McCain ad claims McCain won tonight's debate

And the debate hasn't even started yet. From The Washington Post:

Although the fate of tonight's presidential debate in Mississippi remains very much up in the air, John McCain has apparently already won it -- if you believe an Internet ad an astute reader spotted next to this piece in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning.

"McCain Wins Debate!" declares the ad which features a headshot of a smiling McCain with an American flag background. Another ad spotted by our eagle-eyed observer featured a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis declaring: "McCain won the debate-- hands down."

The screenshot can be found here.



I'm not sure what to say about this. Perhaps the Wall Street Journal posted the McCain ad before the debate even began, and then pulled the ad off the web page. It is likely that the McCain ad was to be placed on the Journal's web page after the debate, to generate conservative feedback in claiming that McCain won the debate. Looking at the comments on the WaPost story, there are a lot of readers saying that the ad was Photoshopped into the web screenshot of the page, with the blame on some unknown Obama supporter. That is also a possible reason. Personally, I will go with the WSJ screw-up in posting the ad before it was suppose to run.