McCain Sacks Campaign Staffer Who Sent Out Obama Video
The McCain campaign suspended blogger Soren Dayton from his campaign (full disclosure: I have a passing acquaintance with Soren in that we’ve exchanged a few emails and a Facebook friendship) for sending out a link to this YouTube video:
An aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for blasting out an inflammatory video that raises questions about Barack Obama’s patriotism.
Soren Dayton, who works in McCain’s political department, sent out the YouTube link of “Is Obama Wright?” on twitter at 12:31 today with the tag, “Good video on Obama and Wright.” It has since been taken down. . . .
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.
I really don’t see what’s so inflammatory about the video. All it really consists of is Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Rev. Wright talking so if it’s inflammatory it’s because of the subject matter, not the author. And Dayton wasn’t even the person responsible for making it.
But then again, why would McCain want to get mixed up in the Obama/Wright stuff? Obama is doing a pretty good job of imploding on his own right now, and McCain getting involved would only distract from that. So when Dayton innocently sent out a perfectly legitimate video to stoke the fires a bit he becomes the sacrificial lamb to keep the McCain camp out of the line of fire.
Good politics, I guess, but sad that it had to happen to a good guy like Soren.
