Remember the media having fits over a Bush for President ad using images of 9/11 in 2004? Now Hillary is exploiting her own heroic breathing-apparatus tale from the 9/11 site in a commercial, and the media aren’t so outraged. But at least Matt Lauer brought it up on Monday morning's Today when Arianna Huffington started lecturing Rudy Giuliani for tragedy exploitation. Laura Ingraham was quick to poke Arianna for a double standard:
HUFFINGTON: I think he should stop running just on 9/11. You know this kind of running theme, especially when you have firefighters and you have rescue workers and their families challenging his leadership after 9/11.
LAUER: Well, well you bring up a good point because I think a lot of people, nationally, expected to see Rudy Giuliani using the images of 9/11 in campaign ads and look at what we've seen now. The first person to go to that well is Hillary Clinton. Let's take a quick look.
[HILLARY CLINTON AD: She stood by Ground Zero workers who sacrificed their health after so many sacrificed their lives and kept standing until this administration took action.]
LAUER: I'll go to both of you, but Arianna, let me start with you. How effective a strategy is it for Hillary Clinton to try to get her arms around 9/11 as opposed to Rudy Giuliani?
HUFFINGTON: I think it's an excellent strategy. It shows that no party, no candidate owns 9/11. It shows that she recognizes that national security is going to be the key issue of this election and not the domestic issues that Democrats tend to be more comfortable with.
LAUER: Laura can she steal some of his thunder on this one?
LAURA INGRAHAM: Well, I just hope we hear the same caterwauling from the left every time we see a Republican candidate using 9/11 or Rudy Giuliani. He's gotten hammered for steeping himself in those images. Hillary does it and suddenly she gets a gold star. I mean it, it's politics. I'm not surprised that she's doing it. Any time she can look tough and, and strong on, on terrorism that's gonna be good for her.