A new ad is now being broadcast 150 times in battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Michigan attacking Sen. Barack Obama's ties to Weather Underground terrorist William Ayres.
The ad was produced by The American Issues Project, which is a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation. The organizaton is permitted by law to air a political ad provided that the majority of its spending is nonpolitical. It cannot accept money from corporations and it must identify the donors that finance its ads in reports to the Federal Election Commission. A spokesman said the group has set aside money to carry out non-election related work to meet the legal requirements.
The ad states:
"Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as, quote, 'Respectable' and 'Mainstream,'" the group's ad states. "Obama's political career was launched in Ayers' home. And the two served together on a left-wing board. Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"
As a member of the Weather Underground, Bill Ayers bombed the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and a New York City police headquarters. After 9/11, he was quoted in the New York Times as saying "I don't regret setting bombs ... I feel we didn't do enough."
Ayers is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002.
Obama served first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform group which was founded by Ayres. Ayers also hosted a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s.
The lone financier of the anti-Obama ad, Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, was also one of the main funders of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who targeted Kerry. Simmons, a McCain fundraiser, contributed nearly $2.9 million to the American Issues Project, according to documents filed by the group with the Federal Election Commission.
The Obama campaign responded with an ad of its own and Obama operatives have contacted television statements to try to get them to not run the ad. Bob Bauer, Obama general counsel wrote a letter to the Justice Department and called on it to open “an investigation of the American Issues Project; its officers and directors; and its anonymous donors, whoever they may be.” Incredibly, the Obama ad does not dispute the facts in the American Issue Project's ad.
"It seems they protest a bit too much," American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston said. "They're going all of these routes: through threats, intimation to try to thwart the First Amendment here because they don't have an argument on merit. This is a sad ploy to circumvent the First Amendment by a campaign who has no arguments with the merits of our ad. It’s the classic maneuver: If you can’t win on the merits, file a lawsuit."
This will also have the effect of drawing more attention to the Ayres issue, something that Obama doesn't want.
The American Issues Project is separate from the McCain campaign, but that didn't stop them from taking advantage of the controversy:
"The fact that Barack Obama chose to launch his political career at the home of an unrepentant terrorist raises more questions about Senator Obama's judgment than any TV ad ever could," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.
No comments:
Post a Comment