WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican White House candidate John McCain on Friday likened himself to Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, in a new web ad laying out a hawkish "no surrender" foreign policy.
The advertisement, highlighting what he says is a transcendent struggle against Islamic extremism, uses striking imagery of the Statue of Liberty and the American flag, and McCain's time as a Vietnam war prisoner.
It was the latest sign that McCain, an Arizona senator, will try to make November's general election against either Democrat, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, about national security, and who can keep Americans safe.
The spot opens with Churchill's famous 1940 "we shall fight on the beaches" speech delivered when Britain was fearful of an invasion by Nazi Germany during World War II, and ends with the quote "we shall never surrender!"
Then it pivots to a speech by McCain, a national security hawk, outspoken backer of the Iraq war and critic of Iran, delivering his own speech at the Republican national convention in 2004.
"Keep that faith. Keep your courage. Stick together. Stay strong. Do not yield. Do not flinch. Stand up ... We're Americans. We're Americans, and we'll never surrender. They will."
The web ad also features a speech by hard-charging early 20th century president Theodore Roosevelt, another McCain hero, in which he said in 1912: "surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one in which we are in."
As well as highlighting McCain's national security message, the two-minute commercial appeared partly to be an attempt to offset the perceived disadvantage that the 71-year-old candidate has owing to his age, by painting him as an American hero.
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