On Friday (02/29/08) the Clinton campaign aired new television ads including one that is now commonly referenced as the ‘3 a.m.’ ad.  This 30 second spot shows a few shots of sleeping children and then a picture of the White House.  The narrator comments in an ominous tone to the background of a phone ringing.

Narrator:  It's "3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and sleep, but there's a phone in the White House and its ringing.  Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

Last Wednesday afternoon (02/27/08), less than two days before the 3 a.m. ad hit the airwaves in TX, Hillary Clinton held the "Solutions for America - Economic Summit" in Zanesville, OH.  The Summit was attended by various esteemed panelists including the CEO of Weight Watchers, Florine Mark.  While describing her support for Clinton, Mark makes a comment very similar to the narrator's script in the 3 a.m. ad.  From the transcript: "I will only feel safe if this woman becomes president of the United States of America.  I feel that if God forbid, that red phone in the White House rings, I want her there to answer it."  Florine Mark channels Roy Spence?  Or alternatively, Mark Penn?

In a somewhat clairvoyant moment from Salon's Walter Shapiro:  "The speaker was not Clinton, but a panelist, Florine Mark, the CEO of Weight Watchers. "When I think of Senator Clinton, I think of the word 'safe,'" Mark said in a line that, had it been uttered by an ordinary voter during a focus group, might have prompted a pollster to write a "listen to the people" memo."

Also before the 3 a.m. ad went public, the AP's Mike Glover (02/27/08) quoted Hillary Clinton saying "What I feel is happening is people are starting toward the big questions they should have to answer, who can be the best commander in chief, who do you want in the White House answering the phone at 3 a.m."

So was that quote planted with Florine Mark or lifted by Penn as fodder for Clinton's 3 a.m. campaign ad?  Clinton later remarked that she was "there [at the Economic Summit] to listen."  Is that because her panel members were told what to say?  NRO's blog, The Corner, sees it differently.