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Sen. Hillary Clinton has a new TV ad up which uses one of her main arguments against Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

It boils down to she’s ready, he’s not, to be in the Oval Office when a national-security emergency occurs in the wee small hours of the morning.

She has repeatedly used this argument in her stump speech. It plays to the image of toughness she has with many Democratic voters.

The ad shows a series of small children asleep in the middle of the night. It’s clearly meant to appeal to women, the part of the Democratic electorate that had been among her strongest supporters but has been eroding as women have become more willing to support Obama.

It’s 3 am and your children are safe and asleep
But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s 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 am and your children are safe and asleep
Who do you want answering the phone?

Obama, calling it “a legitimate question” yet accusing the Clinton campaign of using “fear” tactics, had this to say about the ad this morning:

“I don’t think these ads will work…. The question is not picking up the phone. The question is what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone. In fact we have had a red-phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. President Bush gave the wrong answer. Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer… Sen. McCain gave the wrong answer.”

Obama, saying he “exercised the right judgment,” said that is what he will bring to the White House. “I will never use the threat of terrorism to scare up votes.. Tthat is the judgment we need at 3 a.m.”

The ad has the feel of a mashup to me. The innocent children blissfully sleeping while dangers are afoot in the world, remind me of the famous 1964 “Daisy” ad President Lyndon Johnson ran against Sen. Barry Goldwater.

But the mood is much more like the “Bear” ad President Ronald Reagan used in 1984 with the ominous it’s-a-dangerous-world-requiring-a-clear-eyed-leader vibe.