The North Carolina Republican Party is defying calls from John McCain and other members of the national Republican Party not to air an ad featuring Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s longtime pastor.
Here’s the email from McCain to North Carolina GOP chairwoman Linda Daves, courtesy of Politico:

Dear Chairman Daves,
From the beginning of this election, I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.
This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign. We need to run a campaign that is worthy of the people we seek to serve. There is no doubt that we will draw sharp contrasts with the Democrats on fundamental issues critical to the future course of our country. But we need not engage in political tactics that only seek to divide the American people.
Once again, it is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.
John McCain

And here’s a write-up of the defense North Carolina Republican Party spokesman Brent Woodcox sent to the Politico:

[Woodcox said the ad is] about “about patriotism and judgment, not race.”
Senator Obama and the Democrats running for Governor don’t share North Carolinians’ values,” Woodcox writes. “There is no place for race-based politics in North Carolina or in America. If Hillary Clinton had a white pastor and that said the same things Wright said and North Carolina’s Democrat Gubernatorial candidates had endorsed her, we’d be running the same ad.”
As I surmised above, Woodcox said they simply couldn’t find a picture of Moore and Obama together in the public domain. The shot of Perdue and Obama, Woodcox notes, is one that she’s used in a mail piece.
As for the focus on the picture of Perdue and Obama at the end, Woodcox said that was about poltiics not race. She’s the frontrunner and that was the only reason she was keyed upon, he said.

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