This one was just brought to my attention by my good friend Chris Tognotti. McCain just released another attack ad (the third in three days by my count, although I could be mistaken).
This is a ridiculously misguided ad. For those who don't want to/can't view it now, it consists of about a minute of clips of Obama speaking to enthusiastic, cheering crowds, accompanied with narration like, "In 2008, the world will be blessed" and "They will call him The One." The attempt, I think, is to attack, in an ironic fashion, the perceived over-enthusiasm over Obama that his supporters possess.
Of course, the ad also contains a series of out-of-context quotes from Obama, intended to imply that he is an egotistical candidate with a Messiah complex. How out-of-context, you ask? Take a look at this example, used in the ad:
"I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”"
Personally, I don't think that's even too egotistical, but take a look at the full quote:
"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
Obama was actively downplaying his own significance, yet the McCain campaign twisted it around to imply the opposite.
The real problem with this ad, though, is that if you watch it when you're only half-paying attention, it really seems like an ad for Obama. As Chris pointed out to me, not everybody is able to grasp irony and satire, and even fewer people are able to grasp tongue-in-cheek. Only in the last few seconds does it even state that it's an ad for McCain, so the casual viewer might just think that it's a slightly over-enthusiastic ad for Obama.