Last night, I put up a post about outside groups doing ads against John McCain on behalf of Barack Obama. To be sure, one of the groups involved in the pro-Obama push, Democracy For America, is not an “outside” group at all. Founded by Howard Dean almost immediately after his famous scream ended his presidential hopes, it is currently chaired by his brother, and also tagged Barack Obama as one of the first of Dean’s Dozen politicians to watch. That’s about as “inside” as you can get.
Today, we look at the other side of that coin. Groups and individuals supporting McCain have produced two videos worth looking at. The first, tying Obama to William Ayers, an association previously documented in numerous venues, was produced by The American Issues Project, a 501(c)4 group which was announced by Ben Smith of Politico, August 21.
From the American Issues Project website:
The American Issues Project was founded to champion the conservative values that have made the United States of America a blessed nation: smaller government, a strong and ready national defense, lower taxes, and a government that encourages entrepreneurship and new job creation in America. We also know how critical it is for America to win the war against the radical Islamic extremists abroad so we do not have to fight them here on American soil.
“Do You Know Enough To Elect Barack Obama?” seems to be the group’s first effort. Not so for the second, more enigmatic entity with a provocative video. This one is not even technically an “ad,” it’s more of a “viral video” posted on You Tube and the creator’s website. “weneedmccain” says this, in his You Tube profile:
Dedicated to promoting the McCain/Palin 08 Campaign and exercising my freedom of speech to speak my mind over matters critical to the future of this nation.
“Dear Mr. Obama: Who Are You?” is his latest video, preceded by “Dear Mr. Obama: Economics 101″ and the first, entitled simply, “Dear Mr. Obama.” Though not much is known about the videos’ producer, a Google search of “weneedmccain” does lead one to some info, however. techPresident.com’s, Micah L. Sifry, whoever he is, appears to have tried to dig up something on whoever “weneedmccain” is, with mixed results.
“Dear Mr. Obama” was posted on YouTube by someone using the handle “weneedmccain.” When I emailed that person asking for information about the making of the video, I got this reply:
“I wish I could currently spend some time with you, but this can’t be about me right now. Too much going on.
I may be doing an interview with the soldier, who he is, what he believes, some Iraq stories and his parents views in the near future.”
More e-mail correspondence gave techPresident the filmmaker’s name: Michael Brown. His piece is worth a read, but does not defeinitively answer the questions, “who is Michael Brown? who does he work for? Is he a Mccain campaign GOP sanctioned operative, or a staunch Republican with video studio access and time on his hands?” techPresident has a follow-up article on the subject, suspiciously dated the same day as his first, which seems to lead Sifry, after a phone conversation with “Michael Brown” to the gut-feeling conclusion that the video is voter-generated.
Whoever produced and distributed these ads, here they are:
PUMA
Just Say No Deal
