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Who's Running a Different Kind of Campaign?

5:20 PM, Apr 23, 2008 • By BRIAN FAUGHNAN
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Is it Barack Obama, or the one who's pushing his party to shelve the attack ads?

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) has written a letter to the North Carolina Republican Party asking officials to stop running an ad targeting Democratic gubernatorial candidates that features Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The ad, endorsed at the end by state Party Chairwoman Linda Daves, targets Democratic candidates Beth Perdue and Richard Moore for being "too extreme for North Carolina," but the most prominent person in the ad is Wright, who is seen and heard giving one of his more inflammatory sermons.

I'm not really sure that qualifies as one of Wright's 'more inflammatory' sermons. There are so many to choose from. That said, it's clear who's putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to civility in the campaign. Further, Democrats are undoubtedly going to complain when Wright and other controversies come up due to third party expenditures, but it's Senator Obama who reneged on a deal on public financing that would have committed McCain to push those third parties not to bring up such unpleasantness.

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