2008 Elections

Sunday, Jun 1, 2008 14:16 PDT

War Room

In new ad, Clinton camp pushes popular vote

The spot is running in the two states that will hold primaries on Tuesday. Video

By Alex Koppelman

Hillary Clinton's campaign is running a new ad in Montana and South Dakota, the two states that will hold their Democratic presidential primaries on Tuesday. The ad makes the case for her nomination based on the national popular vote. (It can be viewed below.)

"17 million Americans have voted for Hillary Clinton, more than for any, primary candidate in history," the ad's narrator says. "Some say there isn't a single reason for Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee. They're right -- there are over 17 million of them."

As the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza observes, the ad is strictly accurate in letter, though not so much in spirit.

First of all, the ad implies that Clinton's leading rival Barack Obama in the national popular vote count, when in fact at the time of the ad's release Clinton actually trailed Obama in most of the formulations that can be used to come to a full accounting of the popular vote. Plus, according to Obama spokesman Bill Burton, "both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have gotten more votes than any presidential campaign in primary history."