McCain Urges North Carolina GOP to Pull Negative Obama Ad

By Anastacia Mott Austin

This week Republican presidential nominee John McCain condemned the North Carolina state GOP for deciding to run a negative attack ad against Barack Obama.

Saying that he wanted to run an issue-driven campaign and not get caught up in distracting personal attacks, McCain told reporters during a press conference that he had strongly urged the North Carolina Republican party to not air the ad.

"There’s no place for that kind of campaigning," said McCain. "The American people don’t want it, period."

Amen, brother.

And since Obama has long said the same thing, could we be facing a national presidential campaign, albeit a shortened one, free of the kind of sniping and personal digs that have plagued the Democratic race and wearied voters?

I think I hear a vast, collective sigh of relief.

Though the attack ad is ostensibly aimed at the two Democratic candidates for governor, it criticizes Beverly Eaves Purdue and Richard Moore for merely supporting Barack Obama and says that the two "should know better" than to associate with the likes of Jeremiah Wright. Yes, because they are Obama supporters, they are accused of being pals with the controversial pastor and his incendiary remarks.

McCain held a press conference to address the ad and his response to it. "We called and asked them not to run that message. It’s not the message of the Republican Party. It’s not the message of my campaign. I’ve pledged to conduct a respectful campaign," said McCain.

"I think sometimes we neglect a fundamental reason why we have political parties. That is to elect our candidates to office," McCain told reporters later. "What I hope is that they would listen to my views that it’s not representative of the Republican Party and what we are trying to be."

The North Carolina Republican Party insists that the ad will still run, regardless of McCain’s request.

But not everyone buys that McCain cannot stop the ad. The Democratic National Committee has called on McCain to put a stop to it "as a test of his leadership."

Said DNC chairman Howard Dean in a written statement, "This is a test of leadership for John McCain. If he can't pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq?"

Good question, and one which some think McCain doesn’t want to answer. Some political experts have pointed out that because of his disavowal of it, the ad has received national attention and almost 100,000 hits on Youtube in just two days. Those same experts say that McCain’s public disdain for the ad has effectively made him seem like he is the candidate above it all, while at the same time generating great publicity for the ad.

I guess the cynical can believe it’s all a ploy. Personally, I prefer the sigh of relief scenario. So many voters, especially Democrats worn weary by the constant negativity between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, can’t wait for a sign that the national campaign could potentially be snipe-free.

Both candidates (McCain and Obama) have sworn that the issues should be the focus of a campaign, and dare we even hope this scenario could happen? Imagine, something completely different than we’ve all come to expect and dread.

Now that’s some change we can believe in.