Another McCain Plus: North Carolina GOP Pulls Anti-Obama Wright Ad

There was an “I told you so” in some Democratic anti-Obama quarters about a North Carolina Republican political ad blasting Democrats who supported Senator due to his links to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — an ad that ran highly inflammable footage of Wright. Now Senator John McCain’s camp is reporting the ad has been pulled at McCain’s personal request.

The ad was the latest negative skirmish in a political campaign where manifestations of negative campaigning are becoming as frequent — and as attractive — as festering pustules on a dying smallpox victim. And the ad provoked a slew of stories and theories:

Was this really an ad really put up and/or instigated by national Republicans so they could hide behind plausible deniability?

Was this an ad by Republicans who fear Obama more than Hillary and were working to weaken him in the primary so they could advance the cause (articulated by Rush Limbaugh) of getting Hillary as the nominee?

Were the Clinton people finding their work was being done for them by the GOP?

And – most importantly — were McCain’s assertions that he wants to run a more positive campaign just a bunch of hooey that would be proven to be just that when the North Carolina Republicans refused to pull the ad?

But now the ad is being pulled – and look for McCain to walk away with some image enhancement due to it:

Despite vows by North Carolina’s Republican Party to press on with a TV ad slamming Democratic candidates for governor for their support of Barack Obama, in turn for his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the McCain campaign is reporting that the Tar Heel Republicans have agreed to shelve the ad.

McCain senior campaign adviser Charlie Black has told Steve Holland of Reuters that he has been informed by the Republican National Committee’s representative in North Carolina that the state party has agreed to withdraw the ad. McCain personally had called on the state GOP to can the ad.

The ad plays on Obama’s association with the pastor who led the Chicago church that he has attended for two decades. Wright, now retired, has drawn criticism for statements about the U.S. government and about race and power in America.

The 30-second ad in question attacks Democratic gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore for their endorsements of Obama, challenging the Illinois senator’s “judgment” in supporting Wright and calling him “too extreme for North Carolina.” North Carolina is one of two states holding the next crucial Democratic primaries on May 6 in the race between Obama and Hillary Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination.

There are still several interpretations to this latest flap:

(1) McCain really didn’t want to get it pulled. The damage was done when word of the ad got out to North Carolina’s residents (and to the world) with the ad being played in news stories — in other words getting lots of free advertising for the ad. This would mean this was a tried and true tactic: have someone throw the mud out there, then denounce it and remove the mud…but splattered clothes still remain splattered. Note how even in the news story above it recounts the story of Wright — shoving it back into the news cycle forefront.

(2) McCain really means it and there are going to be limits in his campaign.

No matter which interpretation you give it, the bottom line is this: no matter what, McCain is still walking away with some more image enhancement while Clinton and Obama work feverishly to destroy each other’s images.