Obama Campaign Responds To "Victims" Ad

This afternoon, Bill Burton, the Obama campaign's spokesman, sent this statement out response to the new conservative independent expenditure campaign attacking Obama as weak on crime. The anti-Obama effort, which has not yet announced its budget, is being led by Floyd Brown, who created the Willie Horton ad in 1988.

Floyd Brown and the garbage he puts on TV represent everything the American people hate about politics, and we look forward to John McCain denouncing this shameful effort to boost his candidacy using Willie Horton ads. The truth is, Barack Obama supports the death penalty for certain heinous crimes, and he led the effort to reform the death penalty system to ensure that it's administered fairly and that convictions stand in court. Since most gang-related murders already qualified for the death penalty in Illinois, the legislation in the ad wasn't designed to be tough on crime, but to score political points, and it was vetoed by a Republican governor. If Floyd Brown and his right-wing allies want to talk about who keep us safer in the world, they can start by asking John McCain why he refuses to end a war in Iraq that has only strengthened the recruiting arm of al Qaeda.