Sliming Obama in Michigan

Stated simply, Michigan is probably a must-win state for the Democrats on November 4. Now, one of those snarky little 527 organizations is targeting a tiny but key voter group in an effort to torpedo Barack Obama in Michigan by linking him to disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kirkpatrick. Here's the story as reported in Vanity Fair:

"If Michigan goes McCain’s way by a couple hundreds votes in November and tips the election, will a tiny PAC with no offices but enough money to slap together an anti-Obama attack ad and air it in one county have made the difference?

Paid for by Freedom’s Defense Fund and aired in Macomb County, the above ad attracted national attention this week for attempting to associate Barack Obama with Kwame Kilpatrick, the scandal-stricken former mayor of Detroit who resigned last week.

Politico and a host of other sites linked to the commercial. Freedom’s Defense Fund spent a little more than $20,000 to run the 30-second spot 1,000 times in Macomb, the greater-Detroit area whose primarily white, middle-class residents served as the classic case study of Reagan Democrats. According to Todd Zirkle, executive director of F.D.F., the version that ended up on YouTube isn’t even the final cut but a rough cut that was possibly leaked by someone involved in its production."

On the surface, economically suffering Michigan should be prime for the Democratic message. However, Governor Jennifer Granholm is very unpopular, and the McCain-Palin duo made one of its first stops in Macomb County. Recent polls are within the margin of error, and the racial dimension of this contest should not be underestimated. Moreover, the Democratic organization in Detroit has been distracted by the longstanding Kirkpatrick trial and attendant machinations.

- Richard Holcomb