Time‘s Karen Tumuly writes that “McCain Plays the Race Card” in an ad featuring former disgraced Fannie Mae executive Franklin Raines:
A few points: 1. The McCain campaign released a new ad on Jim Johnson this morning. The ad released yesterday was about who advises Obama, not who advised him. Johnson resigned from the Obama campaign on June 12. The Washington Post reported on July 17 that Raines “has been consulting with the campaign on housing issues.” A Post editorial on August 28 said that Raines was a member of “Obama’s political circle.” The Obama campaign never disputed these reports until yesterday. Had the ad included a man who had resigned among Obama’s current advisers, there’s no doubt that Time would be wailing about McCain’s Lies! Lies! Lies! 2. As for Tumulty’s argument about the ad’s inclusion of “Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman”, could she tell the McCain campaign what color, age, and sex is permissible for disappointed voters featured in negative ads? 3. Confronted with the facts, Tumulty stands by her racist accusation, telling the McCain campaign: “I grew up in Texas. I know what this stuff looks like.” Why did Tumulty have nothing to say about Obama’s ad that slandered Rush Limbaugh as an anti-Mexican bigot and suggested that McCain secretly coddles such bigots?
