McCain-Palin 'Maverick' Ad Gets A 'Reality Check'

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Sep 9, 2008 8:30 pm US/Mountain

McCain-Palin 'Maverick' Ad Gets A 'Reality Check'

Written By Raj Chohan

Reporting
Raj Chohan

DENVER (CBS4) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: John McCain and Sarah Palin
CBS
Click to enlarge 2 of 2: About Reality Check: Raj Chohan focuses on matters of public policy and political persuasion. Online, he features his sources & an outline of his investigative steps on the pathway to his conclusions.

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The new 30-second ad by the McCain-Palin campaign markets Republican Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the "original mavericks." The dynamic duo has been riding a wave of populist appeal since Palin was unveiled in the days before the Republican National Convention.

The new branding spot tries to reinforce the campaign's message that McCain-Palin represents a Republican ticket that will buck the Washington status quo. The spot also reflects McCain's attempt to separate his campaign from the brand-damaged GOP establishment.

The ad states: They're the original mavericks. He fights pork barrel spending.

This claim is true. John McCain has long railed against pork barrel spending. He consistently receives high ratings from a taxpayer watchdog group, and he has famously claimed he has never requested a pork barrel project for his state.

Here's the spin. On several occasions it appears McCain used his influence to request federal spending to benefit his home state of Arizona. The requests included a $13 million land buy for an Air Force base in 2003, and a proposal that would have given $10 million to the University of Arizona to create a museum honoring the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Renquist. Neither effort was technically considered an earmark because McCain didn't try to clandestinely slip them into pending appropriations bills. Instead he either lobbied for them directly or offered separate legislation.

Ad: She stopped a bridge to nowhere.

Not exactly. What the ad doesn't reveal is that Palin actually supported the "bridge to nowhere" when she was a candidate for governor. It wasn't until after the $223 million proposed bridge to a sparsely populated island became politically non-viable and the target of national scorn that Palin famously told Congress "no thanks." Alaska still kept the federal money it had received for the bridge and diverted it to other projects.

Ad: He took on the drug industry

The claim is true. Throughout his career, John McCain has been highly critical of the pharmaceutical industry. He's repeatedly tried to regulate "Big Pharma" over the years.

The industry dislikes McCain so much that it's funneled most of its donations, by nearly a 3 to 1 margin, to Barack Obama, who is also no friend of the drug companies.

Ad: she took on big oil

This claim is also true. Sarah Palin is credited with pushing new oil field regulations in Alaska. She also confronted her own party's establishment, employing a campaign of clean government and ethics to unseat a Republican governor. However, she's also the focus of an investigation looking into whether she used her office improperly to try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper.

Ad: He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska.

Bottom line: Both candidates have a reformer reputation and have gone against their party in some high profile ways. This ad correctly highlights some of those instances, and exaggerates others.