Reporter Michael Falcone filed perhaps the last "Ad Campaign" entry of the 2008 president campaign on Monday, and it turned out to be just as solicitious over Barack Obama's reputationas the other entries in the series [1]. Falcone's target: A new anti-Obama attack ad airing in Pennsylvania about Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, "Unauthorized [2]Ad Reminds Voters About a Certain Pastor [2]."
ACCURACY The advertisement includes short excerpts of Mr. Wright's most incendiary remarks and accurately notes that he was Mr. Obama's pastor and the man who baptized his children. After Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Wright delivered a sermon suggesting that the terrorist attacks were a consequence of American foreign policy. But there is no evidence that Mr. Obama was present for this or the other sermons cited. And it omits the fact that Mr. Obama began distancing himself from Mr. Wright months ago after some of the preacher's controversial remarks surfaced. Mr. Obama delivered a speech in late April denouncing some of Mr. Wright's statements as "divisive and destructive." He withdrew his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Mr. Wright served as pastor for more than three decades.
This is a bit naïve. Is it really possible that Obama managed to miss every single anti-American thing Rev. Wright said from the pulpit over a period of 20 years? Even if he had missed Wright's ranting "Not God bless America, God damn America" or "The U.S. of K.K.K.A,"(both mentioned in the ad) Obama could have heard something equally offensive from the pulpit that didn't make it onto YouTube. As for "distancing himself," (which happened after, not before, Wright's rantings came to light), did Falcone really expect the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to spend precious ad seconds publicizing that tidbit?