Fans of political drama will have to face some disappointing news today as it appear that the racially tinged ads against Obama by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts will not see the light of day. The ads were to be a fresh spin on the Obama – Rev. Wright relationship, attacks that many deemed too racially charged to be palatable by the American public.
The moment the story broke Ricketts rejected his involvement in the plan saying it was one of many proposals being kicked around. Statements in the report however seem to reference his approval and participation in the planning process including an idea to use computer graphics to impose Obama’s face on a body double.
What I find hard to understand is how, in this world of hyper targeted political focus grouping, something like this could be overlooked by such veteran political staffers. Many of those responsible for the ads are veterans of the McCain campaign and explicitly stated that TV spot is the kind of ad McCain forbade them to run. The moment news of the campaign broke it was universally condemned, even by some Republicans (albeit tepidly). It seems to have backfired before it even aired which makes you wonder what would have happened had the plan come to fruition.
The plan is full of strange, racially tinged language and describes Obama as a “black metrosexual Abe Lincoln”. It also points out the need to hire an extremely literate, black spokesperson to defuse controversy. So if your black and can read very well Joe Ricketts has a job for you!
It’s a shame Ricketts won’t screen it because I really wanted to see Obama’s face on that body double.
