Posted on 08/29/2008 12:52:11 PM PDT by kristinn
The American Issues Project today wraps up its first phase of a televisionadvertising and issue campaign, which called into question the longstandingrelationship between Barack Obama and unrepentant 1960’s domestic terrorist,William Ayers. “American Issues Project clearly has struck a nerve inside theObama campaign, but even more important is the reaction of the American people,who are starting to question why Sen. Obama would have such a closerelationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist,” said Ed Martin, AmericanIssues Project president.
The heavy-handed response of the Obama campaign definitely misfired. The more the Obama campaign has tried to bully the ad off the air with its spurious legal threats and intimidation, the more voters have wondered what he has to hide.
The ad examines the connection between Sen. Obama and domestic terrorist William Ayers, co-founder of the violent, radical Weather Underground movement that “declared war on America” and successfully bombed the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon, police stations and other targets across the nation. Ayers has not only trumpeted his role in the bombings, he is unrepentant. On September 11th, 2001, the New York Times reported him saying, “I don't regret setting bombs I feel we didn’t do enough.
The ad drew a massive and disproportionate response from the Obama campaign, which demanded the Department of Justice prosecute the organization and its donors, threatened stations running the ad in an attempt to compel them to pull the spot and other efforts to “kill the messenger.” Notably, the effort was unsuccessful in getting a single station to pull the ad. The Obama campaign sponsored its own paid ad in response, which fails to dispute a single fact the American Issues Project has put forth.
Sen. Obama defends his friend Ayers as “respectable” and “mainstream.” The two worked closely together on several boards including for an organization that Ayers founded and Obama chaired. Sen. Obama¹s political career was even launched at an event hosted by Ayers in his own home.
American Issues Project has as one of its primary purposes protecting America’s role in the world and assuring a strong national defense. The Ayers-Obama connection raises an important issue that is directly related to AIP’s purposes and which AIP will continue in coming months, and years, to promote.
The American Issues Project’s ad aired 7,307 times from August 21 - 29 on 69 stations in 14 markets within Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The total ad buy was $2.8 million, making it the largest third-party expenditure to date in this election cycle. The ad impressions in each market were:
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, 402x
WB-Scranton, 497x
Michigan
Grand Rapids, 551x
Flint, 591x
Lansing, 625x
Traverse City, 547x
Virginia
Norfolk, 409x
Richmond, 432x
Roanoke, 411x
Ohio
Columbus, 592x
Cincinnati, 576x
Dayton, 521x
Toledo, 563x
Youngstown, 590x
Note by Kristinn:
Last night, Talking Points Memo heralded the Obama campaign for its 'overwhelming' ad buy in response to the AIP ads:
Obama Campaign Overwhelming Ayers Swift-Boat Spot With More Response Ads
By Greg Sargent - August 28, 2008, 5:19PM
Okay, this is interesting: The Obama campaign is now running ads responding to the Swift-Boating Obama-Ayers spot at a significantly faster pace than the original spot itself is running.
It's yet another sign that the Obama campaign is dead serious about sinking real resources into real media buys responding to such attacks, thus using rebuttal ads to saturate the local markets where the attack spots are running.
On August 26th -- the last date for which info is available -- the American Issues Project, the group behind the spot tying Obama to the former Weatherman, ran the ad 304 times in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia.
On that same day, the Obama campaign aired its response ad some 550 times -- nearly twice as many times -- in those same four states.
According to Evan Tracey, who tracks national ad buys for the Campaign Media Analysis Group and supplied us with these numbers, this shows that the Obama campaign's response is overtaking the ad itself in frequency.
"If current trends continue, Obama will be drowning out those ads," Tracey says.
The numbers tell the story. AIP has run the Ayers spot a total of 730 times overall as of the end of the 26th. Obama started running his response ad later, but it has already run nearly as many times overall -- 643. And on the 26th, Obama's ad ran significantly more times -- indicating that he's now running his response at a higher pace, Tracey says.
"Obama won't be outgunned. That's one of the advantages of having money," Tracey concludes. "The Obama campaign is not afraid to deviate from its national message to put out these local fires."
Another note from Kristinn:
TPM isn't the only the only liberal mouthpiece to get it wrong on AIP's ad buy. The New Republic also engaged in wishful thinking:
28.08.2008
More on the Ayers Ads
Yesterday I ran into a well-known Democratic activist who pays close attention to the ad wars. I told him my theory that while the media obsesses over convention stagecraft the election is being defined for voters in critical swing states by those 527 attack ads linking Obama to Bill Ayers and thus--ludicrously--to 9/11. He scoffed. His research, he told me, showed that the ad buy has been overblown, so far totalling less than $500,000. So maybe this concern is overstated. On the other hand, summer's not even over yet and I'm sure we can expect plenty more of this stuff. The sponsor of the ads, after all, is a billionaire, so there's plenty more where that came from.
--Michael Crowley
One last note from Kristinn: The American Issues Project rocked the Obama campaign and their liberal myrmidons on the media. The number of ad buys reported by AIP dwarfs the numbers liberals thought were bought. The ad has run over 6,500 times more than the liberals thought.
Now that's Swift Boating!
“Sen. Obama defends his friend Ayers as “respectable” and “mainstream.” “
To a rational person, Ayers is a moon-bat liberal and an unrepentent America-hating terrorist. But to B. Hussein, he probably IS “mainstream”.
I believe that Obama shares much of Ayers’s ideology, but even if he doesn’t (as he says) he certainly deserves the opprobrium he’s getting for merely associating with that kind of scum.
I have to laugh; this Ayers ad has Rove all over it.
The plan is simple: Create an ad that is outrageously phrased but factually bullet proof. Spend about $100 running it in a bunch of small markets. Notify the usual lib suspects.
Sit back and watch as they raise it to a media frenzy, and the networks run it in its entirety hundreds of times. For Free.
Congratulate yourself on your national media buy, picked up for less than the cost of four major league baseball seats (a losing team, at that)
But, as I understand, the coward's campaign did succeed in intimidating CNN and Fox into not running it.
It’s a ‘Schmidt storm’
LOL
Wile E Coyote Democrats, they can’t help themselves.
“Show me your company and I’ll tell you what you are”.
That’s what the good nuns said back in my school days.
Obama has traveled in pretty bad company: Ayers, Wright; Frank Harris; Pfleger; Rezko...etc. etc. etc.
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I knew a nun or two myself Palladin, and they might also have mentioned what would happen when you “lie down with dogs” (my apologies to dog loving FReepers).
Another of the nuns’ favorites that can be applied to Obama:
“Empty barrels make the most noise.”
I hope they keep it up.
As always good job Kristinn!
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