As discussed earlier, Barack Obama has a new radio ad slamming John McCain and Rick Davis for their alleged role in the potential loss of 8,000 jobs in southwest Ohio. The ad excerpts a portion of McCain’s town hall exchange with the wife of one of the affected employees, Mary Houghtaling of Wilmington, Ohio. Yesterday evening, Houghtaling participated in a conference call with reporters, during which she asked Obama to stop misleading, and stop running the ad.
There has been so little joy for the last 75 days, and yesterday we had a glimmer of hope. The front page of our little news journal here in Wilmington, God bless them, it said, we finally have an ally. We have an ally, finally working for us, not against us. Doing something; do something, do something. He [John McCain] did something. I asked him to come here. He did. I asked him ‘can you tell us if you can help us’, he didn’t know. It’s straight talk. People don’t like straight talk, they want to be petted. I don’t want to be petted. I want action. I want movement. I want to see something happen. And that’s exactly what happened. That’s exactly what happened. And I am offended. And it [the Obama radio ad] used me under this situation when I’m probably looking at foreclosure, bankruptcy, and am I going to be able to keep my small hospice alive. We don’t know that. It’s a shameful, horrible thing for him [Barack Obama] to use us to promote him. It isn’t fair. It’s wrong. It’s just plainly not a kind thing to do. We had moments of joy yesterday, and now just moments ago, when I opened this, here’s another wonderful thing, and then smack, right again in the face. We don’t need anymore bad things in Wilmington. We need to be able to be happy for a weekend for a while. Just for one weekend. Please take the ad down Senator Obama. I’m begging you. Please take it down. It’s offensive, and we’re desperate, we don’t need that. We need help, we don’t need that.
An old-style, win-at-all-costs, self-centered candidate would ignore Mrs. Houghtaling’s request and keep running the ad. A practitioner of a new kind of politics would show some sensitivity to those involved and focus on solving the problem rather than trying lamely to score political points. Of course, a practitioner of a new kind of politics wouldn’t have resorted to such a smear in the first place.
