Sneak Peek: 'You Are Wearing Me Out, Brother'

April 02, 2008— -- With the media relentlessly focused on whether Hillary Clinton will give up her bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, her campaign launched a television ad in Pennsylvania on Wednesday which looks past Barack Obama and hammers John McCain on the economy.

"It's 3:00 am, and your children are safe and asleep," says the ad's narrator. "But there's a phone ringing in the White House, and this time, the crisis is economic. Home foreclosures mounting, markets teetering."

"John McCain just said the government shouldn't take any real action on the housing crisis, he'd let the phone keep ringing," the narrator continues. ". . . It's 3:00 am, time for a president who's ready." 

Watch it here.

On its own, Clinton's ad will not change that her own allies expect her to end the primary season behind Obama in pledged delegates.

But the new spot, which is the first Democratic ad to mention McCain by name, does advance two of her objectives: it keeps the focus on the economy and it allows her to tout her general-election strength in key battleground states.

As the Clinton campaign was quick to circulate, Quinnipiac released two polls on Wednesday showing the former first lady doing somewhat better than Obama against McCain in Florida and Ohio, the states which decided the 2000 and the 2004 elections.

Florida:

Ohio:

McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt swiped Clinton's new ad by portraying the former first lady as desperate.

For Clinton these days, said Schmidt, "the call at 3:00 am is more likely, 'Senator, you just lost another superdelegate.'"

The Obama campaign did not have an immediate response to Clinton's ad. But earlier Wednesday, the Illinois Democrat's campaign went after Clinton on trade.

"The truth is," said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, "her opposition to NAFTA is just as much a stretch as her story about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire."

The kicker:

"You are wearing me out, brother."

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