New Kerry-Edwards ads

Kerry's TV ads have been getting better, I think. Here's my take on some of the latest ones.

"Three Minutes" (July 10) shows John Edwards testifying passionately at a campaign rally about how John Kerry can keep us safe, and telling us we oughta spend three minutes with the men who fought with Kerry 25 years ago. This ad makes me think maybe Edwards really can help narrow the "charm gap."

"Team for America" (July 7) nicely promotes the strength of Kerry and Edwards as a team. It emphasizes Kerry's 30 years of experience, presumably to counter the Bush campaign's account that Edwards is inexperienced (after all, GWB was no more experienced, and arguably less so, in 2000). Then it rather effectively spins Edwards's pre-Senate career as a virtue (the text accompanying the narration says "from a working family - stood up for people - fought powerful interests"). I like it.

"Middle Class Help" (July 7) ends with the on-screen text and simultaneous voiceover, "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World," which I think is actually a terrific slogan.

"Husband and Father" (July 7) wisely drops the clip of Teresa Heinz Kerry talking about her husband that was airing earlier this summer. She comes across as utterly elite and foreign, and I'm afraid she will have to be seen and not heard for the time being. Instead, this ad shows Kerry as not just a husband and father, but a hunter and hockey player too. I heard on NPR that the hunting-and-fishing set is quite unsatisfied with Bush's land use policies and is ripe for a Democratic appeal. (I'm still waiting for my own homo-target ad. John Kerry is an unstoppable clubgoer? He insists that the campaign bus has to stop at the Diesel store while he runs in to look at shoes?)

"Paperwork" (June 22) is a little silly; it basically has Kerry telling you that he can lower our health care premiums by reducing paperwork and administration. Of course, he's partly right; the private medical, hospital, and insurance industries do have far, far higher overhead and administrative costs than, say, Medicare or the VA hospitals. I would rather he didn't aim so low, but I guess the Clinton experience testifies that what "Americans" really want is lower premiums, not equity or a single-payer system---so, hell if I know what Kerry should be saying about this.

"Born in Colorado" is a shameless appeal to state boosterism. But why not?