John McCain Picks a Fight with North Carolina Republicans

John McCain has picked a fight with the North Carolina Republican Party over an anti Obama ad that has observers of the political scene wondering if there is a method to the presumptive Republican nominee's madness or if he is just mad.

The ad plays a clip of one of Jeremiah Wright's sermons in which he curses the United States of America, mentioning that Wright is Obama's spiritual mentor. Then it mentions that two Democratic candidates for Governor of North Carolina. Bev Perdue andRichard Moore, are Obama supporters, suggesting that they are too extreme for the state.

John McCain demanded that the North Carolina Republicans take the ad down, saying that it did not fit the "tone" with which he wanted to campaign. When the North Carolina Republicans refused to take down the ad, McCain suggested that they were out of touch with reality,

While North Carolina Republicans are seething about McCain's seeming high handedness, two theories have arisen as to why he did this.

The first theory is that McCain, by criticizing the ad, gave it more prominence. The idea is that McCain knew perfectly well that the North Carolina Republican Party would not heed his demand. However the media would cover the fact that he made the demand and would air the ad on news broadcasts over and over again, giving it national exposure. Also the YouTube version of the ad would get more traffic.

The ad is very effective, pointing out as it does one of Barack Obama's unfortunate friendships, in this case to a fiery, hate filled preacher, and tied that to local Obama supporters. The ad would seem to be a good model for any state or local race. Point out Obama's extremism, tie some local or state Democratic candidate to Obama, implying that the candidate is extreme as well. Such ads would place the Democrats on the defensive and force them to either run with Obama, presuming that he is the nominee, or to repudiate him. All in all a brilliant strategy.

The other theory is that McCain is just doing what he loves to do, which is to lash out at his fellow Republicans. For example, recently, in New Orleans, he blamed President Bush for the slow government response to Katrina without mentioning the failures of local and state officials like Mayor Ray Nagin.

Some suggest that there is stratagem involved here too. By beating up on other Republicans, McCain burnishes his credentials as an independent maverick. He can hope to attract Independent and even Democratic votes while Republicans have the swallow the abuse and vote for him anyway, albeit with clenched teeth.

Of course it seems to be in McCain's nature to poke Republicans and conservatives in the eye, seemingly just for the hell of it. It is one of his more irritating traits and a dangerous one at that.

The question is, will Republicans fear Obama more than they are annoyed at McCain and still turn out to vote for the Arizona Senator? If the election is close, that question takes on a very grave importance.