McCain camp sponsors Obama-Castro Web ad
 For the second time, the McCain campaign is running an Internet ad placing Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama next to a world leader commonly despised in the United States.
In June, an ad surfaced featuring Obama and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with a caption reading, "Is it OK to unconditionally meet with anti-American foreign leaders?" Today, reporter Sam Stein has the details on a new McCain campaign ad, squaring Obama and former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
"FIDEL CASTRO Thinks he is 'the most advanced candidate,'" reads the ad, with a telling "'paid for by John McCain 2008" at the bottom. Even so, a similar brand of guilt-by-endorsement riled the McCain campaign earlier in 2008, when Evangelical demagogue John Hagee, who had previously said that Hitler was doing "God's work," endorsed the Republican candidate.
McCain vehemently rejected the endorsement, even when the media was having a field day with Obama's ties to his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In spite of the candidate's apparent distaste for such a tactic, it appears as though the McCain campaign will continue to use it.
"Picture association is a time-honored tool in political campaigns (think: former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland having his mug pasted beside Osama Bin Laden's during the 2002 congressional elections)," wrote Stein. "And indeed, this is not the first time that the presumptive Republican nominee has used the tactic."
"When questions started being raised about his supporter, John Hagee, the Senator washed his hands of the pastor's controversial statements," Stein continued. "'When he endorses me,' McCain said, months before he rejected Hagee's endorsement, 'it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for and believes.'"
The whole story may be read at this link.
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