Political Punch

Clinton Camp Responds to NC GOP Ad (Finally!)

It took hours for the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to weigh in on the North Carolina Republican Party TV ad that calls Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, "radical" and purports to attempt to harm two Democratic Tarheel State gubernatorial candidates -- Bev Perdue and Richard Moore -- by tying them to Rev. Jeremiah Wright via Obama.

The Clinton camp was in an odd spot, after all. This ad is Exhibit A in her case to superdelegates against Obama, that he will be the victims of such smears, some of them racial. So they wouldn't necessarily want to shut it down.

On the other hand, how could they not comment on an ad so many Democratic voters find offensive? Especially after the RNC and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., decried the ad? (Not to mention the two North Carolina TV stations announcing they would not broadcast it.)

So finally, from spokesman Jay Carson, comes the response to the ad against Purdue and Moore, that seeks to more pointedly hurt Obama.

"Even though they (Perdue and Moore) are supporting Senator Obama they are good Democrats, and this ad is wrong," Carson says, in a statement sent to ABC News' Eloise Harper. "It's exactly the kind of ad Republicans run every cycle to distract us from their failures and the real issues that face our country."

That's curiously worded.

"Even though" they're supporting Obama they're good Democrats? What does that mean?

Have things gotten so bitter between the two camps, do they view each other's supporters so warily, that the Clinton campaign's collective mind doubts whether Obama's supporters are good Democrats?

- jpt
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/clinton-camp-re.html