I am really disgusted by this ad from John McCain, Youtube link below the fold. Not only is the allegation false, but the racial undertones are clear. I guess this is a great example of what McCain must have meant by running an honorable campaign? It seems McCain has abandoned all pretense of being an honorable person and has handed over his campaign to Steve Schmidt and karl Rove to shovel whichever garbage sells. same thing that happened to him in 2000 by Karl Rove/"W"orthless Bush is what he is handing out now. What Mccain and Co. don't understand is that most of America has moved beyond this egregious junk, that's why he is behind in the polls, and will trail right through November 4. McSame's concession speech should be real interesting!
Karen Tumulty from Time Magazine explains:
When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly. Consider McCain's new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally ...
This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.
Let me stipulate: Obama's Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn't even mention a far more significant tie--that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama's vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama's principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.
http://www.time-blog.com/...
The Obama campaign responded with this statement:
Statement from Frank Raines on the ad: "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters."
"This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything -- ever. And by the way, someone whose campaign manager and top advisor worked and lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shouldn't be throwing stones from his seven glass houses," said Obama-Biden campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
John McCain...You should be ashamed of yourself. You are not honorable, you have no integrity nor do you possess a good moral compass. You are not fit to serve in the White House. ENOUGH!
UPDATE FROM TPM:
John McCain's claim in an ad yesterday that former Fannie Mae CEO Frank Raines is a leading adviser to Barack Obama is based largely on a Washington Post article reporting that Raines had "taken calls" from Obama's campaign "seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."
The notion that that makes Raines a leading adviser to Obama himself, of course, is a pretty ridiculous stretch.
Now The Washington Post's very own fact-checker has declared that the McCain campaign is "exaggerating wildly," dismissing the Raines claim as "particularly dubious."
That's nice to hear. But we have to take issue with the notion that the McCain camp's assertion is "particularly dubious." In truth, when compared to some of the more ambitions and even epic falsehoods that we've heard from the McCain campaign in recent weeks, this latest act of deception sounds like an angel's hymn.