Much as I appreciate Kevin Drum's point that Democrats shouldn't fear to compete with Republicans on national security issues (I totally agree!) I have to say I find this ad by Hillary Clinton to be more than a little bit despicable. Hillary Clinton is simply providing John McCain with more ammunition to use against Barack Obama in the general election, should Obama become the nominee (as is now quite likely). McCain will be able to use this line attack in the general, and he'll be able to say that even Hillary Clinton agrees with him. That will only underscore its effectiveness.
Now obviously, the issue of "readiness" is not going to be the one issue in the general election, and it's entirely possible that Obama will be able to deflect it. But this ad is sort of the entire Clinton campaign in a nutshell: if a message doesn't work, keep on using it? This comes only a few days after Clinton was making a big (and welcome) push on poverty. I'm beginning to think that the Clintons may be a little too rigid and inflexible with respect to tactics to lead the country. And their campaign is beginning to feel more and more like a vindictive scorched earth campaign to try to weaken and delegitimize Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee (see their recent bullshit lawsuit to try to challenge the delegate selection rules in Texas and downplay expectations there, only about ten days since the state was declared "must win"). Enough already.
Update: I find this Obama response to be reasonably effective...
