US election: Mitt Romney forced to denounce racially-charged attack on Barack Obama

The group, Character Matters, pledged to reverse Republican reluctance in 2008
to use Rev. Wright against Mr Obama. “Our plan is to do exactly what
John McCain would not let us do,” it said.

Referring to an advertisement on Rev. Wright apparently prepared for Mr
McCain’s campaign but eventually unused, it said: “If the nation had
seen that ad, they’d never have elected Barack Obama”.

One of the new crop of “Super PACs” free to spend unlimited
corporate funds on campaigning, the group is led by Joe Ricketts, a
70-year-old billionaire whose family owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

A spokesman for Mr Ricketts said that the proposal was “only a suggestion
for a direction to take” drawn up by political consultants and would
not be implemented.

“It reflects an approach to politics that Mr Ricketts rejects,” the
spokesman said.

The disclosure of its dossier by The New York Times reopened the row over the
so-called “black liberation theology” of Rev. Wright, from which
Mr Obama was forced to distance himself in 2008.

It prompted the then-Senator to deliver an acclaimed speech on race in
Philadelphia in March that year, which was credited with neutralising the
issue and bolstering his campaign for the White House.

However, many on the Right continue to believe that Republicans let him off
too easily out of fear of being accused of racism. Character Matters
proposed that to avoid similar accusations, it might recruit as its
spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American”.

Allies of Mr McCain – who was denounced by the group as “a crusty
old politician who often seemed confused” – yesterday defended the way
he ran his campaign.

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