"The tough campaign we fought 18 years ago is not relevant to the choice facing Californians today. Jerry and I put that behind us a long time ago."
Brown's campaign has asked Whitman’s to withdraw the ad, and has been refused. Analysts say this could backfire on Whitman.
“When it first came out, I thought this was a brilliant ad, but they’ve been running it non-stop and now that Clinton and Brown have made nice and the public knows the claims aren’t true, it’s time to stop airing the ad,” says Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento."The ad could backfire on Whitman," she says. "It doesn’t look good especially if Clinton comes out to campaign for Brown.”
“Whitman simply should not promulgate mistruths in her advertisements,” adds Jessica Levinson, political reform director for the Center for Governmental Studies “Clinton’s charges against Brown back in 1992 need to be put in an honest context, since they have been discredited. Negative attack ads are fair game, but mistruths are not.”
Other analysts say Clinton’s endorsement, if played correctly by Brown, will certainly help him.
“Clinton is currently the de facto leader of the Democratic Party,” says Villanova University political scientist Lara Brown, author of “Jockeying for the American Presidency.” “Moreover, he is popular in the Golden State….”
Before Clinton endorsed Brown, the attorney general went on the offensive to discredit the ad, bringing up the former president's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
