Clinton snipes at Obama on national security

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday targeted her Democratic rival with a new ad that asks voters who they would trust to protect their families when a national security crisis strikes.

Sen. Barack Obama called it a scare tactic and rapidly cut a response ad to begin airing today.

In the Clinton spot airing in Texas, sleeping children are shown as the narrator says: “It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep, but there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something’s happening in the world.

“Your vote will decide who answers that call,” it continues. “Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world.”

The ad does not mention Mr. Obama, but the implication is clear — the former first lady has more experience on national security. She evokes the September 11 terrorist attacks on the stump and her role as a U.S. senator from the ground-zero state of New York.

The Obama campaign dismissed the effort as “not going to be effective,” and Mr. Obama said it was a tactic to “play upon people’s fears to scare up votes.”

Obama advisers compared the Clinton ad to what was dubbed the “Red Phone” spot that Walter Mondale ran against Gary Hart in 1984, and political pundits likened it to the “Daisy” ads President Lyndon Johnson ran against Barry Goldwater in 1964.

The Obama campaign said Mrs. Clinton failed her “red phone moment” by voting to authorize the Iraq war in 2002 and noted that ad guru Roy Spence, who created the Mondale spot, was responsible for Mrs. Clinton’s new ad.

The Obama response ad repurposes the Clinton version with text and narration boosting his message.

It uses the “It’s 3 a.m. line,” but adds its own spin: “When that call gets answered, shouldn’t the president be the one — the only one — who had judgment and courage to oppose the Iraq war from the start?’

“Who understood the real threat to America was al Qaeda, in Afghanistan, not Iraq, who led the effort to secure loose nuclear weapons around the globe?” it continues as images of Mr. Obama fill the screen. “In a dangerous world, it’s judgment that matters.”

The national security play came only days before four make-or-break Tuesday contests.

Polls suggest that each candidate holds a strong lead in one state — Mr. Obama in Vermont and Mrs. Clinton in Rhode Island. She holds a lead in Ohio that has drastically eroded, while Mr. Obama has been consistently leading in the latest Texas polls.

In Waco, Texas, Clinton supporter retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark defended the campaign’s ringing-phone TV ad, saying that he had personal experience making those type of emergency middle-of-the-night calls to the White House and that voters needed to think about who they wanted answering such calls.

“I’m not here to try to scare anyone. We’re Democrats,” he said at a rally at the Waco Convention Center, where Mrs. Clinton was surrounded on stage by two dozen retired military leaders who served in conflicts dating back to World War II.

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