Romney denounces idea of Obama-Wright campaign ads

(AP) Romney denounces idea of Obama-Wright campaign ads
By BETH FOUHY and PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
Mitt Romney swiftly and firmly distanced himself Thursday from a group exploring plans to target President Barack Obama’s relationship with a controversial former pastor. But the revival of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue momentarily placed race at the center of the presidential contest and showcased the independent groups playing a new role this year with big-money TV ads.

Republican Romney pushed back against a proposal being weighed by a conservative super PAC, Ending Spending Action Fund, to run a $10 million ad campaign drawing attention to racially provocative sermons Wright delivered at a church Obama attended in Chicago. But with super PACS operating under significantly looser campaign finance restrictions than in past presidential contests, there was no guarantee Romney’s words would be heeded by other groups eager to make Wright _ and, by extension, race _ a factor in the campaign.

Romney indicated he was eager to shift the discussion back to jobs and the economy _ bedrock issues on which he contends Obama is vulnerable.

Joe Ricketts, the billionaire benefactor of the super PAC, also distanced himself from the plan and announced he, too, would reject a racially focused approach.

The New York Times first reported the group had commissioned a blueprint devised by Republican strategist Fred Davis and others titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: the Ricketts Plan to End His Spending For Good.” The Associated Press also obtained a copy of the 54-page blueprint, which outlined a TV, print and social media campaign casting new light on Obama and his “misguided mentor,” Wright.

Reaction from the Obama team was swift to the “Ending Spending” proposal.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, commenting before Romney denounced the plan in an interview with Townhall.com, accused the Republican of “reacting tepidly in a moment that required moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party.”

Messina noted that Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential race, had rejected using Wright and Wright’s sermons in that campaign. But Davis, a colorful Hollywood consultant, clearly wanted another chance to use the strategy against Obama.

Davis’ firm said in a statement Thursday that the document _ which called for “hitting Barack right between the eyes” _ was only a proposal and did not win Ricketts’ approval.

Wright first emerged as an issue for Obama in the 2008 campaign when the pastor’s sermons surfaced on television and online. In a 2003 sermon, Wright said black people should condemn the United States.

Obama has credited Wright with leading him to Christianity, and Wright performed Obama’s 1994 wedding to Michelle Obama and baptized the couple’s two daughters. Obama took the name for his best-selling memoir, “The Audacity of Hope,” from one of Wright’s sermons.

The Wright controversy became a campaign problem for Obama, pushing him to deliver a major speech on race relations. He eventually severed his ties to Wright.

The AP left several messages for Wright on Thursday through his executive secretary at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago as well as through other intermediaries. There was no immediate reply.

For his part, Arizona Sen. McCain said Thursday he felt he had done the right thing on the Wright issue.

He shrugged when asked whether independent groups should take up matters such as Wright’s remarks.

Another top Republican, House Speaker John Boehner, of Ohio, declined to be drawn into the debate.

Unease with Obama’s history with Wright has percolated among many Republicans for years, providing fodder for conservative television and talk radio.

But Republican strategists generally said they were put off by the Davis group’s approach, reasoning it would meet resistance from independent voters likely to decide the outcome of the election. A majority of those voters approve of Obama personally even as they remain skeptical of his performance as president.

The story cast new attention on Ricketts, the founder of Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade Securities and patriarch of the family that bought the Chicago Cubs baseball team in 2009. Ricketts has been active in conservative politics for years, most recently helping Republican Deb Fischer win an upset victory this week in the Republican Senate primary in Nebraska.

The fallout from the Wright story appeared to rattle Ricketts’ family.

Tom Ricketts, one of the elder Ricketts’ four children and Cubs chairman, joined his father in rejecting what he called a “return to racially divisive issues” in the campaign.

His sister Laura Ricketts, an Obama contribution bundler and gay rights activist, released a statement saying, “The love of country was instilled in us by my father. We have different political views on how to achieve what is best for the future of American, but we agree that each of us is entitled to our own views.”

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Fouhy reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Charles Babington in Washington, Joshua Funk and Margery Beck in Nebraska and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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