The Arkansas Project

Arkansas Group Hits Obama on Ads

By David Kinkade - September 24, 2008 7:15 am

I’d heard some rumblings about this yesterday, but didn’t get the official word till late last night (who sends out news releases at midnight?):

Citizens for Open and Reponsive Government, an Arkansas-based 527 group, is pushing a new independent ad hitting Barack Obama for what they describe as “slurs” against John McCain. It’s a response to Obama’s ad from a week or so ago hitting McCain for not using a computer—but it soon became clear that McCain doesn’t do much work with computers because his war wounds preclude it.

The issue picked up a little extra steam this week when Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, pronounced the ad “terrible” in an interview and said he would not have run it. (The Obama campaign quickly released a follow-up statement from Biden in which he denounced his denunciation.)

Here’s the ad, which features testimony from Lt. Col. Mike Fairhead, a wounded war veteran from Rogers, Ark.:

CORG Director Carlton Saffa says in a news release that the ad will run in Colorado, which has emerged as a key state in the campaign as a potential flipper for Obama. If nothing else, it’s fun to see some kind of presidential race action emanating out of Arkansas. (Here’s the CORG website with the full text of the news release.)

(Disclosure: Saffa is a personal friend, and in fact I was an usher at his wedding in 2007.)

Related Posts

• September 11, 2008 -- Dispatch from Hot Springs
• October 13, 2008 -- GOP Debate Watch Party, Wednesday
• September 25, 2008 -- ARG Poll: McCain Up by 12 in Arkansas
• September 19, 2008 -- ‘Good Morning America’ Comes to Helena
• September 18, 2008 -- Sign of the Times
• September 16, 2008 -- More on GOP Victory Team Shuffling