RUSH: Here is the ad that will run -- by the way, Reuters had a story yesterday that the North Carolina Republican Party pulled this ad. They have not pulled the ad. I don't know who told Reuters this or if Reuters just made it up, but they have not pulled the ad. It is going to run Monday. We have seen to it, though, that even if they do pull it, it's going to air. They're not going to pull it, and McCain is fit to be tied. Here is the ad in question, the North Carolina Republican Party TV ad: Jeremiah Wright and the North Carolina Republican Party chairman Linda Daves also appear in this audio.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew listening to his pastor.
WRIGHT (screaming): And then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no! Not God Bless America. God (bleep) America!
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Now, Bev Perdue and Richard Moore endorse Barack Obama. They should know better. He's just too extreme for North Carolina.
DAVES: The North Carolina Republican Party sponsored this ad opposing Bev Perdue and Richard Moore for North Carolina governor.
RUSH: That's Linda Daves, the last voice on the ad that you heard. So today on the Today show Meredith Vieira is talking to Senator McCain, and she said, "The ad says Obama's, quote, 'just too extreme for North Carolina.' Now, you've called this ad 'degrading,' and you've asked the state party to pull it, but so far they've refused to do that. Why do you think they're not listening to you, A? And why do you believe that they would continue to raise questions about Senator Obama's patriotism?"
MCCAIN: They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan, and this kind of, uh, campaigning is unacceptable. I've said that. It will harm, uh, the Republicans' cause, and I've done everything that I can to repudiate and to see that this kind of campaigning does not, uh, continue. I have engaged in and will continue a respectful campaign of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton.
RUSH: Yeah. People are rightly livid about this. Senator McCain loves to make nice with liberal Democrats, loves to be critical of the Republican Party. The ego in this! I have tried? "I have tried, but they aren't listening to me because they are out of touch with reality." Meredith Vieira then said, "Senator Obama said that if you wanted to, you could get that ad pulled; because you are, after all, the nominee, and the standard-bearer. So if you can't get the ad pulled, does it raise any questions about your leadership?"
MCCAIN: I don't know exactly how to respond to that except that I would hope that, uh, Senator Obama would, uh, repudiate and apologize for his remarks concerning the heartland of America; where his elitist remarks indicated that people who are hard working, dedicated people who harbor traditional values and principles and value their religion and Second Amendment of the Constitution; would not be treated in an elitist fashion. I hope he'll apologize for that.
RUSH: What the hell is going on here? Is this whole campaign going to be one side saying, "You repudiate that!"
"No, you repudiate that!"
"I have repudiated that, and I have apologized. Now you apologize!"
This is the big leagues! Obama is not going to repudiate anything, Senator McCain! He'll send out some underlings to make a pass at repudiating things. This is absurd! In addition to being insulting; it is absurd to sit there and sit around -- I would hope he would go out and repudiate this? It got even worse on the CBS Early Show today, Maggie Rodriguez talking to Senator McCain. Question: "The Republican Party in North Carolina is planning to run an ad bashing Senator Obama. I know you opposed the ad, but they're running it anyway. So what does that say about you, that you haven't opposed it strongly enough or your own party is blatantly disagreeing and disregarding your wishes?" MCCAIN: It means that the Republican Party of the state of North Carolina is dead wrong. They are an independent organization. I'll do everything in my power to make sure not only they stop it, but that kind of leadership is rejected; and the overwhelming majority of Republicans in North Carolina share my view.
RODRIQUEZ: But as the Republican nominee for president, couldn't you pick up the phone and call the head of the North Carolina GOP and say, "Don't run it"?
MCCAIN: I have communicated that in every possible way, and, uh, I will, uh, continue to communicate that.
RUSH: I saw Linda Daves on TV this morning; she's not going to listen to him. It's a North Carolina issue. It doesn't have anything to do with the presidential race. It's not a racist ad! You know, McCain's out there; he's been critical of Bill Ayers, who was Obama's very close buddy, and is radicalizing the US education system even as we speak. So he'll be critical of Ayers, but you put Jeremiah Wright in this thing -- and here comes the very reason for Operation Chaos; and that is the Republican Party will not dare offer any criticism of Obama because they, for some reason, fear the charge of racism. Yesterday on the Fox News Channel Studio B with Shepard Smith, he talked to McCain, and he asked him, "What about that North Carolina ad was offensive to you, Senator?"
MCCAIN: I think it's -- Anyone who watched it was offensive in that it, uh, brought, ehh, elements into this race which are --
SMITH: Race?
MCCAIN: -- excuse me. Into this contest, of race, that are totally unacceptable. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and the party of -- of Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. That's just not the kind of advertising we want to do. We want this race decided on the issues.
RUSH: Obama's associates and his character are issues! There's nothing racist about the ad. BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: McCain is attacking the North Carolina Republican Party. He is saying they're "out of touch with reality," as defined by him. They are not listening to him. He's going to do what he can to get the ad canceled because it's racist. Question, Senator McCain: "What if the North Carolina Republican Party or any other state Republican Party ran the same ad, but put Bill Ayers in it instead of Jeremiah Wright? Would you oppose that ad?" Because there's no difference other than the color of the skin of one of the Obama associates. I think... This is very, very tough for me, folks, but I think Senator McCain has a responsibility now to explain exactly what is racist about this ad. This is precisely what the Drive-Bys want in the Democrat Party: they want any criticism of Obama to be disqualified and not permitted because it's racist, and McCain's falling right in line. And don't tell me he's got some grand strategy here to pick up a lot of black vote in the general election.


That's not what this is. If you think there's a grand strategy here, you're missing the point. Keep listening. Senator McCain owes us an explanation. Tell us what is racist about this North Carolina ad. He sounds just like a liberal, asking that we may take inferences about the North Carolina Republican Party and the people that run it. I take from this several things. Number one: it appears to me that Senator McCain is back to his usual tactics of using Republicans as foils. He's attacking the president over Hurricane Katrina. Not the mayor of New Orleans, but the president. He's trying to prove to the liberal media, the so-called independents and Democrats, that he's the eventual nominee of the Republican Party but that this is all about him. It's not about Republicans, not conservatives, so no need to worry about him being too much of either. He's sending a message to Democrats and independents whose votes he wants: "Don't worry about me. I'm not one of these wacko conservative right-wingers." It's about him, not about a grand strategy here.
That's why he is relentlessly pounding away at the North Carolina party now. This is a tactic. He's creating an image of himself at the expense of others, and he does this all the time. Now, I take from this -- if you do want to talk about strategy -- that McCain believes he has the South in his back pocket even though he didn't win it in the primaries. Huckabee did. He wouldn't risk alienating Southerners over an ad that clearly is not racist if he didn't think he had the southern vote in his back pocket. I don't think he understands how livid North Carolina Republicans are about this, and Republicans everywhere. Now, it is obvious to me (and this has been one of my concerns from the get-go) that Senator McCain has no interest in rebuilding the Republican Party as an institution. He intends, instead, to use it to achieve his ends and leave it in whatever state it is when he is done. Now, we know this. What was the purpose of McCain-Feingold? It was to cripple the party system.


It was to cripple the party system. It was McCain's revenge when he lost the 2000 GOP primary which he blamed on party officials and Bush. It's interesting. Kimberley Strassel at the Wall Street Journal has a piece today on how McCain has been hoodwinked by his own McCain-Feingold restrictions, and is now finding ways to get around his own restrictions in McCain-Feingold in order to raise money and keep up with Obama. Now, a question I have for Senator McCain and his handlers: "Senator, you love being praised as a 'maverick;' you love being praised as an independent. Why can't the rest of us be independents? Why can't the rest of us be mavericks?" I want to be very clear about this, folks. If Senator McCain is campaigning not as a Republican or conservative, but as a "maverick," and an "independent," why shouldn't we behave in the same way? Why do we have to fall in line with whatever he dictates? Why does the North Carolina Republican Party have to fall in line and do what he says; when he is free to abandon us at any and all times, on the basis of his own desire?


Why should Republicans vote for McCain?

McCain better listen, my patience for waiting for him to stand up like a man and fight this lieing Marxist punk Obama is waning.

You play in the middle of the road and you will get run over from both sides.

Democrats play in the mud. Republicans who have no cajones always take the high road. Mud Sticks!

McCain is doing what Republicans are best at...attempting to lose.

It is getting tougher and tougher to think about voting for him but he is still better than the guaranteed socialism of the other two marxists who are running as Democrats.

The same theme with this man keeps repeating, he keeps stabbing his own party in the back and if this moron thinks he can win without the base he should pack his bags and go home and let a real leader lead the party.

I'm starting to think I'm going to sit this election out, maybe even vote for Hillary if McLame insults me enough. Obama is another one who should pack his bags and crawl in a hole.

If the rules are such for the Democrat Party than any delegate can vote for whomever he/she chooses at the convention, then why can't the Republican delegates do the same?  How about they all pledge for Mitt Romney or anyone who isn't running as a Democrat?

My vote is no confidence, it doesn't matter who is elected, all three are devoid of the character to solve the problems they created for us. If Global Warming turns out as good as the ethanol blunder the world will be in a depression before you know it.

John McCain is a pragmatist and a realist. Just what his party needs...snatch it back from the ideaologues who call themselves conservatives...

I don't want to get back into an argument of whether or not to vote McCain in November. But, I want to make sure that everyone realizes that (regardless of the outcome between Clinton & Obama) the November election will be a choice of your preferred Democrat.

I disagree Eyas.
There are alot of people out there like me who are college educated, thus a bit "liberal" in the sense we blieve in a persons right to choose his own life, but we also care about jobs and not leaving Iraq to a civil war/Iran/Saudi's. We will vote for McCAin over Clintorn for sure. Obama is more difficult, but i am biased because i have liked McCain since i was in 2000 (i was in high school, but my old man was very active and kept me informed). But leave no doubt, if the social conservatives choose the better of the two, us Pragmatists (you know those people: doctors and lawyers and such that subscribe to The Economist) will vote and get out friends and family to vote for McCain....