The civility cops have been giving John McCain a hard time for the tone of his campaign. But they are ignoring the fact that McCain has held back from using a political line of attack that could be highly effective because of what it could do to the country.
Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright are, potentially, hugely damaging to his candidacy. It dredges up a whole set of emotive issues surrounding race and brings into question much of his political persona. The attack ad on the issue Tucker Carlson sketches out over at the Daily Beast shows the kind of punch that a spot on it could pack:
“The spot opens with the familiar yet still shocking tape of Wright pounding the pulpit and looking crazy:
Wright: “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
Narrator: This is the man Barack Obama has called his spiritual mentor. In 2006, Obama gave Wright’s church more than $22,000 as a gift. Here’s what Obama’s mentor had to say about our country in the days after 9/11.
Wright: “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye…America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
Narrator: For 20 years Barack Obama sat in the pews, even brought his family, as Wright preached hate. Obama never said a word, until he was caught. Then he defended Wright. Barack Obama: Divisive. Dishonest. Dangerous.”
McCain, though, had admirably chosen to refrain from raising the issue. Now, there are several possible reasons for this. One is that McCain is uncomfortable attacking a man for the church he attends or fears blowback on Republican politicians who have pastors who make equally incendiary statements. But the most plausible explanation is that McCain knows that it would catapult the issue of race to the top of the agenda and has desisted because of that.
McCain, though, does not receive much thanks for this. John Lewis, a Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon, has said “Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire” and compared them to the segregationist George Wallace. While others have claimed that raising Obama’s connection to Bill Ayers—a white unrepentant member of the Weather Underground—is somehow racist.
The McCain campaign has been too negative for my tastes. (Indeed, I think its negativity has been counter-productive because there is no positive message to match it.) Some of its ads have stretched the truth. Clearly some people who attend McCain-Palin rallies are racists, but there is no evidence that they are anything other than a very small minority, and the campaign should do a better job of checking the signs people bring into its rallies. But those who are so quick to call into question McCain’s honour should remember that he has chosen not to go nuclear because of the contaminated ground that it would leave behind.
Comments