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The McCain Campaign’s Next Negative Attack: Rev. Wright?

There are now hints that the McCain campaign is preparing to hit Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama on his Reverend Wright association (right in the middle of a growing national political debate over the biggest financial crisis America has faced since the Great Depression).

Read the post by Hot Air’s Allahpundit who asks:

Exit question: How does six weeks of guilt-by-association one-upsmanship sound? Wright, then Hagee, then Ayers, then Palin’s church, then …?

The reasoning is that if Obama can tie McCain to lobbyists in guilt-by-association, then the McCain camp now feels it now has a right to use guilt-by-association with Wright.

It isn’t quite the same thing.

The McCain campaign itself has raised Obama associates’ ties with Fannie May — a completely legitimate subject since it’s all part of the ongoing debate over the economy and who is best to oversee it in the White House starting in 2008 and has the independence to stand back and look at what needs to be done and do it.

Playing the Wright card will be pure and simple hot-button politics, complete with all of the emotions Wright triggered. And the Demmies will indeed feel they have to respond in kind. If McCain won due to the Wright card he would enter office a President with a good section of the country polarized due to the emotions. It would also feed into a growing sense among many pundits now that the McCain campaign eschews campaigning on important vital issues and needs to whip up emotional outrage on side issues.

  • StockBoySF
    I agree that Wright is old news, but I think camp McCain still think they can score some political points.

    Wright may be old news to many of us but to many people Wright is still an effective way of getting at Obama (and subtly playing the race card), particularly to people who are just now tuning into the race...
  • I agree, elrod. Wright (and/or various problematic preachers) was one of the many, many attack lines Palin neutralized. I'm not even sure it's a good idea for 527's to take this line (for exactly the same reason).
  • elrod
    I don't think Wright works for McCain at this point unless Obama goes after Palin's church. Wright really is old news. Six months may seem like a long time in politics, but everybody remembers the Wright controversy.

    Now, it's possible that 527s or local organizations go after Obama on Wright. But I doubt McCain goes there at this point.
  • Mojo_Jojo2
    The problem with trying to use "guilt-by-association" is that McCain stands at greater risk of public retaliation. You are only guilty if you continue support for the negatives that people perceive. Case-in-point, lobbyist running McCain's campaign.
  • Marlowecan
    I imagine the McCain camp considers that the "many pundits" Joe refers to are already in the Obama camp (cf. those Allahpundit cites - Klein and Sullivan - Sullivan having made himself infamous for his demands for Palin's amnio tests to prove Trig was her baby).

    It is clear that the McCain Team believes they are now at war with the media, so I doubt they much care anymore about outrage from the NYT editorial board.

    But. . . speaking tactically . . . how will McCain bring back Wright? Isn't Wright OLD NEWs by now?

    Perhaps it is just me, but Wright is hardly "Hot Button" politics . . . more of a yawner. It has been debated endlessly, after all.

    Maybe there will be a veiled race angle Team McCain will play?

    Ayers will be the "nuclear trigger", I predict. Ayers taps into Boomer memories, and the deep cultural divides since the Counter-culture 60s.

    Yes, Sen. Obama was . . .five or eight or something? ... when Ayers and Dohrn were doing their shite. But Obama will have to retaliate in kind.

    This will blow the election wide open, if true.
  • timr
    McCain has no programs that I have heard about to run on so the only thing he can do is run by slimeing Obama-just like HRC tried to do-and ignoring the fact that without any ideas about what to do, McCain is running the ultimate rove campaign. No issues, no content. Just hate and culture war wedge issues. The 2000,2004 campaigns all over again. All the repigs have is hate and fear. No solutions other than those of the 89 lobbyists that are running the McCain campaign If McCain wins then the programs of the New American Century Neocons will advance. The NACN currently consist of Big Business-bailout, Big Arms-war, Big Media-more and higher ratings and Big Religion-evangelical culture warriors who really really want the end of times to happen now. McCain wins then we the people lose and lose big.
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