The Obama campaign's most controversial ad: 'African Americans for Obama'
A seemingly generic clip of the president asking for black support has attracted 3.6 million views and counting — because of conservative outrage
The issue: "Of all the videos released by the Obama campaign this year — a blizzard of ads, clips, and documentary footage devoured by fans — the most viewed item is a seemingly anodyne constituency video launching 'African Americans for Obama,'" says Ari Melber at Reuters. (See the video below.) Why? The ad, released in February, proved highly offensive to some conservatives, with websites accusing Obama of playing the race card to win votes. "This is an attempt to segregate voters based on race instead of voters joining together in groups based on values," said David Bellow at TexasGOPVote. "Imagine if Ron Paul announced a national campaign called 'Whites for Ron Paul' — he'd be vilified as a racist," says Paul Joseph Watson at PrisonPlanet. Meanwhile, Fox News has devoted a segment to the ad, accusing Obama of being divisive.
The fallout: The YouTube page has 29,517 dislikes, compared with only 2,138 likes, evidence of the ad's unpopularity with conservatives. The clip not only tops all other Obama ads in terms of viewership, but has drawn double the views of Mitt Romney's most widely seen video. The intense reaction suggests that a loud minority of conservatives has a "vitriolic, obsessive grievance with the black president himself," speculates Melber, "his country of origin, his 'otherness,' and virtually anything about him that circles back to his race." As for Romney, a widely quoted poll this summer showed him winning zero percent of the black vote. "One of the reasons African-American voters do not support Romney," says Sherrilyn Ifill at CNN, "is that they see the Republican Party's treatment of Obama, from the first weeks of his presidency, as an assault on a kind of racial collective dignity."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Cicada-geddon: the fungus that controls insects like 'zombies'
Under The Radar Expert says bugs will develop 'hypersexualisation' despite their genitals falling off
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published