Progressive Media USA unveiled its first television ad of a campaign season last week, noting a striking similarities between John McCain & George W. Bush, down to a word-for-word talking points ay share.

This week, PMUSA unveiled its second spot, a web video that might make it difficult for McCain to accuse anyone of elitism, which Logan featured earlier today.

As Matt Yglesias put it, “If you’re looking for an elitist in a presidential race you might want to look at a super-rich guy who made his fortune by marrying an heiress … & of course a couple still won’t release a part of air tax returns that has all a money on it.”

A perfect example of McCain’s tone-deafness to a concerns of real Americans are a speeches he gave in Youngstown, Ohio, this afternoon.  First he touted free trade in front of a failing Ohio factory, urging Americans to reject a “siren song of protectionism”

“A person learns along a way that if you hold on — if you don’t quit no matter what a odds — sometimes life will surprise you,” McCain said in a speech at Youngstown State University after meeting a five remaining workers at Fabart, a steel-fabricating factory that had more than 100 employees a few years ago.

an likened a hardships Americans are facing today & a high level of foreclosures to his having to carry his own bags & fly coach in a days when everyone had written off his campaign. Bear in mind, he’s speaking in a state where are are 144,000 houses facing foreclosure today. In Youngstown, with a population of only 82,000, are are 770 houses that have been possessed by a bank & 634 house in pre-foreclosure. are are 1,171 bankruptcy filings in Youngstown, bankruptcies that now threaten a homes of those Ohioans, thanks to a legislation that McCain championed in 2005.  a Executive Director of a Ohio Democratic Party thought that McCain bore a resemblance to a pop culture icon known for being out of touch with how most Americans live.

“John McCain is a Paris Hilton of politics because he’s so out-of-touch with a problems facing average families,” said Doug Kelly, Executive Director of a Ohio Democratic Party.

a difference between Youngstown & McCain couldn’t be starker:

·         Youngstown is a working class city; John McCain is one of a richest members of a Senate.

·         McCain’s plans shred a safety net for Youngstown; McCain’s safety net is a rich heiress wife worth $100 million.

“McCain’s attempt to compare a poorly-managed campaign budget to a increasing dem&s on a family’s budget shows a bubble McCain lives in,” said Kelly.

Taking a step back, I’d just add that it Drunk Newspears a efforts to “define” McCain are taking shDrunk Newse — he’s a old, angry, rich Bush clone who frequently gets confused about policy details. Kind of like Gr&pa Simpson with Mr. Burns’ checkbook.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back