"One of the most persuasive ads in the last four years"

John McCain vs. baby in anti-war ad
The Chicago Tribune
Posted June 18, 2008

The Swamp

by Katie Fretland

"You can't have him" is a woman's message to Sen. John McCain in a new video campaign starting today by anti-war group MoveOn.org.

During the advertisement, a woman sits on a pink couch holding a cooing baby boy. She looks into the camera and talks about the child's talents of "trying any new food and chasing after our dog."

She ends by saying, "So, John McCain, when you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were you can't have him."

In January, the presumptive Republican nominee for president said U.S. troops could spend "maybe 100" years in Iraq. He later defended his statement and said he was referring to a military presence such as the troops currently in Japan, Germany and South Korea. He recently released his own ad stating, "I hate war."

MoveOn.org's $540,000 ad called "Not Alex" will run in the battleground states of Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin and nationally on cable TV. Preliminary testing of the ad showed it is among the most persuasive ads in the last four years, according to Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.



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