I searched YouTube for the video, but couldn't find it. Anyone?
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=307439Dole’s new ads set the low mark in negative political campaigning.
Sen. John McCain has figured out that when it comes to campaign strategy, bigotry is a cross to bear, not burn. He came to the defense of his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, last week.
During a town hall meeting, a McCain supporter said she was afraid of Obama because he was an Arab. Taking the microphone from the frightened woman, McCain said her fears were unfounded, Obama is not an Arab. He’s a decent American, a family man, with whom McCain just happens to have differences.
Honesty like that has earned McCain respect from both sides of the aisles. Sen. Elizabeth Dole should take a lesson from McCain. A broadcast ad targeting her opponent, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan, shows Dole ratcheting up her rhetoric, and probably winning the honor, so far, of fielding the nastiest, most misleading, negative ad of the campaign. Here’s part of the ad that portrays Hagan as a godless liberal:
“Godless Americans Political Action Committee is a left-wing organization …
“They actively support political candidates who are atheists and who also support their liberal agenda to remove ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance and force the Boy Scouts to accept atheists and homosexuals as troop leaders.”
Dole’s campaign made the same charge in a widely-distributed mailer.
Yes, it’s true, as the ad states, Hagan did attend a fundraiser in September hosted by author Wendy Kaminer and her husband Woody Kaplan. Kaplan serves on the board of the Godless Americans PAC, whose agenda includes putting atheists in office and removing the pledge from schools.
But that doesn’t make Hagan an atheist or anti-American. Hagan is an elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro and she does not support removing the “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.
People running for office these days, under the unrelenting stare of a 24/7 news watch, ought to be careful of the company they keep. Hagan should have known better.
But Dole should know better too.
Her ads are not only an attack on Hagan but on homosexuals, suggesting that homosexuals are predatory. Imagine if she had said all heterosexuals are rapists?
We understand Dole’s desperation. The polls show she’s trailing Hagan, and she’s dipping into her own pocket to support her campaign. But jumping into the deep end of the slime pool is no way to catch up.
Dole’s ad ends by saying that Hagan can’t be trusted to defend North Carolina values.
Sen. Dole seems to have forgotten that one of the things we value here in North Carolina is civil behavior toward our neighbors, no matter their race, religion, gender, political or sexual preference.
This appears to be an Op/Ed piece though it's not labeled as such.
I take exception to "Hagan should have known better". What does that mean? Don't marry a Godless American and dare to run for public office?
And I can assure all that there are some, not many, but some, hard core conservative Republicans that support Godless Americans. I've done verbal battle with them at American Atheists Conventions. :-) We agree to disagree.
-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale
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