June 17, 2008

McCain tries to distance himself from Bush on global warming

"Dems say McCain's new "Global" ad is "universally misleading"

John McCain has launched a new television ad Tuesday titled "Global," claiming McCain's differences with the Bush administration over global warming.

The Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee's ad says "John McCain stood up to the President and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago. Today, he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse gas emissions," an announcer says in the ad. The 30-second spot also says that McCain's plan "will help grow our economy and protect our environment."

The advertisement will air "in key battleground states and on national cable," the McCain campaign said Tuesday morning in a statement announcing the ad.

The ad is being released the same day McCain is set to give a speech on energy policy in Houston. During the address, McCain will propose lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling for oil. McCain's proposal would then allow individual states to decide whether to allow drilling off their coasts.

Democrats respond

"John McCain's new 'Global' ad is universally misleading," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "How can we trust John McCain to confront soaring gas prices or break America's dependence on foreign oil when he caved in to Big Oil on drilling and tax breaks, his one of his top economic advisors helped create the problem in the first place, and he has repeatedly opposed incentives for green jobs and renewable energy? As this campaign goes on, the voters will clearly see that a vote for Senator McCain is a vote for four more years of President Bush's failed and flawed policies that have cost American jobs, driven energy prices through the roof, and given huge handouts to his friends in the oil and gas industry."