You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. So here it is: The group responsible for the infamous Willie Horton ad used against Michael Dukakis is attacking Barack Obama. And another “independent” group – in the Swiftboat style that became familiar during the Bush-Kerry contest – is trying to link the current Democratic presidential candidate to a founder of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground.
The Willie Horton smear is running in North Carolina; the Weather Underground smear is scheduled for Michigan and Ohio. As you might expect, both commercials stretch the bounds of logic and credibility.
Floyd Brown, who created the Willie Horton ad implying Dukakis was soft on crime, attempts to portray Obama as soft on terrorism. Here’s the ad’s nutty rationale: As an Illinois senator, Obama did not vote to extend the death penalty to gang-related deaths. Puh-lease!
The Weather Underground screed is so old and dog-eared I’m sure everyone in the Western World has heard it by now. It has been used repeatedly by Fox News. It has been splashed over front pages here and in the United Kingdom. And it was trotted out in that silly ABC-TV “debate” between Obama and Hillary Clinton.
According to this scenario, Obama must be a terrorist because he served on the board of some South Chicago charity with a former Sixties radical named William Ayers. You will recall that Ayers’ Weatherman organization took credit for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.
That’s right – four decades! Obama was seven years old at the time. I doubt that he was allowed to play with bombs as a child, but that doesn’t faze the crazy neo-cons who think up these ads. With them (as the Georgian president said recently about the Russian leaders) lies are just another means of communication.
You would think that these discredited neo-con groups would be hiding under a rock someplace. But apparently they have no shame. Their latest attempts at slander insult the intelligence of American voters.
