Why? Health care is a top election issue, political ads aim to impact emotions, and — as Brian Rank, a Twin Cities oncologist, puts it – ”cancer is an emotional microcosm of health care in the United States.”

The ads range from hard-hitting to soft focus, some citing specific, individual cases while others take a broad-brush approach. U.S. Sen. John McCain’s cancer-surgery scars? MSNBC won’t go there. Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer? Ads for her husband John’s presidential campaign didn’t need to say “cancer” to go there.

“The ad that I shuddered at is the one that said ‘I’m going to be fighting cancer and the insurance companies,’” says Rank. Ads that set a divisive tone, in his opinion, won’t help the country come together to grapple with weighty health care issues, like how to cover 40 million to 50 million uninsured people.

Rank was surprised to hear who belongs to the independent organization behind the ad, which is targeting its attack on McCain and several Republican congressional candidates across the country, including Republican state Rep. Erik Paulsen, who is running for the 3rd District U.S. House seat, and U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, who last week demanded the ad be pulled. The coalition, called Health Care for America Now, includes medical professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Nurses Association, alongside labor unions and other progressive groups.

Regarding the recent ad that showed McCain’s melanoma scar, Rank said he as has conflicting feelings. “Where is health care privacy?” he wonders, while at the same time recalling the case of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas, whose campaign for the Democaratic nomination for president in 1992 included medical claims of a full recovery from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, when in fact cancer had returned after a bone marrow transplant. “His Dana Farber [Cancer Institute] docs weren’t quite honest as he was running,” Rank recalls.

(McCain’s very limited release of medical records continues to inspire concern about the state of his health and calls for greater openness among all four candidates on the major party tickets.)

Rank says he doesn’t think cancer should be off limits in political advertising, even though the advertisers’ primary motivation for bringing up the topic in ads often isn’t to advance the needed national debate over health care.  ”Things that elevate that dialogue are welcome,” Rank says. “In an ideal situation you’d want people to be transparent and open and honest in the ads — which is not what political ads are for.”

And even when the ads strike emotional gold — as with the two spots featuring the Edwardses that hint or more at Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer — events can undercut the message. “It’s hard to have an emotional response now, knowing that he had an affair during the time,” Rank observes.

Rank recommends searching out real medical information about cancer from the National Cancer Institute and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Candidates’ Web sites contain much better information about their positions on health care, he observes, along with sites such as RealClearPolitics.

Here are six cancer-themed political TV ads from this election cycle, followed by a clip from Bill Moyers on Lee Atwater, a victim of cancer and a victimizer through campaign ads.

BraveNew PAC ad: “McCain is 72. He’s had cancer 4 times.”
Key quote: “Another bout of cancer for John McCain while he’s president of the United States would profoundly impact his capacity to lead.”
Note: MSNBC banned this ad.

Health Care for America Now: “Erik Paulsen: Not On Your Side for Health Care”
Key quote: “He wants me to fight cancer AND the insurance companies? Fine. I’ll take you both on.”
Note: This ad in slightly altered form has appeared in seven other states in versions attacking other Republican candidates, one of whom has filed a formal complaint.

Coleman for Senate: “Wyatt”

Key quote: “Wyatt survived a rare form of cancer. He’s the reason I introduced the Conquer Childhood Cancer Act. See, you have to work on the big issues, but you can’t forget the little ones.”
Note: The boy in the ad, Wyatt Rech, was a poster child (in the metaphorical sense, anyway) for the Conquer Childhood Cancer Act this year.

Obama for America: “Mother”
Key quote: “My mother died of cancer at 53.”
Note: An early ad from September 2007, used into primary season.

John Edwards for President: “Heroes”
Key quote: “Elizabeth and I decided in the quiet of a hospital room, after 12 hours of tests and after getting very bad news, what we were going to spend our lives doing. For all those that have no voice. We are not going to quietly go away. Instead we are going to go out and fight for what it is we believe in.”
Note: This November 2007 ad came seven months after Elizabeth Edwards’ breast-cancer diagnosis and combines hospital scenes with shots of Iowans, whose Jan. 3 caucus day was then nearing.

John Edwards for President: “John Edwards — 30 years”
Key quote: “It’s unbelievably important that in our president we have someone who can stare the worst in the face and not blink.”
Note: Cancer is not mentioned directly but implied in the narration by Elizabeth Edwards, whose announcement of her diagnosis in March 2007 was still fresh four months later when this ad was released, and in the ad’s opening shot of John and Elizabeth Edwards, which is taken from that announcement.

At the crossroads of TV political advertising and cancer is Lee Atwater, who managed George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign. In this three-minute video essay, Bill Moyers charts the epiphany that arrived late in the short life of Lee Atwater, architect of the modern political attack ad, who shortly before dying of brain cancer in 1991 wrote:

My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. … It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

Bill Moyers: “Lee Atwater’s Epiphany”

With less than a month to go in one of the country’s hottest congressional contests, outside groups — other than the major parties’ congressional campaign committees — are rolling out ads in Minnesota’s 3rd district. One that’s new is from Health Care for America Now, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit coalition, asserting that Republican Erik Paulsen is “Not on Your Side for Health Care.”

Video and more after the jump. 

It’s part of a campaign, WhichSideAreTheyOn.com, that doesn’t echo the name of an old labor anthem by chance. Health Care for America Now’s member organizations include a number of unions (AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, UFCW), alongside professional organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and progressive groups like MoveOn.org. 

Here’s the ad, with narration by a woman who says she’ll fight cancer and Paulsen, because he’d back insurance companies who won’t cover cancer as a pre-existing condition.

Paulsen needn’t take the message too personally though. The same ad is out in versions attacking seven other Republicans: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), Sen. John Sununu (N.H.), Rep. Rick Keller (Fla.), Rep. Tim Wallberg (Mich.), Rep. Randy Kuhl (N.Y.), and candidates Marty Ozinga and Blaine Luetkemeyer, who are running for U.S. House seats in Illinois and Missouri, respectively.

The New York Times reports the group spent $4 million on this round of ads — a tenth of its overall planned spending.