Dukakis Plays The Race Card
I’ve long believed that with Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee, that the Democrats would play the race card to insulate Obama from attacks.
And, of course, who better to play the race card than Mike Dukakis, who thinks the infamous Willie Horton ad that demonstrated his poor record on crime was also a race-based attack.
Former Gov. Michael Dukakis said Monday that John McCain’s presidential campaign is using the same race-based tactics that were used against him in his 1988 presidential run.
The Brookline Democrat was referring to a recent McCain ad that claimed Democratic nominee Barack Obama received economic advice from Franklin Raines, the former CEO of the recently bailed out mortgage lender Fannie Mae. The ad features images of Raines and Obama, two African Americans, and then an image of an elderly white woman.
Asked if he considered the ad to be in the same vein as the infamous ‘Willie Horton’ ad ad run by a third party group in support of George H.W. Bush in the 1988 presidential campaign, Dukakis told PolitickerMA.com: “Essentially, yes.”
[..]
First, Dukakis said, the McCain ad is based on a lie. Raines isn’t one of Obama’s closest economic advisors, he said. Other members from Fannie Mae have advised Obama but the McCain camp chose to focus the ad specifically on Raines, an African American.“Why did they pick that person from Fannie Mae?” he asked rhetorically.
What Dukakis has chosen to ignore is that McCain also has an ad highlighting Obama’s ties to Jim Johnson, former FAnnie MAe CEO who also once led Obama’s VP selection team. Johnson is white. So, to ask the same question Dukakis did, “Why did they pick that person from Fannie Mae?”
Must have been Johnson’s race.
3 comments September 22nd, 2008
