Yes, America, character and judgement do matter

Continuing on with a theme set by the McCain campaign that revolves around Barack Obama’s questionable associations with left wing radicals in Chicago, the RNC is getting ready to release a 30 second ad tomorrow called “The Chicago Way” which – obviously – briefly chronicles some of the lowlights on Obama’s rise to power in Chicago and beyond. Here’s the ad (NOTE: You can view that ad more RNC IE ads here):

The transcript:

ANNCR: The Chicago Way. Shady politics.

Thats Barack Obama’s training. His teachers? Tony Rezko convicted of corruption, money laundering, aiding and abetting bribery.

Rezko got Obama in on a shady land deal.

William Daley. Heir to the Chicago machine. A top Obama advisor.

And William Ayers. Leader of a terrorist group that bombed the US Capitol. Obamas first campaign was launched at a gathering at Mr. Ayers’s home.

Theres more you need to know.

The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.

Here’s the release notice:

The Republican National Committee’s independent expenditure unit tomorrow launches an ad which highlights Senator Obamas political upbringing in the infamous shady world of Chicago politics. The ad notes Senator Obamas financial relationship with convicted felon Tony Rezko, his training under Chicago political boss William Daley, and his association with William Ayers, the widely discussed founder of a terrorist group that once bombed the US Capitol.

Because one can only fit so much into a thirty second TV spot, the ad does not mention the fact that Senator Obama personally profited from his questionable land dealings with Mr. Rezko, or the indisputable fact that Mr. Ayers remains unrepentant for his terrorist activities. Mr. Ayers in fact has said, ”I don’t regret setting bombs” and ‘I feel we didn’t do enough.

Of course, Senator Obama is crying foul and declaring his association with such individuals to be off limits. Fortunately, with the First Amendment still intact, he does not get to decide that.

This ad will begin airing tomorrow in the major media markets in Indiana and Wisconsin, two states that by virtue of proximity have great familiarity with the notoriously shady ways of Chicago machine politics.

That they are running it in the blue state of Wisconsin is especially key, considering the polling numbers there, which do not look good for McCain at a time when he desperately needs to put a couple of blue states in play. The red state of Indiana’s numbers have calmed down a bit after appearing to be a little shaky, though, and McCain is ahead there again outside of the MOE – and it looks like the RNC is running an ad there to make sure they stay that way.

In related news, Charles Krauthammer has a must-read column up today on how Obama’s relationships with left wing Chicago radicals bring up legitimate character and judgement issues that should not be ignored (via Memeo). And speaking of Ayers and Obama, this morning we learn that we have yet another evolving, shifting story from Obama on the details of what he knew about Ayers and when, proving once again that when Obama opens his mouth, you never can believe a word he says because his stories continually change.

One last comment about the Ayers issue: It seems that both Obama and Biden are insinuating that because McCain hasn’t brought the issue up “to Obama’s face” that McCain’s somehow a coward. The irony of this argument is that neither Obama nor Biden have been willing to bring up the Keating 5 “issue” with McCain to his face or talk about it with the media directly – preferring instead to let an online ad and their campaign surrogates do their dirty work for them. To my knowledge, neither Obama nor Biden brings this “issue” up at campaign stops, but McCain and Palin do talk about it on the campaign stump. As an example of Obama’s reluctance to touch this issue directly, the day the Keating 5 web video started running, Obama was being interviewed in Asheville, NC where he was prepping for the last debate and when reporters asked him about the web video, he walked away, refusing to comment. So with that in mind, who actually is the ‘coward’ again? The candidates who talk about it directly, or the people who let their campaign surrogates and online ads do the dirty work, in effect making the candidates appear to be ‘above it all’? We know the answer. In fact, we’ve known the answer to that for a long time now.

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