McCain Aide Suspended For Anti-Obama Video

This wasn’t the best of weeks for John McCain. He had a fairly major gaffe regarding Iraq as well as a less consequential one comparing Purim to Halloween. There was one hopeful sign when an adviser called the Christian right a serious problem. There was a second hopeful sign today when a staffer was suspended for a video attacking Obama:

A McCain campaign aide actively pushed an incendiary, racially-charged video that uses the controversial words of Barack Obama’s pastor to tar Obama as unpatriotic — despite the fact that McCain himself has suggested that Obama shouldn’t be held accountable for Wright’s views.

The aide, Soren Dayton, who works in McCain’s political department, has been suspended from the campaign, a McCain spokesperson, Jill Hazelbaker, confimed to me.

The move by McCain’s aide could create controversy for the McCain camp, because the video itself is thoroughly reprehensible — it interweaves footage of Obama explaining why he won’t wear the American flag pin, Wright saying “God damn America,” Malcolm X, and Obama’s wife saying that his candidacy has made her proud of America for the “first time.”

That McCain’s campaign aide spread this runs directly counter to what McCain himself has said about the Wright controversy. He suggested in a recent interview that Obama shouldn’t be held liable for his pastor’s views, and a top aide to McCain, Charlie Black, also recently suggested that McCain didn’t believe in trafficking in such stuff.

There is also more on this at The Politico. Hopefully this is a sign that a campaign between Obama and McCain will concentrate on the issues as opposed to the types of attacks we’ve seen from the right in recent years and from Hillary Clinton this year. McCain spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker also released this statement:

“We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy. He has been reprimanded by campaign leadership and suspended from the campaign.”

Needless to say, there is some skepticism being expressed on many liberal blogs regarding the McCain campaign. For example, Oliver Willis warns:

The base impulse of the modern conservative movement – especially the blogosphere and talk radio contingents – is to always appeal to base elements. Racism, sexism, smearing opponents as the worst things possible, they come as easy to the right as breathing. Dayton just made the mistake of getting caught in public. Don’t think the campaign and the party aren’t doing the same or worse behind closed doors.

Oliver may very well be right, but I think it is best commend the McCain campaign or any expressions of a desire to run a clean and honorable campaign, as well as to be ready to point it out should they fail to maintain these standards.

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