McCain assails North Carolina GOP for Obama ad

Republican John McCain accused the North Carolina GOP today of being “out of touch with reality” for running an ad questioning Democrat Barack Obama’s patriotism.

“We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable,” the Arizona senator said on the “Today” show. “It will harm the Republicans’ cause.”

The ad ties Obama to his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons circulated on the Internet last month, causing a political firestorm. “For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew, listening to his pastor,” an announcer says as the ad opens. Wright then appears onscreen, saying, “No, no, no. Not God Bless America. God Damn America!” Later the ad says that Obama “is just too extreme for North Carolina.”

North Carolina’s Republican Party chairwoman, Linda Daves, defended the ad today, saying that it is meant to remind voters that the two Democratic candidates for governor have endorsed Obama, calling into question their judgment.

“They have endorsed someone who associates himself with radical people,” she said on National Public Radio. “The ad is going to be running early next week. This ad is not hurting John McCain.” Saying that she has been flooded with supportive e-mails, Daves argued that the state party has an obligation “to look out for the people of North Carolina in the state races, and we need to – we’re going to run the ad.”

Asked whether McCain is having it both ways – taking the high road against the ad while letting it play on – strategist Charlie Black told CBS that idea is “crazy.” But the Democratic National Committee was quick to jump on McCain’s statement that he was doing “everything I can” to stop the ad. “If doing everything he can is sending an email, how can we trust John McCain to do everything he can to tackle the challenges America is facing?” DNC Communications Director Karen Finney said in a statement.

Wright, meanwhile, in his first interview since his sermons became an issue, said it was “unsettling” to see himself portrayed as an unpatriotic.

The former U.S. Marine said when he first saw the clips on television, “I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt … those who were doing that were doing it for some very devious reason.”

Wright, who will retire from Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ in June, told PBS’ Bill Moyers that being “a target of hatred” was “something very new and something very, very unsettling.”

Saying that his words were twisted for political purposes, Wright said Obama’s critics “wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That’s what they wanted to communicate. They know nothing about the church.”

Obama, battling New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, has distanced himself from Wright’s words, while saying that he cannot disown his friendship.

The Illinois senator said in a speech in Philadelphia last month that portions of Wright’s sermons condemning the U.S. were “not only wrong but divisive,” and presented a “profoundly distorted view” of the nation. He also said the pastor, who officiated at his wedding and baptized his two daughters, was like an uncle whose views he did not agree with.

With Indiana and North Carolina holding primaries on May 6, the two Democratic candidates were on the campaign trail.

Obama, during a press availability session at a gas station in Indianapolis, blamed high gasoline prices on the political establishment and its ties to oil companies.

“The candidates with the Washington experience – my opponents – are good people,” Obama said. “They mean well, but they’ve been in Washington an awfully long time and even with all that experience they talk about, nothing has happened.”

After 30 years without an increase in fuel-efficiency standards, Obama said, consumers are now paying for Washington’s inaction.

“So what have we got to show for all that experience?” Obama said. “Gas that’s approaching $4 a gallon.”

Asked about his backing of ethanol supports, Obama said it was important to “strike a balance” and be “mindful” that increasing food prices could lead to “real hunger and food riots.”

Obama also was asked how he plans to improve his standing with rural white voters, who picked Clinton overwhelmingly in this week’s Pennsylvania primary. Arguing that “those Democrats are more than likely to vote for me in the general election,” Obama said he thinks most voters “want the country to make progress” and will chose him against McCain.

“Sen. McCain wants to perpetuate policies that have been very damaging to this country,” he said. “We’re going to talk very aggressively about where we want to take the country.”

Obama said he was “deeply disturbed” about evidence that North Korea helped Syria develop nuclear energy. “We have to have an accounting of proliferation” from North Korea, he said.

Asked if he thought former President Clinton had irreparably damaged his standing with black voters, Obama said he doesn’t believe in irreparable breaches.

“I’m a big believer in reconciliation and redemption,” he said. Calling the presidential race “a fierce contest,” he said he was “confident, come August, that there will be a whole bunch of people standing on a stage with a lot of balloons and a lot of confetti coming down” in support of the Democratic candidate.

Clinton today campaigned in Jacksonville, N.C., calling on Obama to agree to a debate in that state, where polls show her behind.

“The only question I can’t answer is why Sen. Obama won’t debate me in North Carolina,” Clinton said. “Again, I offer that I’ll go anywhere, anytime, and we’ll have that debate as long as Sen. Obama would agree to actually meet me.”

And McCain teamed up with a former rival – onetime Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – to campaign in Little Rock. McCain joked that during the early presidential campaign, both he and Huckabee were such long shots that they drew few questions during debates and had a lot of time to get to know one another. “Gov. Huckabee and I had lots of time to chat with each other,” McCain quipped. “We became friends on the campaign trail.”

Huckabee, who enjoyed an unexpected surge among social conservatives, has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for McCain, a maverick moderate who needs to bolster his support among conservative Republicans.

Johanna.Neuman@latimes.com