I can hardly wait for this ad to hit the air. Joe Ricketts, A pro-Romney billionaire, is considering a new political attack on President Obama centered on his past association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The campaign would be funded by $10 million of Ricketts fortune and produced by his SuperPAC, Ending Spending Action Fund.
In a document obtained by the New York Times, the group of “high-profile Republican strategists” is planning on revealing Wright’s “influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way.” Finally! The secret story of Rev. Wright that was suppressed by the liberal media four years ago will be exposed to a nation that has never heard of him and his power over our puppet-like president. Never mind the fact that according to the PEW Research Center, the controversy generated by Wright “made more news than both Hillary Clinton and John McCain” in the spring of 2008 at the height of the presidential primaries. By summer PEW’s analysis showed that…
“The story-line or event that has received the most coverage so far is Obama’s relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which accounted for 6% of all stories and dwarfed all of the other episodes or storyline of the campaign that didn’t have to do with the horse race itself.”
Now Romney’s wealthy backers have determined that America was deprived of this highly pertinent information and they are promising to reach back to the past and dredge it all up again. The twist that they are proposing is to racialize this attack even more than previous attempts. The proposal refers to Obama as a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln” (whatever that is), and in order to to respond to any charges of racism, they plan to hire as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American.” I wonder if that’s anything like the IWSB (intelligent, well-socialized black) that noted racist John Derbyshire aspired to befriend.
The Romney campaign has issued a rather tepid response that merely stated their intention to focus on economic issues. That is in sharp contrast to the McCain campaign that decisively rejected these sort of character attacks, although some on his campaign (i.e. Sarah Palin) advocated for them. One of the strategists for the pro-Romney PAC, Fred Davis, is a former McCain adviser who pushed for more emphasis on Wright, but was shot down by McCain. Davis is also the genius behind the inadvertently hilarious “Demon Sheep” ad that so embarrassed Carly Fiorina in 2010.
The purpose of this project is clear. The extremists behind it have determined that they can’t beat Obama as long as he is regarded so favorably by a majority of the public. They note in their proposal that Americans “still aren’t ready to hate this president,” so they have taken it upon themselves to manufacture reasons to do so. It is a cynical and divisive strategy that concedes that Romney is so unlikeable that there is no positive argument to make for voting for him.
It didn’t work in 2008, and there is no rational reason to expect that it would work now. It would only serve to further embarrass those associated with such a repugnant effort to smear a president who is popular and well-liked. And that’s why I can’t wait see them follow through. Although there is already speculation that they are chickening out due to the publicity they are receiving. Too bad. But I have great confidence they’ll come up with something just as embarrassing before long. It’s what they do best.
[Update] Romney is now “repudiating” the Ricketts plan. However, his surrogates on the right are going all out in pushing the Rev. Wright theme. Sean Hannity is featuring the disreputable author Ed Klein on his program to discuss Wright. Glenn Beck has offered Wright $150,000 to tell him “the truth” about Obama. So Romney has merely stepped aside to let his comrades mount the attack.
This is great! Let them make Obama’s church a target, and then Bishop Mitt’s Mormonism becomes fair game! Did you know that Mitt Romney:
–wears magic underwear to protect him from Satan?
–believes that Jesus and Satan were brothers?
–believes that God lives on the planet Kolob, which no astronomer has ever found?
–believes that the American Indians are the 10 lost tribes of Israel, even though DNA evidence has conclusively shown there are no genetic markers in common between Indians and Jews or Arabs?
–believes that Jesus came to America after his resurrection?
–believes that blacks were cursed by God (at least until the late 1970s)?
–believes that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri?
–believes that if you have dark skin & convert to Mormonism, your skin will begin to whiten?
–believes in the total subjugation of women, according to Church doctrine?
–believes that drinking coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola is sinful?
–believes that playing cards (even Windows solitaire) is sinful?
–calls everyone who does not belong to his church a “Gentile”?
–believes in baptizing dead Jewish Holocaust victims as Mormons?
–believes that his family will be reincarnated on their own special planet?
There’s plenty more, but this is all going to be fair game once the Rev, Wright attack ads take off. How about a poster in every Starbucks reminding customers that Mitt Rmoney will never enjoy a cappucino because of his weird-ass religion? Reverend Wright? Let’s talk Joseph Smith instead!
Just when I thought nothing could top “I can’t remember what I said but I stand by it” as line of the day along comes “still aren’t ready to hate this president.” They just don’t think, the way we do (comma optional).
I don’t know. Standing by what you don’t remember saying is still pretty awesome. But not remembering what you stand by is more Romney’s style.
HA!!!
I can’t confirm this, but I believe Sean Hannity is contractually bound to utter the name “Reverend Wright” at least nine times per week, and is paid a bonus for every utterance beyond 11.
i am not sure if there is any correlation here, but he is the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cub…
Ricketts family bought the Chicago Cubs and like all professional sports club owners extorts money from the city their club is in in the form of tax breaks etc. This asshole contested the valuation on his mansion for property tax purposes. I don’t know if it went his way or not but if so it only saved him like 10 to 15k, which is nothing to this billionaire, he just didn’t want to pay is fair share, like everybody else, to support the public schools that most of that tax goes to support. Ricketts owns
Ameritrade and if you ever do any of that type of business don’t do it with this company. Godslayer you are correct if these pricks want to do the Wright thing all over again I’m sure the Obama camp would be more than happy to talk about some of the bat shit crazy stuff found in mormonism. Probably why Romney ain’t that hot the Wright idea.
They rolled out the red apologist carpet for Ricketts and an associated Super Pac on Morning Joe this morning. And here I thought I had seen all the pandering to the Right that could be mustered but the discussion over this revelation blew the lid off Morning Joe pander~bility. Joe wasn’t even there which made it 10x worse.
Basically they all agreed that this was a non-story and a terrible mistake wrought upon the benevolent Ricketts family and associated Super Pacs’ by deliberately misleading reporters.
Remember, it’s not an issue until Fox News says so…