McCain Condemns ad he's never seen

By Rick Moran

The controversial ad created by the North Carolina GOP that states Obama is "too extreme for North Carolina" while showing a clip of Jeremiah Wright damning America was denounced by John McCain and his campaign sent a letter asking the ad not be run.

The only problem is, McCain has never seen the ad:

“He’s just too extreme for North Carolina,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot.

“We asked them not to run it,” McCain told reporters traveling with him in Kentucky. “I’m sending them an e-mail as we speak asking them to take it down. “I don’t know why they do it. Obviously, I don’t control them, but I’m making it very clear, as I have a couple of times in the past, that there’s no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don’t want it,” McCain said.

McCain said the ad was described to him: “I didn’t see it, and I hope that I don’t see it.”

Here's the ad. Make up your own mind. If McCain had bothered, he would have seen a pretty typical political attack ad -- shading the truth by hinting that Obama is extreme because he shares Wright's views on damning America. The New York Times went over the top in its denunciation of the piece:

The assertion that Mr. Obama is “just too extreme for North Carolina” is a clear bid to stir bigotry in a Southern state…Senator McCain was right when he said, of the new ad, that “there’s no place for that kind of campaigning — and the American people don’t want it, period.”

Now he needs to get his party to listen.

How does saying that Obama is "too extreme for North Carolina" stir up bigotry? Only in the fertile imagination of the New York Times. The fact is, unless the NC GOP throws roses at Obama, the Times and other liberals will equate any criticism of Obama with an appeal to racial bigotry. And that's the way it's going to be from now on. Obama and the press will play the race card against Republicans for all its worth. They will use it to shield the candidate from criticism and they will use it often.

McCain should not play this game with the Obama campaign or the press. Before he condemns ads either in his name or not, it is stupid not to look at them to determine whether they cross the line. Otherwise, he will be emasculated and prevented from criticizing Obama at all.