Posted by: ST on September 17, 2008 at 9:36 pm
It’s getting hard to keep track of how many times he’s played the race card (not to mention his surrogates), but he’s done it again, this time in a Spanish language ad that is so filled with distortions and lies – and race-baiting smears – that ABC’s Jake Tapper took the time to debunk almost every bit of it here.
In a nutshell, he oddly paints McCain as standing shoulder to shoulder on the illegal immigration issue … with Rush Limbaugh – which translates into an implication of racism, if you watch the ad. This is a flat out lie, as EVERYONE (except the Obama campaign) knows that McCain stood against his own party on this issue and got verbal blisterings by the hour about it last year – and in fact still does. Not only that, but the ad assumes that Rush’s comments about illegal immigrants were made because of their race. Well, I mean, it’s Rush and to Democrats anything Rush says is racist, sexist, homophobic, bigotted, etc. You know the drill.
I agree with Yuval Levin, who writes about the ad: ” [it] is easily the most vile and deeply dishonest attack ad of this campaign year.” It’s truly despicable, all in the name of pandering to the Hispanic community. Levin goes on to say:
There is nothing wrong with attack ads. Pointing out your opponent’s positions, statements, or weaknesses is an entirely appropriate element of political campaigning. But outright lies, let alone race baiting lies like this, are surely not.
Last week, the political press fell into a tizzy about negative ads and called John McCain a liar and libeler. We learned earlier today that 77% of Obama’s ads so far have been negative ads (compared to 56% of McCain’s). If reporters really think negative ads are all that bad, and especially if they want to call out deceptive ones in particular (as they should), here is their opportunity to stand up for honest campaigning. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Me either. They’ve spent an extraordinairy amount of time “fact checking” McCain’s ads and claims the last couple of weeks. Outside of Tapper’s efforts, I don’t expect even close to the same treatment to be applied to The Chosen One, for reasons that have been apparent to us all for quite some time now.
It’s frustrating as hell, but it’s what we have to deal with, unfortunately. So please, get the word out – email this post to family and friends before they have the chance to be misled by the so-called “Agent of Change.”
Why is it that the only people to bring up race have been Obama’s crowd? How is it that the Republicans can make it an issue without even mentioning it?
Rush Limbaugh is not running for President, or any elected office; so all Obama’s people have done is to have given him free advertising.
Don’t get me wrong, the media should correct it. However, even if they did would it affect the intended audience? It’s clearly meant for those that prefer latin media over american media.
Yet more from the “change” candidate:
Seems to me the more things “change” the more they stay the same. If this is all he’s got, you can put a fork in him, he’s done. – Lorica
This is outrageous.
I won’t wait for Joe Klein to question Obama’s honor for 2 reasons ..
a) Klein won’t
b) Obama has no honor.
b) worries me a lot. If you track the campaign of Obama, he has never really admitted to going anything wrong (he “distanced” himself from Wright, but never “repudiated” him, he knew from the audience’s reaction that “lipstick on a pig” referred to Palin but never attempted to correct it, instead he smugly used it as a springboard). This really scares me more than McCain who actually gets mad when his staff puts him in a lie and then apologies.
I have always said that the principles of Gandhi only work on those who can be shamed .. Obama doesn’t appear to be shameable and that makes him very dangerous.
In today’s WSJ, Rush responds, pointing out the deliberate dishonesty of Obama’s ad.
The conclusion hits back hard:
I like this part of Rush’s editorial too GWR. It amazes me the transference of the Obama Team that is exposed in this. It really does seem to me, that Barry is really really getting desperate. – Lorica