This is the worst, slimiest, lowest thing I think I have ever seen in politics at a national level.
Suggesting that Romney’s actions helped kill a woman ranks with Lyndon Johnson’s famous ad suggesting Barry Goldwater would blow up the world.
This ad is by Priorities USA Action, a technically independent political action group supporting Obama. The PAC was founded in 2011 by Bill Burton, who had just been White House Deputy Press Secretary and failed to get the top post, and another former White House staffer, Sean Sweeney. The PAC also includes veteran Democratic operative Harold Ickes and TV-based Democratic operative Paul Begala.
Where’s the outrage in the press? Imagine if Karl Rove had put together an ad in 2004 suggesting Kerry had killed someone. That is, someone who was not Vietcong.
I realize the people who put this up won’t take it down. It’s their nature to create such things.
The White House should dissociate itself from this ad immediately or be labeled as complicit in this calumny. It won’t, because the press doesn’t care, and there won’t be enough outrage. But it should. And until the White House says this kind of thing doesn’t represent President Obama, it’s an Obama ad, even if technically made by former staffers.
What’s spooky is the depths to which these people will go to maintain power. It suggests a lust for power and a willingness to do anything to preserve it that should frighten Americans.
Award winning journalist Keith Koffler has 16 years of experience covering Washington. As a reporter for CongressDaily, National Journal magazine, and Roll Call, Keith wrote primarily from the White House, covering three presidents and learning as few have the intricacies of the West Wing and the behavior and motivations of its occupants. While mainly stationed at the White House, he also extensively covered Congress and Washington’s lobbyists.
Keith has also written for a variety of other publications, including Politico, The Daily Caller, and The London Observer. He currently writes regular opinion columns for Politico. He blogs atwhitehousedossier.com.
