UPDATE: John McCain has released the ad he will air in response to Barack Obama's acceptance speech. In it, he congratulates Obama on his historic nomination.
Here's the ad:
The full ad transcript:
JOHN MCCAIN: Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America.
Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, congratulations.
How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight Senator, job well done.
I'm John McCain and I approved this message.
***END OF UPDATE***
John McCain's campaign is setting expectations high for its response to Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver tonight: an ad airing in battleground states. Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker describes the spot "historic" and "exciting," but the campaign won't offer details. Here she is talking about it on "Morning Joe":
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Apparently the McCain campaign has an ad rolling out tonight. What's it about?
JILL HAZELBAKER: Well, Mika, this is a historic ad. I think this is the first of its kind. Senator McCain is going to speak direct to camera to Barack Obama. I'm not going to give away many more details than that. But suffice to say it's going to be a very exciting ad, and I think it's going to get a lot of attention.
...BRZEZINSKI: Jill, you've got to give us more on this ad. He's speaking directly to camera, John McCain is to Barack Obama. If you say there's news here, what's the news?
HAZELBAKER: Well, I'm going to keep a lid on it. But I think it's newsworthy to note that Senator McCain is going to have an ad that's going to air in battleground states around the time that Senator Obama is speaking tonight. And he's going to be talking directly to his opponent. So, I'm going to leave it there, but it's going be very exciting and a lot of people are going to focus on it.
The Politico notes that "the strip-tease on the ad is one of several moves by the McCain campaign that could distract attention from Obama's big night." They are also fueling speculation about McCain's VP pick.