It's 3:00 AM, I Must Be Lonely

29.02.2008

Wow, Jason, you're right: what a strange ad for Clinton. (See below.) The narrator tells us, twice, that "it's 3:00 AM and your children are asleep" when a call comes to the White House. From this we're supposed to conclude that we need a Tested and Ready president in Hillary Clinton, who as First Lady was apparently answering these calls, perhaps because her husband was shacked up at the time. Okay, fine.

But isn't pretty much everybody asleep at 3:00 AM? And what do my kids have to do with it? Sure, the president could get a call about a terrorist cell forming in Pakistan or something, but that isn't going to effect my kids, or me, in the middle of the night. We can wait until morning to read about it in the news.

The image in the commercial seems to be taken for commercials for home alarms, and it's pretty effective in that context -- exploiting the fear that your kids will be snatched from their beds by burglars while you sleep. As a parent of young kids I get paranoid about this all the time late at night. But the president isn't going to get a call about burglars in your house, and even if they did, I don't see how Clinton's First Lady experience would help her catch them better than Obama.

--Jonathan Chait

Posted: Friday, February 29, 2008 10:57 AM with 19 comment(s)

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adamvaught said:

You've been waiting a long time to make a Matchbox 20 reference, haven't you.

February 29, 2008 11:29 AM

virginiacentrist said:

The only reason why this ad made sense to Hillary was because she's often up until 3am waiting for Bill to come back covered in glitter and reeking of cheap perfume.

February 29, 2008 11:31 AM

Rhubarbs said:

Little-known fact: Hillary Clinton does not sleep. She doesn't like to make a big deal of this, but in addition to her daytime duties as senator and candidate, Hillary works six nights a week on a rotating schedule of overnight 911 dispatcher, air-traffic controller, and OnStar operator.

February 29, 2008 11:39 AM

ejbenjamin said:

Hillary really has been watching a lot of SNL lately.

http://tinyurl.com/2zjonh

February 29, 2008 11:42 AM

miceelf said:

Remember that Hillary works the night shift, like janitors and meat-packers. So she'll be up at 3. You have to watch all the ads together. It's like a 30s serial.

February 29, 2008 11:43 AM

haha great thread folks, all around.

you TNR folks should include the fairly effective (in the democratic primary) Obama camp response:

"Well it won’t work this time. Because the question is not about picking up the phone. The question is — what kind of judgment will you make when you answer? We’ve had a red phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. And Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer. George Bush gave the wrong answer. John McCain gave the wrong answer."

February 29, 2008 11:55 AM

tembrach said:

Obviously what this means is that Hillary has a greater sense of vigilance than Obama. She sees the world as it is, not as she would like it to be. So at 3:00 in the morning, she will be ready to act.

Obama naiveté and self grandeur is going to us in trouble, if he is elected president.

HRC in 2008!!

February 29, 2008 12:09 PM

williamyard said:

Coincidentally, at 3 a.m. this morning I was wide awake, thanks to the call and response I've been doing with McChicken, our rooster (the Sonoma Hooker and I are now cohabitating at our own Green Acres in a forgotten valley in the East Bay.)

I've had a nasty respiratory bug for a few days and sometimes start coughing in the middle of the night, which McChicken, who at night patrols the asphalt in front of the abandoned shipping container, takes as conversation, so I go "Akkk! Akkk! Akkkk!" and he goes "OOkle OOkle OOkle." My cats are concerned.

Last night I went outside for a bit. A bark, probably a coyote, came from an adjoining hill. The stars are so much better out here, away from the city.

I hope Hillary and Obama and all the rest of them are up at 3 a.m., too, but not for anything prosaic like thwarting a dirty bomb explosion or rousting FEMA to clean up after the latest spate of tornadoes. I hope they get up to go out to look at the sky, listen to the barks of far-off dogs or coyotes, and catch the cat staring at them and say, out loud, "I have no idea."

February 29, 2008 12:14 PM

malayer said:

I agree, and I have kids too. But the whole thing really sounds like an ad for McCain, not Clinton.

February 29, 2008 12:29 PM

The Ignorant Populist said:

Great post William. Why don't you right a book, at least get a blog?

February 29, 2008 12:42 PM

Thanks, Iggy. I have indeed thought of some formal means of capturing and straining my logorrhea--a blog/colander of sorts. Should I go that route I will shameless promote myself hereabouts, you have my word.

February 29, 2008 1:00 PM

adaglas said:

"Senator Obama, you're well-known, sir, for your lenient stance on crime. But suppose for a second that your house was ransacked by thugs, your family tied up in the basement with socks in their mouths, you try to open the door but there's too much blood on the knob..."

"What is your, er, question?"

"My question is about the budget."

February 29, 2008 1:34 PM

rishy said:

I would read anything yard writes. His posts often remind me of the winner of that Oscar for best song, when he said "make art!" Williamyard makes art. Great art, I might add!

February 29, 2008 2:02 PM

blackton said:

adaglas, hah.

one thing, doesn't the US have like a whole bunch of time zones, so that if it were 3 am in LA it would be like 7 am in Washington, DC? and what about the people in Hawaii and Alaska, are they missing out on all the angst ridden horror because they are just sitting down to dinner, and presumably aware of their surroundings.

For Hillary it is 3 am everywhere, all the time and she is ready.

February 29, 2008 2:04 PM