McCain Staffer Suspended

Down the blog a bit, you'll see co-blogger's Greg McNeilly's post "Is Obama Wright". Well, a McCain staffer, Soren Dayton, has been suspended for circulating this video via Twitter, a microblogging tool that can reach huge audiences very quickly.

According to Politico:

Last week, they included an op-ed that hammered Wright and Obama in their morning clip package emailed to reporters. The same day, a campaign aide they regretted doing so.

Informed that Dayton was circulating the video, McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said he had been suspended and "reprimanded by campaign leadership."

"We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy," she said.

There's no indication when, or if, Dayton will be back to work. Senator McCain has been very clear that he does not want the campaign or surrogates to engage in this sort of activity. Good for him. You can almost assume that campaign workers want to buck that statement by McCain. If Obama is the eventual Dem nominee, the constant barrage of video linking Obama to Wright or Black Panthers or Farrakhan could be perceived by some to hurt Obama.

But it could backfire.Bob Beckel, Democratic strategist and Fox News analyst says on Real Clear Politics:

But the Republican right wing has seized on the Wright story and is unlikely to let it go. For John McCain this has serious downside potential. Anger in the black community towards Republicans is established and immutable. But if conservatives are perceived as exploiting yet another race story, anger could spread to moderate Republican and Independent voters, many in the suburbs, where the Republicans have been bleeding support the last decade.

For those supporters of Hillary Clinton who see the story as a way of selling superdelegates on Obama's unelectability, the downside is far more dangerous. If the Clinton campaign is caught using the race card, particularly after Bill Clinton's 'cracker tour' of South Carolina, it will assure a Clinton defeat in November. Not only will blacks boycott the polls, so will many of the millions of young voters Obama has brought into the political process.

(Many liberals like myself, who would be happy to support Hillary Clinton if she earned the nomination, would abandon her if her campaign seeks to exploit the Wright controversy either in the remaining contests or with superdelegates.)

So, McCain AND Clinton supporters, please consider that. Also consider these short items regarding Wright:

1). The video clips represent a miniscule part of Rev. Wright's sermons over a 30-year period. He was not ranting on hate every Sunday for 30 years. Or even every 3 Sundays or 5 Sundays or a year of Sundays.
2). TUCC is a huge church with several ministers presiding over services. Wright was not preaching every sermon every Sunday.
3). The United Church or Christ is a mainstream Protestant denomination church that is predominantly white.

Oh, and something else I found while looking around today: Anger management classes for blog commenters.