by Andrew Malcolm
Well, gee what are you going to do, eh? States are states and so are state parties.
And so the North Carolina Republican Party has decided for its own internal reasons to defy its presumptive presidential nominee and run an anti-Obama ad -- or at least say it's going to run the ad so the news media will run it endlessly for them for free-- that Sen. John McCain and RNC head Mike Duncan say should be killed.
They've both said they sent messages to the state party chair Linda Daves, a little old lady also shown in the ad who looks like she's sitting in a rocker about to serve tea instead of ignite a political controversy.
The 30-second ad is really a two-bank shot for state consumption aimed at the two Democrats vying for their party's gubernatorial nomination on May 6.
Both Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore have endorsed Barack Obama who has a militant minister. Therefore, according to the ad, they're not good. It doesn't involve McCain, who's says he hasn't seen the commercial but heard enough to dislike it and has called on the state party to pull it.
It pictures Obama and his preacher of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with one clip of a now familiar infamous rant, saying, "No! No! No! Not God bless America. God bleep America!" Referring to Perdue and Moore, it says, "They should know better. He's just too extreme for North Carolina." (Obama, not Wright.)
You can watch the ad displayed yesterday in the Swamp if you really must. McCain and Duncan obviously feel the ad is too extreme for them. But if the Democrats can't yet figure out who their nominee's gonna be come November, it looks like the little old lady chair of the North Carolina Republican Party thinks she has.
Andrew Malcolm writes for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times political blog.
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Comments
Why not run the ad??..Nothing wrong with the truth...The Republicans will have a field day with Obama and his past...HRC will win..
Posted by: kaye m. | April 24, 2008 8:29 AM
This is a perfect reason for Obama to not agree to just take public funding in the general election. If McCain cannot have any say with a Republican state government, how is he going to have any control over a 527 group.
Posted by: John A | April 24, 2008 8:47 AM
"...or at least say it's going to run the ad so the news media will run it endlessly for them for free [...] You can watch the ad displayed yesterday in the Swamp if you really must."
Well, at least the NC GOP knows it can play you all as tools.
Posted by: Jeff V. | April 24, 2008 9:07 AM
The ad is not that effective because we have seen it several times on TV and it does not change my opinion anout Barack Obama because Barack is NOT rev. wright!!
Posted by: sandra | April 24, 2008 11:22 AM
Sandra, no one ever claimed Obama is Rev. Wright. The issue is and always has been how can a man who is all too eager to put his judgment at issue consider another man his mentor who thinks the US created AIDS to kill black people? I'm not saying this is dispositive of anything, but to pretend it does not raise any issues whatsoever ignores reality.
Posted by: Herbie H. | April 24, 2008 12:49 PM
Herbie H. Run the Ad or Not. It doesn't change the facts. Wright was not Obama's mentor, he was Pastor of the church. Wright was actually repeating comments made by a white man for effect. They are taken out of context. Wright served his country admirably in the marines, even reinlisting. He was more Patriotic than than many of the pundits who criticize him. Obama has the grace to listen to both sides of an argument. I like that in a future President.
Posted by: Carlean Perkins | April 24, 2008 1:26 PM
Sandra, no one ever claimed Obama is Rev. Wright. The issue is and always has been how can a man who is all too eager to put his judgment at issue consider another man his mentor who thinks the US created AIDS to kill black people? I'm not saying this is dispositive of anything, but to pretend it does not raise any issues whatsoever ignores reality.
Posted by: Herbie H. | April 24, 2008 12:49 PM
It raises questions unfortunately, but only for people that have no focus on REAL issues. Hey some people believe that a guy that lives in an ivory gated community in Rome has a direct line to god and can make miracles happen, but hey those people are completely sane and normal.
Here is the fact: The land that now makes up the USA has been infested with religious fanatical whack jobs for the last 400 years, and eventually it will lead to our undoing. If they werent drowning "witches", or beating slaves, they were repressing the rights of women, or the innovations of science, you know the standard everyday Christian that really follows the teachings of Jesus......give me a break.
Posted by: Bitter in the Flatlands | April 24, 2008 4:36 PM
I agree in that this AD does nothing but reiterate what we have already seen before. It plays to fears and racism. If the GOP desires to incite people in this way to get the vote and believe they have done the party and this country well......then so be it. However, smart minded people will look ahead and vote for the best candidate who is OBAMA.
Clinton and McCain can go home now. Their day is done.
Posted by: MPhillips | April 26, 2008 10:32 PM
The North Carolina Republican Party went ahead and aired four days of Wright/Obama attack ads, despite McCain's written request not to.
I think Obama should run with this story, though possibly not until after he is nominated. If McCain can't even govern the Republican Party, why should we think he can govern the United States? His failure to control North Carolina's Republicans should be used to question, and ultimately undermine, his credibility as a leader and presidential candidate.
Posted by: Morgan Belford | May 3, 2008 3:39 PM