Clinton '3am' ad stars an Obama supporter

IT HAS become known as the advert that changed a campaign. A Hillary Clinton TV commercial showing a little girl tucked up in bed, while the presidential candidate answers the phone in the White House, is credited with putting her primary campaign back on track last week.

But now has come news that the girl featured in the ad is a Barack Obama supporter.

"I was completely shocked," said 17-year-old Casey Knowles, who is an unpaid campaign organiser for Mr Obama in her home state of Washington.

The advert, which has become known as the "3am phone call," features a voiceover asking: "It's 3am and your children are safely asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?" The picture then cuts to a bespectacled Mrs Clinton picking up the White House phone.

But Ms Knowles said she knew nothing of the commercial until she saw it on TV. In fact, her portion was shot nine years ago in a commercial for a railway company when Casey was just eight, and the Clinton campaign bought the footage from an agency last month.

"It makes me feel a little disillusioned," she said. "What I don't like about the ad is its fear-mongering. I really prefer Obama's message of looking forward to a bright future."

Not all voters agree. Days after it was screened, Mrs Clinton won Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas, ending Mr Obama's string of 11 straight victories.

Mr Obama's campaign paid a back-handed tribute to the ad by screening its own version, with an announcer asking: "When that call gets answered, shouldn't the president be the one, the only one, who had judgment and courage to oppose the war in Iraq from the start?"

Not to be outdone, Republican John McCain, now basking in the glow of having won his party's nomination, insists that, having fought in Vietnam, he is the man for a crisis: "If the phone rings at 3am," he said at the weekend, "I think the American people would want me to answer it first."

The ad has produced a string of parodies: One reminds viewers that, based on his wife's claims, Mr Obama snores too loud to hear the phone. Another shows Mrs Clinton saying: "Bill's not here. Like I said, it's 3am."

But despite the parodies, it is Mrs Clinton who is laughing. Her advertisement seems, belatedly, to have concentrated her campaign on its surest theme, which is that, in dangerous times, it is sometimes better to have an old hand at the top than a novice.

Mr Obama, meanwhile, is hoping for a predicted victory today in Mississippi, following his weekend triumph in Wyoming, will steady a campaign ship that has begun to wobble following a series of gaffes by campaign advisers.

This week he is continuing to deal with the fallout from an interview in The Scotsman with his former adviser, Samantha Power, in which she labelled Mrs Clinton a "monster".

Yesterday, Mr Obama ridiculed an idea being floated by the Clinton camp of him being Hillary's running mate this autumn.

Speaking in Mississippi, the Illinois senator said voters should not think they can get both candidates on the ticket by nominating Mrs Clinton as president and assuming he will accept the vice-presidential spot.

Mr Obama told a midday crowd: "You have to make a choice in this election."

He did not absolutely close the door to a second spot on the ticket, but it was a pointed signal that he was not interested.

Mr Obama noted that he had won more states, votes and delegates than Mrs Clinton so far.

In the overall race for the nomination, Mr Obama leads with 1,578 delegates to Mrs Clinton's 1,468, according to the latest tally by the Associated Press. It will take 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in August.

Meanwhile, Ms Knowles, who wants to become a delegate for Mr Obama after turning 18, is waiting for a phone call of her own. "I've talked to the Obama campaign," she said. "Hopefully Mr Obama will forgive me."

STATES OF CONFUSION

THE unexpected closeness of the race has created a headache for party leaders trying to figure out how to give Democrats in Florida and Michigan a voice after they were stripped of 313 delegates for holding contests early.

Barack Obama has more delegates than Hillary Clinton, but that might be eclipsed if she won a large enough portion of delegates from the two states. Mrs Clinton won both states, but no delegates. None of the candidates actively campaigned in either state, and Mr Obama withdrew his name from Michigan's ballot.

Amid calls from Florida and Michigan officials for new contests, a consensus began to emerge this weekend about holding a postal vote.