NC GOP takes aim at Obama

Voters across North Carolina received a direct-mail piece from the state Republican Party on Saturday, accusing Sen. Barack Obama of using taxpayer money to “pay his friends and family with political favors.” The mailer is clearly designed to raise questions with voters about whether they really know the Democratic nominee for president, and whether they can trust him.

The front side of the mailer shows a picture of Obama with his right hand raised, as if warding off an unwelcome question or camera shot, and quoting the candidate as saying, “I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists.” Underneath, in bold, red letters, the mailer asks, “Really?”

The backside shows another image of Obama grimacing in a way that suggests he's sweating getting caught at something.

“Obama used the hard-earned money of America’s taxpayers to pay his friends and family with political favors,” reads a headline. Below that, the mailer asks, “Is this the change that can fix Washington?” Then, the ad concludes, “Barack Obama. Not who you think he is.”

The mailer underscores Obama’s relative youth and inexperience to instill doubt about whether the candidate that mesmerizes voters in public speaking appearances might harbor some unseemly hidden agenda. I think it’s also fair to ask whether the mailer — intentionally or not — exploits racism in a state where less than 100 years ago a coordinated white supremacist campaign illegally toppled a black elected government in Wilmington, and where Jesse Helms was first elected to the US Senate in 1972 by defeating Democratic candidate Nick Galifianakis, a Greek-American, with the campaign slogan, “He’s one of us.”

The charge that an African-American candidate used taxpayer money to “pay his friends and family with political favors” also invokes white stereotypes of blacks as being prone to corruption that were successfully exploited in the white supremacist campaign of 1898, and more recently in Greensboro with an effort to undermine confidence in the city’s black-led police department.

So, what about the examples used to back up the central claim of the mailer?

• “For nearly 20 years, Barack Obama has had a cozy relationship with convicted Chicago fundraiser Tony Rezco. This relationship included Obama helping secure a $14 million land deal for Mr. Rezco.”

The mailer cites a 2007 Chicago Sun-Times article by Tim Novak. The article indeed reports that as an Illinois state senator Obama wrote letters “to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezco’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.” The article goes on to say that Rezco was indicted in the fall of 2006 for demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state contracts under Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.” The Republican mailer does not make it clear that Rezco’s indictment was completely unrelated to any of his dealings with Obama.

• “Barack Obama personally directed one million dollars to the University of Chicago Hospital after the hospital gave Obama’s wife a nearly $200,000 pay raise.”

As reported in the Chicago Tribune, Michelle Obama did receive a $195,052 raise from University of Chicago Hospitals shortly after her husband took office in the US Senate. While it is unclear whether $1 million was appropriated to the hospital system, Sen. Barack Obama did request that amount, as disclosed by his campaign in March.

• “Barack Obama also directed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to a radical Chicago religious leader, Father Michael Pfleger, who supports his candidacy.”

Pfleger is the Catholic priest who was quoted as saying that Sen. Hillary Clinton regarded Obama as “a black man stealing my show” during a guest sermon in May at Obama’s home church. The claim is supported by a 2007 Chicago Tribune story that reports that Pfleger’s parish received $225,000 after the priest gave the Obama campaign $1,500.

• “Barack Obama has personally requested over $930 million in taxpayer funds for special interest projects.”

The mailer cites a 2007 news release from Obama’s Senate website and the aforementioned disclosure from the presidential candidate’s campaign in March. Both sources list federal earmark requests for projects in Obama’s home state of Illinois, including the $3 million request for an overhead projector at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago that was referenced by Sen. John McCain during the Oct. 7 debate in Nashville. The list of funding requests from the Senate office release totals $316.8 million and the campaign disclosure totals $539.5 million. Together, the two lists total $856.2 million, but it appears that some of the requests are duplicated.

While declining to disclose how many North Carolina households received the mailer, NC GOP spokesman Brent Woodcox told me yesterday that the party used “micro-targeting” to locate recipients “considered possible swing votes,” including Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated registrants. The party uses information about magazine subscriptions and previously completed surveys, Woodcox said, to find voters “who might be receptive to our message.”