Romney denounces idea of Obama-Wright campaign ads

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By BETH FOUHY and PHILIP ELLIOTT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Mitt Romney swiftly and firmly distanced himself Thursday from a group exploring plans to target President Barack Obama's relationship with a controversial former pastor. But the revival of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue momentarily placed race at the center of the presidential contest and showcased the independent groups playing a new role this year with big-money TV ads.

Republican Romney pushed back against a proposal being weighed by a conservative super PAC, Ending Spending Action Fund, to run a $10 million ad campaign drawing attention to racially provocative sermons Wright delivered at a church Obama attended in Chicago. But with super PACS operating under significantly looser campaign finance restrictions than in past presidential contests, there was no guarantee Romney's words would be heeded by other groups eager to make Wright - and, by extension, race - a factor in the campaign.

"I want to make it very clear: I repudiate that effort," Romney told reporters after a campaign stop in Florida. "I think it's the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign. I hope that our campaigns can be respectively about the future and about issues and about vision for America."

Romney indicated he was eager to shift the discussion back to jobs and the economy - bedrock issues on which he contends Obama is vulnerable.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120517/D9UQMRS02.html

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In this March 25, 2012 file photo, Rev. Jeremiah Wright speaks in Jackson, Miss. A super PAC working to defeat President Barack Obama is preparing an ad campaign highlighting Obama's ties to his former pastor. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

[unkachuck]

1. slick willard....

....(the rich wall-street Mormon, understander of economies and campaign trickster) will periodically distance himself from many nasty forthcoming Obama attacks so his MSM corporate buddies can sling shit on his behalf....

....the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is old news, why is slick willard and the MSM regurgitating this?....so slick willard and his buds can attack Obama without attacking Obama....

[beac]

2. Actually I think this may be a rare moment of semi-genuineness from Rmoney.

Not b/c he really cares about anyone going after Obama on religion but b/c he's scared shitless about someone doing ads featuring all the "unpleasantness" in his own religion's history.

[unkachuck]

3. you may be right...let's never forget Mountain Meadows...was slick willards ancestors involved?

[beac]

4. No one seems to know...

But even w/out that there's the "no blacks allowed before 1978" and the commitment to polygamy that inspired his gggrandfather to flee the US when it was outlawed-- resulting in Rmoney's dad being born in Mexico.

[Merlot]

5. Those fact of his religion, while unseemly, have little to do with rmoney today

I don't think we can hold rmoney responsible for the decisions made by his g-grandfather. No one should pay for the decisions of their parents. And the fact that his religion made some weird choices on underwear and blacks is not relevant to the campaign.

What is relevant is that the mormons funded the Prop 8 anti-gay campaign here in California. The fact that they want to dictate the laws outside of Utah is troubling to say the least. That they want to have the power to impose their religion is very disturbing. The fact that rmoney gives his money to the church instead of actual charities, that's a problem for me. It's like money laundering.

Instead of slinking mud at mormonism, let's put the focus where it belongs - on rmoney

[beac]

6. I agree that Prop8, Romnney's scorched earth capitalism and other current issues are more important.

I was merely pointing out reasons why Romney wouldn't want to delve into Obama's religious history.

BTW, Mitt Romney was in the "lay clergy" of his church for years while the anti-black policy was in force. He
also lied about his dad "marching with MLK" so that part of the history is fair game, in my book.

[groundloop]

7. This brings up a question re. the Super PAC coordinating with a candidate....

Since, apparently, the Super PAC is dropping plans to run the Jeremiah Wright ads at the request of Rmoney doesn't that indicate that the candidate is coordinating efforts with the Super PAC? That, obviously, would be in violation of election law.

Bringing out Wright would have been a horrible blunder.