So far his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog. That, and making my heart pound every time I look at him. And so, John McCain, when you say you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

Matthews began by calling the ad “pretty strong stuff” and turning to Jennifer Palmieri, former spokeswoman for John Edwards, who said the ad “could be effective rmeind people that John McCain wants to stay in Iraq. He’s continues the war, that has some strength.”

Mike Paul, a former top aide to Sen. Alphonse D’Amato (who Matthews described as “the late great senator”), said “it’s pretty strong ad, but I don’t know if it will work. It’s more than a women’s ad, it’s an ad that touches anybody who has a child.” Paul quickly got tied down into a quagmire with Matthews repeatedly insisting “what does he mean by 100 years?”, with the host demonstrating a strikingly obtuse incapability to distinguish between U.S. forces facing combat and the current circumstances of U.S. troops in Germany, Japan, South Korea, etc.

I’m surprised no one, so far, has pointed out that the emperor has no clothes and that the MoveOn.org ad is inane on a multitude of levels – not the least of which that by the time Alex is old enough to enlist, the choice of whether or not to wear his country’s uniform will be Alex’s, not his mother’s insisting “you can’t have him.” Or that by the time President McCain finishes his second term, Alex will be nine or ten years old. Perhaps in the final years of the second term of Bobby Jindal or Sarah Palin, in 2024 or so, would Alex face the possibility of joining the military.

Incapable of finding an actual accurate line of criticism of McCain — apparently no one at MoveOn.org listens to talk radio, which tends to offer daily 11-hour doses of McCain criticism from Laura Ingraham through Rush Limbaugh through Sean Hannity through Mark Levin — MoveOn.org has to make them up. It typically rehashes the “100 years” line, but this time remixes it with the tired, long-debunked claim that there’s a secret plan to reinstitute the draft. (Remember all of Kerry’s allies offering this throughout the 2004 general election? Whatever happened to Bush’s secret plan?) McCain opposes a draft, says so every time the topic comes up, and even if he did, the actress playing the mother in this commercial apparently believes the commander in chief requires enlisting troops to have notes from their mothers.

You know who’s introduced legislation to bring back the draft? Rep. Charlie Rangel, Democrat of New York. You know who’s written at length about why the military needs to reinstitute the draft? Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, often mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama.

By suggesting that John McCain wants to send babies to Iraq, MoveOn.org has made Larry Johnson look reliable.