New Dodd Ads Use Bipartisan Message, Attacks on Dems

Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) ’08 presidential campaign will begin airing two new TV ads in Iowa Thursday, both using TV images of Democratic campaign rivals and promoting Dodd’s message of bipartisanship.

The first ad attacks Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) healthcare plan. Fictional barbers watch and criticize a Clinton TV ad, which began airing in Iowa in September to showcase her healthcare plan, saying the plan is not really “new” as advertised, and that Dodd’s bipartisan approach to passing the Family and Medical Leave Act appeals more to them.

In the second ad, the same barbers criticize TV debate footage of former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). Edwards says he’s been “fighting them all [his] life in the courtrooms…”; the barbers say that, while there has “been a lot of talk about fighting,” they like Dodd’s message of bipartisanship.