Big Fat Story
Many of the original Swiftboaters that doomed John Kerry have quietly decamped to the American Issues Project, funded by a Texas billionaire, Harold Simmons. Their contribution to the 2008 race is a return to their old ways, questioning the honesty and integrity of the Democratic candidate through viral videos. Obama's links to Sixties terrorist William Ayers are cited as evidence of his poor judgment and questionable associations. "Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?" the AIP ad asks. Another of Feather's companies, FLS-Connect, that does the lion's share of phone work for the GOP and has worked for all 50 state Republican parties, was paid more than $9 million by the RNC for its services in the past year.
The much heralded television onslaught against Obama has failed to materialize—yet. Is this the calm before the storm? Or did the Swiftboat Veterans so overstate their case, with devastating effect to John Kerry, that no one dare try the same thing twice? A number of factors are combining. Big conservative donors are unimpressed by McCain and have put their money into trying to save Congress for the GOP. Television was so 2004; this year it is all internet ads, emails, and robocalls. And Obama has so much more money to spend than his opponents that any dirty campaign would set off a massive retaliation. Nonetheless, the attack ads are out on the web and could be rolled out on TV at any moment. Like this one, accusing Obama of mocking the Bible.
See the pick of dirty campaign ads in a gallery.
Despite running a relatively modest number of ads and spending little more than $1 million, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the most notorious 527 group, mounted a bitter assault on Kerry's integrity while keeping Bush well above the fray. This year, however, the team that sank the Democrats in 2004 is off the air. T. Boone Pickens, who invested $3 million in the Swiftboaters' efforts, has sworn off mudslinging to wage his alternative energy campaign. Jerome Corsi, who wrote the Swiftboaters' book on Kerry, is continuing his campaign—he was recently deported from Kenya while promoting his hostile Obama biography.
The Secret Swift Boaters
It's very quiet on the campaign trail. No October surprise. And no blitz of attack ads featuring Obama's embarrassing friends Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Jeremiah Wright. But the dirty campaign is underway under the radar.
The credit crunch has put the economy at the top of the campaign, but groups like Illinois-based pro-life 527 BornAliveTruth.org has run ads in Ohio and New Mexico hoping to revive the old culture wars. They feature "abortion survivor" Gianna Jesson, who attacks Obama for opposing legislation protecting fetuses that survive failed abortions with the potent line, "If Barack Obama had his way, I wouldn’t be here." McCain thinks the subject so poignant, he brought it up in the final debate. Obama said he voted no on the bill because it was redundant and was designed to undermine Roe v. Wade.
The financial meltdown and the election have pushed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan down the news list, but they still raise passions high. Vets for Freedom have been running a $7 million dollar campaign against Obama for denying the value of General Petraeus's Iraq troop surge. They have just spent another $500,000 on ads in Ohio and Colorado to suggest: Obama skipped 45 percent of votes in the Senate, but found time to vote against supplying American troops; he was in charge of the committee overseeing the Afghanistan war, but never held a meeting; and while running for president he has visited Iowa 45 times, but Iraq only twice.
A 527 claims Obama is soft on child molestors
Never mind Rezko, Wright, and Ayers, the Committee for Truth in Politics is taking negative attacks to the limit. In an ad limited to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, Obama stands accused of casting a dissenting vote against legislation cracking down on sex offenders in Illinois, and warns, "Innocent lives are at stake." The accusation is true only in a technical sense—Obama accidentally hit the wrong button on the Senate vote and immediately corrected his mistake in the record, later writing about the incident in his book. If the claim gains traction in Pennsylvania, however, it will only take one conservative billionaire to take the story nationwide.
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