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"Super PACs," the free-ranging groups formed to exploit a new era of unbridled campaign spending, have dominated the 2012 presidential race, buoying a succession of Republican candidates and helping propel Mitt Romney to the party's nomination.

But the bombs-away mentality threatened to blow up on Romney on Thursday when plans surfaced for an ad blitz reminding voters of President Obama's past ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his controversial former Chicago pastor.
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Still, by briefly dominating the presidential race and throwing the former Massachusetts governor on the defensive, the episode underscored the changes wrought in this new age of campaign financing. It shows how on any given day, any wealthy person has the ability to totally take over the dialogue of even the presidential campaign," said Steve Schmidt, a GOP strategist who managed Republican John McCain's 2008 White House bid.

The ad campaign, conceived by Fred Davis, a Hollywood-based consultant who also worked on the McCain campaign, was proposed to a group funded by Joe Ricketts, a Wyoming-based billionaire who founded the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. The $10-million effort, timed for this summer's Democratic National Convention, promised to show Wright and his influence on Obama "for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way."

"Our plan is to do exactly what John McCain would not let us do," read Davis' pitch, referring to the candidate's refusal to use the issue in his advertising. "Show America how Barack Obama's opinions of America and the world were formed. And why the influence of that misguided mentor and our president's formative years among left-wing intellectuals has brought our country to its knees."

The proposal was titled "The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama" and characterized the president as a "metrosexual black Abe Lincoln." A Ricketts spokesman issued a statement saying the proposal "reflects an approach to politics that Mr. Ricketts rejects, and it was never a plan to be accepted but only a suggestion for a direction to take." Davis, reached after Romney and Ricketts had both repudiated the plan, had no comment. A statement from his firm noted that the Ricketts family never approved the proposal, although the document obtained by the New York Times indicated that "preliminary approval" had been given at a New York meeting.

Speaking privately, one Romney strategist called the plan "boneheaded" and "stupid." "You can't introduce 'new' information about Wright and hope to change minds," the advisor said. Others saw a different cause for concern. Campaign finance reform advocates said the events vividly illustrate the effect that outside groups with unlimited resources can have on the White House contest. "It certainly is going to make it coarser and nastier" and possibly less relevant to the concerns of average voters, said David Donnelly, executive director of the Public Campaign Action Fund.

The super PAC backing Romney has served as the main vehicle of attack against his rivals, shredding opponents with an unending barrage of negative ads. The groups have been financed largely by a small cadre of rich individuals, including Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons and Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Ricketts now appears intent on joining their ranks. His family is especially prominent in Chicago, where it owns baseball's Cubs. Joe Ricketts' son Tom is a Republican donor. A daughter, Laura Ricketts, is a major fundraiser for Obama. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-superpac-obama-ro
mney-20120518,0,2828417.story I said, "Oops!"

I had to look up "metrosexual", then when I found the definition, had a good laugh:

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Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man (especially one living in an urban, post-industrial, capitalist culture) who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance.Wiki

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I saw video of Romney who, when initially asked about the ad, said he hadn't read the papers yet. Next time he was asked, he said he'd read the article "on the aircraft" and that he repudiated it. I wonder how the plan got "initial approval", since it's obvious what it was about, if they weren't serious? Pretty stupid move, all things considered, if you ask me.

But now we know where that quote in the post about Obama not being Christian came from. Apparently the other idea got more than "initial approval", and others on the right are taking the same tack\, a la what was posted here:

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Yesterday, “The Amateur” author Edward Klein spoke on the Sean Hannity show and revealed that Obama’s former Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright told him that he “made it comfortable” for Obama to accept Christianity without having renounce his “Islamic background,” which Klein said he has on tape.

Mr. Klein stated “I spent hours and tape recorded in his office at the – and get this, the Kwame Nkrumah Academy, a charter school that is named after the late Marxist dictator of the West African nation of Ghana.” (from the article Raptor posted

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So the smears begin:

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Here's the official narrative of today, as Mitt Romney would like you to understand it: a rogue rich guy was planning to unleash a distasteful, racially tinged attack on Barack Obama. Mitt Romney and his campaign (a) were surprised and horrified to learn of this gutter-level independent effort or (b) were the folks who secretly told The New York Times what was going on. Result: gutter campaign nipped in the bud. The effort to defeat Obama will remain high-minded from now on.

Even as this attack was prevented, we had a birtherite Breitbart post of a literary agent's brochure from 1991 that -- as the result of a then-assistant's mistake -- declared that Obama was born in Kenya. (oops 2) We had the Murdoch media's current pet author, Edward Klein, hinting that Obama was a Muslim when he met Jeremiah Wright. We had another GOP congressman going birther.* And that's just in one news cycle -- months before the general election campaign gets under way in earnest.

Here's something Josh Marshall wrote today about the thwarted plan to use Jeremiah Wright to beat Obama:

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...the key is the strategist's claim, quoted in the Times, that the plan would "do exactly what John McCain would not let us do." This is an old saw that's been going around for almost four years now. And I cannot tell you how many GOP operatives I've heard it from.

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There are going to be Joe Ricketts-style attacks from now to November. And if Romney thinks they're going to be counterproductive, or at least a distraction, well, tough -- he signed on for this. This is what the GOP is now, and he wanted to be its nominee. http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/

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I agree with him about the following, as we can see from our residential Rabid Rightie already:

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But even if Romney wins in November, he's never going to be rid of these people. If he's president, they're going to demand such lunacy -- arrests of outgoing administration members (including the president), torture of any terrorism suspect we capture, banning of all Muslims from commercial airliners ... who the hell knows what they'll demand? And even though I'm sure he's going to pursue extreme measures a la Scott Walker and the other 2010 Republican governors, I think he still might not be extreme enough for the crazies. And God help him if he ever gets thwarted or outmaneuvered by Democrats.

If he wins, I think he'll be held to such a high standard of wingnuttery that he'll almost certainly have a serious primary challenger backed by much of the looney-right establishment in 2016. Until then, he'll be like John Boehner, always protecting his right flank. And it will never be enough.

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That about says it, as I see the things that have happened around us in the past couple of years.
*The Congressman in question is another illutration of how far politicians on the right feel they can go, and how it's not paying off for them:

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ELBERT COUNTY - Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) is backpedaling after 9NEWS was first to report on an audio recording of his comments at a recent fundraiser where he raised the issue of President Barack Obama's birthplace and said the president, "in his heart, he's not an American."
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"I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that," Coffman said. "But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American." After a short pause, which Elbert County Republican Chairman Scott Wills recalled as "deafening silence," Coffman was met with applause, tentative at first.

The recording and a photo of the event were posted online by Coffman supporter Brooks Imperial, who attended the fundraiser. "I'm glad the congressman said it. Not enough have. More should," Imperial said.

Coffman issued a written apology Wednesday evening. "I misspoke and I apologize," the statement began. "I have confidence in President Obama's citizenship and legitimacy as President of the United States."

Coffman went on to offer a defense of his intent. "I don't believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism. His policies reflect a philosophy that America is but one nation among many equals," the statement read. "As a Marine, I believe America is unique and based on a core set of principles that make it superior to other nations."

A spokesman for Coffman's Democratic challenger, State Rep. Joe Miklosi (D-Aurora), weighed in with a statement painting Coffman as out of the mainstream.

"These outrageous comments once again make clear that Mike Coffman is Colorado's version of Rush Limbaugh," Miklosi spokesman Joe Hamill said. "This kind of extremism is why Washington doesn't work. We need leaders who will work together for solutions, not join the far right birther fringe or attack the President of the United States as un-American," Hamill said. http://www.9news.com/news/article/268305/339/Coffman-Obama-in-his-hear
t-not-an-American

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Third "Oops!" But as you can see, it played great for the fringe right. There will be more to come...

Also, again shows us where our Rabid Rightie gets all his news: FauxNews, Beck and Breitbart. I wonder if he and his ilk EVER read or watch anything else? Probably not...

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AZ Sect. Of State Threatens To Remove Obama From Ballot Without Birth Certificate Verification From Hawaii

Now, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is taking things a little further: threatening to keep Obama’s name off the state’s ballot in November if he doesn’t get confirmation from Hawaii that Obama’s birth certificate is valid. Bennett said he’s responding to constituents’ request, and isn’t a birther himself.

In an email to Jerome Corsi, a birther himself, Bennett wrote:

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“Because of the importance and profile of the president’s case, and at the request of many constituents, I have gone the extra step of asking the state of Hawaii to verify the facts contained in his birth certificate.
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“Whether or not that happens, if Hawaii can’t or won’t provide verification of the president’s birth certificate, I will not put his name on the ballot.”

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The Phoenix New Times confirmed that Bennett did send that email:

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“Mr. Bennett wrote that email,” Bennett’s spokesman Matt Roberts says. “With respect to the story, a constituent requested him to request a verification in lieu of certified copy. They have yet to respond.”

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Bennett said he’d received about 1200 requests to verify the birth certificate, and it’s his responsibility to verify the name’s on the ballot. He told Broomhead he’s not a birther himself, and also denied playing to the birther crowd (given his gubernatorial aspirations). “I believe the president was born in Hawaii – or at least I hope he was,” Bennett said. http://www.mediaite.com/online/az-sect-of-state-threatens-to-remove-ob
ama-from-ballot-without-birth-certificate-verification-from-hawaii/ Hawaii, by now THEY probably wish he WASN'T born there!

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At this point I'm betting that if Romney were asked if he's a flip-flopper, he'd answer, "Well, yes and no."

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