Ads to call Obama’s stance on crime weak

A political firm has called the ads ‘reprehensible misrepresentation.’

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — On a Web site he calls ExposeObama.com, Floyd G. Brown, the producer of the “Willie Horton” ad that helped to defeat Michael Dukakis in 1988, is preparing an encore.

Brown is raising money for a series of ads that he says will show Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to be out of touch on an issue of fundamental concern to voters: violent crime. One spot already on the Internet attacks the presumptive Democratic nominee for opposing a bill while he was an Illinois legislator that would have extended the death penalty to gang-related murders.

“When the time came to get tough, Obama chose to be weak. ... Can a man so weak in the war on gangs be trusted in the war on terror?” the video asks.

Though crime has taken a back seat in the presidential race to the war in Iraq and the economy, some Republicans think that Obama is vulnerable on this issue — and they hope to inject it into the campaign.

Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona have some sharply different views on crime, but, in truth, the job of president has little to do with day-to-day law enforcement. The vast amount of crime-fighting in the U.S. is done at the state and local level. Moreover, the rate of violent crime nationally is at its lowest point in more than a decade.

Critics say the issue of crime is used primarily to exploit voter fears and stir up prejudices. Richard Nixon’s pledge during the 1968 campaign to restore “law and order” was viewed as a subtle appeal to white racial prejudice. The “Willie Horton” ad that made Brown famous focused on a black Massachusetts felon who raped a woman while on weekend furlough from prison. Dukakis was governor at the time and supported the program.

“Presidents don’t deal with crimes. Governors and mayors deal with crimes,” said James Allen Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University. “These are relatively fringe issues for presidents. Yet they certainly resonate when it comes to the electorate.”

Brown is counting on that resonance. “There are many, many different votes that Barack Obama has taken over the course of his state Senate career that are going to show him to be absolutely missing in action when it comes to the question of controlling violent crime,” Brown said in an interview. Brown and Bruce Hawkins, a Republican strategist who works with him, said such ads were legitimate because, by stimulating a debate on crime and punishment, they could provide a window into the personal morality of a candidate.

Obama’s campaign, and some independent observers, say Brown’s work is misleading at best. The political watchdog firm FactCheck.org has called the death penalty ad — which suggests the vote Obama cast made him responsible for three minority youths who lost their lives in gang-related violence — “reprehensible misrepresentation.”

Obama supporters take exception to the notion that their candidate is weak on crime.

“I thought ... he tried to strike a decent balance between solid law enforcement and protecting the rights of individuals,” said Richard A. Devine, the Cook County state’s attorney.

While in the state legislature, Obama led the push for mandatory taping of interrogations and confessions to ensure fair treatment of the accused.