The first salvo was fired in against Obama by the GOP in North Carolina with its anti-Obama ad featuring the Reverend Wright’s “God damn America” sermon video clip.
Now, reports The Los Angeles Times, the GOP launched a Louisiana TV ad attacking Obama's healthcare agenda as "radical", which has proved so threatening that the House candidate it targeted, Democrat Don Cazayoux, distanced himself from Obama on Thursday, issuing a stern statement saying that he "has not endorsed any national politician."
Says the Times:
“The flurry of attacks underscores how Republicans and their allies are sensing opportunity in the increasingly battered image of Obama, whom many Democrats have viewed as their best hope for appealing across ideological lines and helping their party win in conservative areas.”
Also running in different states, a GOP Pennsylvania ad attacking Barack Obama for his well publicized “bitter” comments, and a New Mexico radio ad says Obama disrespects "the American way of life."
Meanwhile, concern is growing in Democratic circles that Obama is too venerable to these attacks, and that it could cost the Democratic Party the White House in November:
“Now, many Democratic leaders are trying to determine whether they are on the verge of nominating a candidate who, in addition to asking voters to accept him as the first African American president, could be vulnerable to being cast as too far out of the mainstream.”
The Times adds:
“Some Democratic activists said Thursday that they were worried about Obama's prospects in the general election, wondering if certain working-class white Democratic voters might abandon him for the Republican nominee, particularly in key states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“"I've lived my entire life in Ohio and, unfortunately, there are pockets of intolerance and there are people who are resentful of minority gains," said John Hartman, 62, a Bowling Green resident and local Democratic committeeman.
“Brett Penrose, an Obama supporter and vice president of the Democratic Club in Johnson County, Missouri, said in an interview that
some white Democrats would be turned off by Wright's sermons.
“"Definitely, in this part of the country, it plays more than people want to say," said Penrose, 42. "Does it hurt? In the end it does hurt."”
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