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Obama Tries To Censor Critical Ad

The Associated Press reports that the Obama campaign is trying to force broadcast stations not to air an ad critical of of Obama?s ties with unrepentant 60s domestic terrorist William Ayers.

Barack Obama is striking back fiercely and swiftly to stamp out an ad that links him to a 1960s radical, eager to demonstrate a far more aggressive response to attacks than John Kerry did when faced with the 2004 ?Swift Boat? campaign....

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama supporters have inundated stations that are airing the ad, many of them owned by Sinclair Communications, with 93,000 e-mails. He called the ad false, despicable and outrageous.

?Other stations that follow Sinclair?s lead should expect a similar response from people who don?t want the political discourse cheapened with these false, negative attacks,? Vietor said.

Those ads have run in Virginia, among other places, and the Obama attack machine was quick to move into action, spurting out emails to all its supporters ? and in at least one case, that of my wife, Helene, supposed supporters ? calling for assistance in intimidating broadcasters.

Alas, this effort is almost humorous. Here?s the email Helene received:

Yesterday, a right-wing smear group launched a full-fledge attack against Barack, pulling in every baseless lie and re-hashed false assertion in their playbook.

Not only that -- it turns out the ad may be illegal. Campaign finance experts are weighing in about violations of election law. And the ad is so ridiculous that CNN and even Fox News have both refused to run it.

This is exactly the kind of politics Barack is running to change.

Unfortunately, some TV stations in Virginia are running the ad right now.

Contact stations in Virginia and tell them this kind of garbage shouldn't be run on the public's airwaves ? no matter how much money they are making to run it.

John McCain claims he had nothing to do with this attack, but a former McCain consultant leads the so called 'third-party' group behind these lies.

The primary funder of the ads, Harrold Simmons, is one of the main culprits behind the Swift Boating of John Kerry and a top bundler for John McCain. The spokesman for the group also has ties to the Kerry Swift Boat attacks.

The McCain camp and the Swift Boaters must be truly desperate to change the subject from John McCain's shocking disconnect with the economic struggles of the American people.

Take action right now to make sure this trash doesn't pollute another election:

http://va.barackobama.com/offtheairVA

Keep fighting the good fight,

Obama Action Wire

Helene (who was on the Obama email list because she had requested information about campaign contributions), noting that the Obama email simply denounced the ad but provided no evidence or argument refuting it or pointing out errors, replied:

what is the smear about? how can I send a message when I don't know what it is about? what am I? a potted plant?

That, in turn, elicited the following response from the Obama campaign:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting Senator Barack Obama and Obama for America.

Barack is gratified by the overwhelming response to his candidacy, and we appreciate hearing from you. Please note, though, that we are now replying only to emails sent through our webform....

You can view the ad yourself, and a letter from its sponsor refuting charges against it, here.

Full post as published by Discriminations on August 26, 2008 (boomark / email).