White House to Run Ad Campaign Linking GOP to Tea Party?
The Tea Party is a threat to not only the Democrats when it comes to keeping their place in the Senate, but to the Republican party as well. They might not realize it, and the GOP might not realize it, but they are. The two parties aren't the only ones concerned; it appears the White House is as well.
In fact, they appear to be so concerned that according to the New York Times, Obama and the White House are weighing running political ads clearly linking the rogue Tea Party to the Republican party as a whole. At least, that's what The Times reported this morning before the story was changed a bit.
It seems the White House didn't find out about their proposed ad campaign until after The Times ran the story. The Times however, claims that their information was good going into the report.
"The sourcing on the story was solid. When [White House senior adviser] David Axelrod provided us an on-the-record statement late Sunday night disputing the story, we promptly inserted it into the piece in a prominent way. We often tweak the wording of stories and headlines between editions to reflect editing judgments and additional reporting, and that’s what happened in this case," said Richard W. Stevenson, The Times deputy Washington bureau chief.
That really wasn't enough to satisfy the White House, who still stuck by the story being wrong.
“The Times is just flat-out, 100 percent wrong,” a White House official said. “The first time Obama’s advisers heard about a national ad campaign is when the story showed up on the Times’ website last night.”
In the story, The Times reported that the White House plans to link the Tea Party to the GOP at large, all while trying to provide a bit of confidence to the splitting Democratic party and the voters. The Times sure had a lot of supporting information and sources for a story the White House claims was false. My guess is that they White House wanted this ad campaign to have a little bit of stealth to it, so the Tea Party wouldn't have time to respond.
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