Pirate's Cove

LA Times

As they promote their candidates and try to pave the way for GOP victories this year, Republicans have begun making their case to voters in advertisements featuring a new star: Barack Obama.

In North Carolina, a TV ad shows Obama’s former pastor making racially charged comments. An Internet ad attacks a Pennsylvania congressman for endorsing Obama’s presidential bid. A New Mexico radio ad says Obama disrespects “the American way of life.”

In Louisiana, a TV ad attacking Obama’s healthcare agenda as “radical” 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.”

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.

The ads also are playing into a debate among Democratic officials about Obama’s electability in November, a discussion that gained urgency after his 9-percentage-point loss to Hillary Rodham Clinton in this week’s Pennsylvania primary. That contest provided more evidence that the Illinois senator has had trouble winning over seniors and working-class white voters, who are seen as important to a Democratic victory this fall.

And those who are producing these vids do not seem to be backing down when the Democrats call them mean. Fighting fire with fire.