White House Guarantees Lots of Play for Hillary Ad

Sen Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) new television ad has struck a nerve with the White House. Titled "Invisible," the ad is critical of the Bush administration -- claiming that Americans and their concerns are "invisible" to the government.

"And I never thought I would see that our soldiers who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan would be treated as though they were invisible as well. " -- Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY), in her new TV ad, "Invisible"

The White House was quick to attack the ad as "outrageous."

And as to whether or not our troops are invisible to this president, I think that that is absurd, and that is unconscionable that a member of Congress would say such a thing. -- Dan Perino, White House Spokesman

The White House quotes catapulted the Hillary ad to national media attention -- meaning free airplay on news programs, newspaper coverage, and YouTube. From the Caucus:

The Clinton campaign likes few things more than taunting a rival into attacking Mrs. Clinton — allowing her advisers, in turn, to say that Mrs. Clinton is under assault by this opponent or that one (in this case, the “right wing attack machine”). The Clinton camp cites these episodes in fund-raising letters and other literature to try to energize Democrats to support her fighting spirit.

The Clinton campaign loved the criticism so much, they flagged it and alerted the media to the Bush administration attacks on the ad.