Former Amb. Bolton wants Americans to vote on national security

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton’s super-PAC is launching a new digital ad campaign slamming Obama’s leadership as “weak, indecisive and apologetic” and calling for viewers to vote based on national security.

{mosads}The ad is launching on Thursday, the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and will run online in the seven states Bolton is targeting this cycle: Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Iowa, Louisiana, Colorado and D.C. It’s backed by $138,000 for the digital distribution.

The ad features jarring shots of unrest around the world — in one, protesters burn a flag, in another, a tank burns — interspersed with unflattering shots of President Obama, including one of the “selfie” he took at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.

“Politicians. They say Americans don’t vote on national security issues. They are wrong,” a narrator says.

“We are living in a dangerous world. Threats to America are looming everywhere. President Obama has been willfully blind to the threats we face. When it comes to defending America, reject leadership that is weak, indecisive and apologetic. This November, vote, as if your life depends on it.”

National security isn’t typically an issue at the forefront of voters minds during an election, especially not in midterm years, and for much of this cycle voters have repeatedly listed jobs, the economy and healthcare as their top concerns.

But months of international unrest culminating in the beheading of two American journalists by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have brought national security issues back to the forefront of American politics.

President Obama laid out a plan Wednesday night to tackle the terrorist threat, but an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out this week gave Obama his lowest approval rating on foreign policy since he took office in 2009.

That poll also showed Americans feel more unsafe now than they have since before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and gave Republicans a significant lead — 18 points — on which party is seen as best handling foreign policy, and a 38-point lead on the question of which party ensures a strong national defense.

While the national security issue could do damage to vulnerable Democrats heading into the final stretch of the midterms, it has helped Bolton raise his profile as he contemplates a run for president in 2016. He’s endorsed a number of candidates for House and Senate and has begun airing ads on their behalf, focused on foreign policy.