In A Bind, GOP Throws Kitchen Sink At Obama

Prompted, it seems, by concerns over John McCain's foot-in-the-mouth admission that he did not know the number of houses he owned, aides to the Senator, GOP officials and conservative activists unleashed a torrent of attacks in an effort to deflect attention to Barack Obama.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Republican National Committee launched the website
ObamaRezkoShadyDeal.com, designed the committee wrote, to "provide users with videos and the latest news pertaining to Barack Obama's lack of judgment and questionable dealings with campaign fundraiser and convicted felon Tony Rezko."

Earlier in the day, the American Issues Project, an outside conservative group, put out a television ad attacking the presumptive Democratic nominee for his relationship to Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground.

"How much do you really know about Barack Obama? What does he really believe?" asks the ad, likely released independent of the day's fracas. "Consider this, United 93 never hit the Capitol on 9/11 but the Capitol was bombed thirty years ago by a terrorist group called Weather Underground.

Even earlier, the McCain campaign put out another web ad ridiculing Obama as a quasi-messianic, dangerously vacuous celebrity politician. "Back by popular demand," spokesman Brian Rogers wrote, "The One is back to lead us to the Democratic convention in Denver."

Even earlier, Rush Limbaugh took to his radio show to blast Obama again for his Rezko ties.

"The second thing I have to point out to you is that I don't care how many houses McCain has, he and his wife did not get a sweetheart deal from a fraud embezzler like Tony Rezko to buy their houses. But the Messiah did. The Messiah got all kind of sweetheart deals with Rezko, and who knows who else."

And even before then, Rogers came out with a statement hitting Obama on a host of different, disjointed and personalized charges.

"Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people "cling" to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?"

The Kitchen sink counter attack is almost certainly a coordinated effort to move the media - if not the political discussion - away from McCain's gaffe. And, by and large, the press has not taken the bait, likely because the meme that McCain is an elitist is fresh compared to the Obama lines (which were hit to death in the primary).

In a way, this could be a blessing for the Obama campaign. In all likelihood, McCain and his GOP allies were set to trot the Rezko and Ayers attacks out as the election approaches. They still might. But having those cards played in late August makes them all the more unremarkable if they are brought up again in late October.

Comments

[RIChris]

'In a bind', describing the GOP. Has the author of this article been keeping up with the news?? Obama's campaign is unraveling. We have issues and policy to contend with and Obama is playing with 'How many houses does McCain have?' I'd like to see McCain play with "How many terrorists can Obama count amongst his close friends?' I'd bet that would have Obama scrambling to tally them up.

[MeanGreenMachine]

The Country Clubs of America better stock up on KLEENEX!

Boo Hoo... sniff sniff.

[magen]

Didn't some lady in a pantsuit try a 'kitchen sink" strategy against Obama???

It didn't work.

[noamjunior]

This Rezko thing is the best the cons can do?

The Obama's have a house next to a vacant lot that his wife owns.
Meanwhile McCain is neck deep in Abramoff.

[whatchamean]

I am glad that this is all being done now and not in October. The nastiness of all this will come back and bite the repubs. If it were more subtle it would concern me more but the fact that all this is so over the top it actually reflects poorly on McCain. Unlike the Swiftboat ads which came from some seemingly credible sources, these ads almost look like a parody. I am normally paranoid but not in this instance.

[SShaw490]

Don't underestimate over the top hate ads. They appeal to a strong instinct in people. The hope is that people will get sick of it and will turn on the attackers, which often happens, but not always.

I think McCain's people unleashed the attack nonsense earlier in the campaign than they'd have preferred because he was falling behind in the polls and was in danger of becoming irrelevant, possibly leading to a "draft Romney" movement at the RNC convention. But the danger of going to that well early is that it just gets old and people start asking, "In a time when we're at war, there are two other possible major conflicts out there, the economy is in the tank, oil is high, inflation is rampant and job losses and foreclosures are going exponential, do I really give a crap if Barack Obama once met William Ayers?"

[noamjunior]

or bought a house next to a vacant lot owned by a felon

[SShaw490]

People can say what they want, but if anyone ever wanted solid proof the old Christian theory of the fundamental sinfulness of human beings, they need to look no further than political campaigns. Political campaigns are masters of mental manipulation of the masses, and the main tool in their box is the negative advertisement and simply going out and spreading lies about their opponent. People believe it because it's easier to convince them that someone is bad than it is to convince them that someone is good. It is much easier to appeal to a person's inherent evil - his propensity for hatred, suspicion, domination, greed, prejudice and fear than it is to appeal to his good side. Our evil sides are much stronger and speak much louder than our good sides. So that's what political campaigns play to. And the Republican party is the masters of playing to that side of the human personality.

If the Republicans win this election, they will do it by being better at appealing to the evil side of a person's character.

Don't take offense at the idea of inherent sinfulness - it's nothing personal. It's an observation that we have to MAKE ourselves do good things, but we can do bad things by nature.

[Lupin77]

People know what's going on. This is purely part of a massive smear campaign. In this internet age, we are all plugged in and know who is behind the smear campaigns. It won't work this time.

[SShaw490]

No, they don't. Most Americans have no idea what the truth is except what they see on TV between reruns of American Idol. That's how we wound up with Bush in the first place.

[craneman]

How long will it be before McCain admits that he doesn't know how many step-sister inlaws he has?

[Wond]

It appears that the right wing is alarmed by Senator McCain's housing gaffe. Their elitist strategy is now down the drain and now there will be a closer look at the Keating 5 Affair and of course tax returns. They have even resulted to slinging old mud. Now bloggers all around the world (and there are tens of millions) will be looking into who are really the elitists. How many homes do you own?

[TrooAmerican]

McCain has never shown anything but poor judgement - from his abusive, drunken, law breaking days as a young man and Academy cadet, to his service days where he continued to act in this manner while having a family waiting for him at home, to getting back from being a POW - cheating on his wife with multiple women, and abandoning her for Cindy while in critical care from her accident, to having political sexual liasons with Charles Keating and the biggest savings and loan financial scandal Taxpayers have ever had to bail out, to his Arizona Land deals with more criminals, ties to Jack Abramoff, illegal fund raising, Multiple Lobbyists working for other countries and shady money bought influencing, McCain is on Georgia's payroll, and is workin for them, while displaying the largest campaign lie technique ever witnessed by any american since our constitution was enacted.

McCain the Zero Integrity, ALL ambition, NO Noble purpose candidate. He wants YOU to serve your country so he has more bodies to start more wars. Of Course, He told Sean Hannity in an interview that was leaked, that "He did not love America" until he was taken prisoner and saw what life was like being tortured. He's the one who stated in 2000 that he only had ambition to be president as "The PRize" and had no noble aspirations.

[rollingdivision]

Their lead in national polls, state by state polls and electoral college projections have been going one way, down for the last three months of course they're panicked.

[rollingdivision]

Like every issue he continues to evade and avoid. He should just publicize what the deal was, answer questions, hold a news conference on the Ayers stuff and kill it as an issue. Think of how quickly, McCain killed the NYT story about his alleged affair with the lobbyist, gone after one open press conference.

[Darsan54]

Like the domestic violence abusers the Republicans are, no amount of appeasement, honesty or accomodation will eliminate the problems. McCain got a free pass from the MSM because also like a rich, white suburbanite he seen as a "good guy" out in public.

[UncommonSenz]

"Like every issue he continues to evade and avoid"-
What utter nonsense. For the Rezko deal he sat with three dozen Chicago Tribune and answered every question they had for 90 minutes. As for Ayers, this is the worst sort of "guilt by association" garbage they can pull out. They were both on a board at the same time. That's it. He has already said that. What more is he supposed to do?

[rollingdivision]

Really, how about a link to this 90 Q&A session?

[wendynyc]

Duh ... Ayers, Rezko ...yawn...

Rush knows that people are listening less and less to his nonsense -

"Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice ...no no never again.

Get lost Rush Limpbag full of gas.....

[vsign]

Obviously, Obama doesn't want any questions raised about his relationship with Ayers. After the ABC debate, where he was asked about Ayers repeatedly, he was so upset he brushed the episode off his shoulders and indicated the finger on his cheek as his response - to being even asked about Ayers.

The Thin Man is such a comedian.

[Darsan54]

It was frakkin 30 plus years ago!!!!! How old was Obama then idjit !!! Why don't Repug Right tied him to the Lindberg baby kidnapping while they are at it?

[whatchamean]

There is nothing there vsign. Ayers is a professor at the U. of Chicago and a respected part of the community in Chicago. The group he belonged to never bombed a government building. Ayers was no associated with the group that killed 2 policemen. The ad misleads in every way. They are not friends. They were on a board of director that had repubs on it too. Obama went to his home once, taken there by the person he was replacing in the state legislature. There you go, now you can't claim ignorance for an excuse any longer. You might want to get your information other places than Hannity.

[Adebukola]

Lack of judgement. I think Senator McCain has shown a lack of judgement and the House Ethics Committee agrees. For the House Ethics Committee reprimanded Senator McCain for his involvement in the Keating 5, calling it an exercise in "poor judgment."