Obama goes after 527s

One of the big questions on Democrats’ minds when it became apparent that Barack Obama would be the nominee was how he would handle the 527 attack ads in the fall. Many Democrats blame John Kerry’s 2004 loss on his lack of response to the independently-funded Swift Boat ads, and some had reservations about whether Obama’s promise of a “new kind of politics” would allow for a proper response.

Well, his first test comes from the American Issues Project, which as Joe noted last week, is running an ad linking Obama to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers using various images of terrorist attacks. The campaign is financed by none other than Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, who was also one of the main funders of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

So far, Obama has lived up to his promise to bring a gun to a knife fight, although he seems to be trying to keep the counter-attack as low key as possible. His approach has been three-pronged:

1. He’s running counter ads. This is the most obvious, and perhaps least effective, response he could take. Mark Halperin has a video if you want to judge its effectiveness for yourself. It was smart to point out that Obama was only eight years old when Ayers committed his crimes, but in general, counter ads run the risk of legitimizing the attack and making Obama come across as defensive. McCain has already issued a response, saying “The fact that he’s launching his own Convention by defending his long association with a man who says he didn’t bomb enough U.S. targets tells us more about Barack Obama than any of tonight’s speeches will.”

2. His supporters are punishing the media. Obama supporters have been inundating stations that air the ad (as well as their advertisers) with e-mails to pressure them to pull the spots. So far, there are signs that it’s working. CNN and Fox news aren’t airing the attacks, although it has run in some local markets in swing states. This could be the most effective tactic for countering “swiftboaters”, although, the real challenge is not preventing stations from running the ads as commercials but keeping the talking heads from making the attacks an issue in the campaign and giving them free airtime.

3. He’s taking legal action. Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of American Issues Project. The first letter (PDF) asked the department to prosecute the organization for operating as a political committee while claiming tax-exempt status. A second, sharper letter (PDF) goes directly after Harold Simmons and calls for his prosecution. This probably won’t be successful in time to stop the attacks from taking hold, but it might dissuade others from launching similar campaigns.

Will this strategy work until November? It seems to have fizzled the Ayers attack, but that didn’t really have legs to begin with. Something involving Wright could easily set off another media frenzy. Either way, hopes of having a clean campaign focused on issues went out the window a long time ago.