Praying for Barack

Guess who is getting the most third party ad support this presidential cycle. It's Barack.

The Matthew 25 Network, a relatively new political action group aimed at Christian voters, is beginning to air two new radio commercials today on behalf of Senator Barack Obama.

The spots are to run on Christian music stations in several battleground states, including Colorado, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina.


The spots are designed to appeal to Christian voters who have not been inspired by Senator John McCain. Polling by the Barna Group, a Christian research firm, says that Mr. McCain is not doing as well among evangelical voters as President Bush did four years ago and that Mr. Obama has made inroads among those who describe themselves as born-again.

Where are the Boats?

I've always felt that, baring some major upheaval or campaign mishap, Barack Obama was unelectable. My belief that he was unelectable was based on the expectation that voters would have the relevant information, and that it would be provided by a Swift Boat style information campaign. For some reason, that campaign has never materialized.

Independent political groups, some of which made big splashes in the 2004 race, are playing reduced roles in this year's presidential campaign. With three-plus weeks to go, there's less money pouring into nasty negative television advertising from outside groups than in 2004, and much of the activity is directed toward narrow niches in the electorate.

Where are they? is what I'd like to know. Barack is much more vulnerable to this sort of attack than Kerry was, and the Swift Boaters managed to beat Kerry. Are you telling me that we're going to reach November 4 without people understanding that Reverend Wright wasn't a unique character in Barack's past - that he's part of a radical clique who made Barack a political player in Chicago politics?

The 527 was the weapon of choice for many activists in 2004, when major donors wrote multimillion-dollar checks to underwrite advertising and organizing efforts of groups that spent a combined $434 million on federal campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. As of July this year, 527s had spent about $156 million, the center reports. New reports are due later this month.

Some believe that a shift in how money is raised for presidential elections explains the lack of an organized effort like we saw four years ago.

The highest-profile 527s in 2004 were the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which spent about $22 million attacking Democrat John F. Kerry's record in the Vietnam War; Progress for America, which spent about $45 million, much of it on a memorable ad in which a girl, whose mother was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, praised President Bush; and The Media Fund and America Coming Together, a related group that spent about $136 million on TV ads and field operations in support of Kerry.

But it seems that there must be a different feeling about this election amongst the big money donors and conservative activists - perhaps a dislike of John McCain?

After McCain-Feingold banned unlimited large donations, or soft money, by corporations and labor unions, multimillionaire activists stepped in and underwrote most of the independent groups that were active in 2004.

That was also the year the Internet began to transform political fund-raising, which Obama has taken to new levels of success. "In the soft-money years, a lot of big checks written by corporations weren't given particularly willingly," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic political consultant who played a leading role in America Coming Together and The Media Fund four years ago.

"McCain-Feingold didn't take money out of politics but it got powerful politicians out of the loop of raising big checks," Jordan said.

Lay some "God-damn America," on the American people, combined with some "I've never been proud of my country," with some Bill Ayers and Rev Pfleger and "I'm not going to put that pin on my chest," and I still say that Barack is unelectable - even with the financial meltdown.

Knowing the Obamafia

It would be a shame if, after two years of intense campaigning, November 4 arrived without voters knowing the essential details of Barack's background. The degree to which it hasn't been exposed is really bizarre.

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama's character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

I don't know why the sort of orchestrated campaign from 527's that was waged against John Kerry hasn't happened in this race, but Barack is dramatically more vulnerable than Kerry was - and it defeated Kerry.

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

This is what must happen - but it remains unexplained why the campaign has to do it itself. It's much better if the 527's do the attacking and the campaign has the ability to stay on policy issues.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. appears to be off limits after McCain condemned the North Carolina Republican Party in April for an ad that linked Obama to his former pastor, saying, "Unfortunately, all I can do is, in as visible a way as possible, disassociate myself from that kind of campaigning."

I remain convinced that no one could get elected president carrying the burden of public awareness of relationships like the ones Barack used to get power. But there can't be an informed electorate if no one speaks up! Someone has to spread the word.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's performance at Thursday night's debate embodied the new approach, as she used every opportunity to question Obama's honesty and fitness to serve as president. At one point she said, "Barack Obama voted against funding troops [in Iraq] after promising that he would not do so."

Palin kept up the attack yesterday, saying in an interview on Fox News that Obama is "reckless" and that some of what he has said, "in my world, disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief."

Now that Sarah has returned to the form that made her the most popular political figure in the country, the campaign will get the fire going again, and will get the word out.

Better Wright

Yesterday I posted an ad from the Judicial Network that attempts to make the country aware of the Obamafia. It was ok. Here's an RNC version that's stronger, I think. But for this to be done with the viciousness it warrents, aren't we looking for a 527campaign of expensive truth telling?