No one knows whether Hillary Clinton is going to concede the delegate count to Obama tonight, or if Obama is going to ask her to be his running mate, yet the GOP are launching the general election campaign today, using an old Clinton video.
Many people criticized Hillary Clinton when she publicly said the fateful words,
"Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign, I will bring a lifetime of experience and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002."
The video (shown with this article) was shown on news shows and blogs and the YouTube video made it from from one end of the web to the other in a matter of hours, with Democratic supporters, even Hillary supporters wondering why on earth she would give Republicans that kind of ammunition to use against Barack obama should he eventually win the Democratic nomination for presidency.
Jumping forward to today, sure enough, it was a chance that was too delicious to pass up for the Republicans, especially on a day where it is quite possible that Barack Obama will officially become the presumptive nominee for the Democrats and
this morning the first of the ads, using Clinton's own words and video of her saying them, was put up on YouTube.
An RNC official tells CNN to expect to see more of Republicans highlighting Clinton’s critical comments of Obama as the campaign now turns to the general election phase.
“We will use it repeatedly,” the official said.
The rest of what she said that day was,
"I think that is a significant difference. I think that since we now know Senator McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that.
"And I think it is imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold. And I believe I have done that. Certainly, Senator McCain has done that. And you will have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy.”
Not only is the Republican National Committee using video of Clinton but John McCain is also using a speech he is making in New Orleans, Louisiana to kick off his campaign specifically against Obama, where he will acknowledge Hillary Clinton's hard work and recognize Barack obama as the Democratic presumptive nominee.
Drudge has a sneak preview of excerpt of the speech, where McCain points out just some of the differences between him self and Obama:
But the American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama. They know I have a long record of bipartisan problem solving. They’ve seen me put our country before any President -- before any party -- before any special interest -- before my own interest. They might think me an imperfect servant of our country, which I surely am. But I am her servant first, last and always. ….
Read the rest over at Drudge, but between John McCain highlighting the differences, the experience levels compared to the lack thereof and the RNC launching their own ads highlighting Hillary Clinton saying the same thing about Obama's experience levels compared to John McCain, it is the hardest hitting first volley in the launching of the general campaign with McCain facing off against Obama.
