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The Republican national campaign reached a new low over the weekend when chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick of the Virginia Republican Party (pictured here) compared Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Clumsily associating Obama with 60s militant William Ayers - a man with whom Obama was loosely acquainted within the context of legitimate charity work in Chicago - Frederick told McCain volunteers in Virginia that Obama and bin Laden "both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," concluding that this means Obama is "scary." These remarks were understood as talking points for the volunteers to convey to the voters of Virginia.
Democrats are understandably outraged by Frederick's comments, saying that this is only the latest in a series of inflammatory statements made by Republicans against Obama in the crucial battleground state of Virginia. First reported Oct. 12 in Time, Frederick's remarks are discussed further in the same date's Washington Post. Frederick stood by his statements when questioned later, and John McCain has declined to condemn or comment on Frederick's remarks. Meanwhile, even Republicans have conceded that smears like Frederick's against Obama are a loser's game.
Frederick's comparison of Obama with bin Laden is obviously not only inflammatory but ridiculous: Bin Laden was directly responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center which killed thousands of people. Ayres was a member of a group that carried out a 1972 bombing at the Pentagon in which no one was hurt or killed, and with which then ten-year-old Barack Obama was in no way associated. Ayres is now is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and once served on a charity board of which Obama was also a member. Obama has condemned Ayers's actions in the 1960s and 1970s, and describes him as "a guy who lives my neighborhood."
Frederick's remarks are the latest in a series of inflammatory statements by Republicans campaigning in Virginia. Recently, the head of the McCain campaign in Buchanan County, Virginia, was forced to resign after he published a column in a local newspaper including openly racist comments about Obama and African Americans as well as disparaging statements about immigrants and gay people. Recently also, John McCain's brother Joe described suburban Alexandria and Arlington County in Northern Virginia as "communist country."
Jeff Frederick, the Republican Party, and the McCain campaign cannot be allowed a pass on smears such as this against Barack Obama. Obama supporters and other concerned parties are encouraged to contact the GOP and the McCain campaign, demand an apology from both, and demand Frederick's resignation:
McCain national campaign: info@johnmccain.com
McCain Virginia campaign virginia@johnmccain.com
Republican National Committee (Mike Duncan, Chair): chairman@gop.com
Virginia Republican Party: info@rpv.org
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
