McCain Camp Bummed at Lack of Third-Party Smear Money | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

McCain Camp Bummed at Lack of Third-Party Smear Money

Politico is reporting that third-party smear groups, such as the Swiftboat crowd, aren't likely to step forward to fill in McCain's money gap with ugly ads—and resurrect Rev. Wright so McCain doesn't have to—in the next two weeks:

For the GOP, the cavalry apparently isn't coming. Republicans attuned to conservative third-party efforts say that with less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the prospects for any 11th-hour, anti-Obama ad campaigns are highly unlikely. Many in the party, including inside the McCain campaign, have held out hope that a deep-pocketed benefactor would emerge to bankroll ads in the campaign's final days — spots that might, for example, resurrect the most incendiary clips from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But thanks largely to lack of passion for McCain within the conservative base, diminished hopes that he can win and a sharp decline in the stock market that has badly pinched donors' pockets, veteran Republican operatives say it appears almost certain that what could be the most damaging line of attack against the Democratic nominee will be left on the shelf.

"It's Oct. 21, and if you can't say it by Oct. 21, then chances are you're not going to say anything," said Chris LaCivita, the strategist behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. LaCivita has been working for a new conservative third-party group this year, the American Issues Project.

That group, known in the political community as AIP, was eyed by some in the GOP as a potential major player in taking on Obama. It spent nearly $3 million in key states in August on a tough ad tying the Illinois senator to '60s-era domestic terrorist William Ayers and promised additional spots in the fall campaign.

That never happened.

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