McCain, From the Vault

TNR's Noam Scheiber, author of a new, exhaustive piece on McCain's courtship with his current wife, uncovers this campaign ad from McCain's first congressional campaign. The ad was shot in 1982, when McCain was about 46 years old, which is roughly the same age Barack Obama is today. Like a high school English teacher, I suggest: Watch the clip below and think about the ways in which the presidential contest would be different today if Barack Obama and John McCain were the same age.

ALSO: Check out how the ad's narrator describes McCain as a "fighter pilot." Just a couple weeks ago, the New York Times ran a correction noting that its reporters had inaccurately called McCain a "fighter pilot" over a dozen years of news stories. "He flew bombing missions as an attack aircraft pilot, but he was not a 'fighter pilot,'" the Times concluded.