Ad Watch: McCain energy ad short on specifics

TITLE: "Purpose"

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

AIRING: National cable networks and key states of Nevada, New Hampshire, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Iowa.

SCRIPT: Announcer: American technology protected the world. We went to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard. John McCain will call America to our next national purpose: energy security.

A comprehensive bipartisan plan to lower prices at the pump, reduce dependence on foreign oil through domestic drilling, and champion energy alternatives for better choices and lower costs. Putting country first.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

KEY IMAGES: The announcer talks over pictures of a Saturn rocket and other technology and then an astronaut descending onto the moon. There is a quick shot of McCain, American flags in the background, giving a speech. It quickly transitions to close-ups of someone pumping gasoline into a car and a pump showing the price racing higher. It's followed with a collage of pictures of a natural gas rig, wind turbines, a solar panel, a coal plant and a nuclear power plant.

ANALYSIS: The ad blends patriotism and a can-do attitude to try to respond to people's anger over high gasoline prices. It promises to lower prices at the pump, but provides nothing that would, in fact, do that. It calls for reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, but studies project that even with increased domestic production and greater use of biofuels such as ethanol, the United States will continue to rely on imports for more than half of its motor fuels and be subject to global oil market pressures on the price.

The ad calls for more domestic drilling, but avoids controversy over where to drill by keeping the issue vague. McCain has proposed opening coastal waters that have been off limits for decades to drilling, and has called for building 100 new nuclear power reactors. Both issues are controversial and are not addressed directly in the ad. Government energy analysts have said opening offshore waters that now are under drilling moratoria would not likely have a significant impact on oil supplies or prices before 2030.