WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton's critics said her strident attacks on Barack Obama would return as Republican fodder, and it came to pass Thursday as she made her debut in an ad for White House hopeful John McCain.
"John McCain is a maverick -- just ask Democrats," a caption reads in the new broadcast, which came a day after Obama dismissed McCain's "maverick" credentials by casting him as a third term for President George W. Bush.
The Republican's new Internet broadcast features prominent Obama supporters, including senators John Kerry and Joseph Biden, praising McCain as an honorable politician who is unafraid to reach across party lines.
It even includes a snippet from Obama himself, in January 2007, lauding a Senate bill co-sponsored by McCain on greenhouse gas emissions.
But the real sting comes with the final guest speaker -- Clinton, shown making a biting remark about Obama at the bitter height of their primary battle for the Democratic nomination in March this year.
"I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002," she says in the Republican's ad.
Clinton faced virulent criticism during the primaries that she had crossed a line by explicitly praising McCain to the detriment of Obama, and was warned that those attacks would come back to haunt the likely Democratic nominee.
Writing in the Huffington Post just after Clinton's "lifetime of experience" remark, former Democratic presidential contender Gary Hart said there were unwritten rules in politics.
"One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party's nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned," he wrote.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds confirmed it was the campaign's first use of a Clinton attack line from the primaries, and promised more to come.
"We don't go into our media strategy but it's not unlikely that she will figure in further ads," he told AFP.
The ad was released as Clinton prepared to hold a web chat with supporters, amid pressure from her diehard backers for her name to be put forward on the nominating ballot at this month's Democratic convention in Denver.
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