Both the McCain and Obama campaigns are spending millions of dollars of campaign money to advertise during the Beijing Olympics.
Like the Obama team’s ad buy, the McCain campaign’s purchase includes network and cable spots. NBC Universal is airing 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on its broadcast network and cable networks including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and Telemundo.
I find this a most unfortunate choice of venue.
Rick Moran has a list of reasons why he’s not going to watch the Olympics:
They have murdered hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats who roamed free in Beijing. No, they were not euthanized but rather taken to camps and allowed to starve to death.
They have cracked down on internet access for those in attendance so that no breath of opposition is heard.
They have reportedly placed spies in hotels where westerners will be staying in order to keep an eye on them.
And now, we hear from the Washington Post that the few human rights activists not already in jail have been rounded up in anticipation of the game’s opening next week.
You may add to that the death penalty buses and the harvesting of organs (for transplants) from executed criminals and live Falun Gong practitioners.
But, politics is politics, and campaign funds for advertising must be spent before the Convention deadlines.
Pity.
If memory serves, because Obama isn’t taking public financing, he can carry over his primary funds to the general. McCain, on the other hand, has to use up what’s left of his primary funds now.
Of course, there’s the question of where to spend that cash, and a national ad buy, regardless of the complications of advertising on the ChiCom Olympics, is a poor decision.