CBS) This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.
The defining moment in the National Rifle Association’s eight-figure advertising offensive against Barack Obama takes place about 15 seconds into a new spot featuring Karl Rusch, a white, middle aged Virginian clad in hunting gear.
After claiming that Obama supports “a huge new tax on my guns and ammo,” Rusch closes the door of his truck and turns directly to the camera.
“Where is this guy from?” he asks. “He’s probably never been hunting a day in his life.”
The spot, the Washington Post points out, is a “huge stretch” – the claim that Obama wants to institute a large tax on guns and ammo, for instance, rests on a few words in an essentially irrelevant and vaguely-worded newspaper article from nine years ago.
But the point is clear: If you’re a hunter, Barack Obama is not anything like you. And if he doesn’t understand your concerns, he sure doesn’t deserve your vote.
Obama has been fighting the notion that he opposes gun rights, stressing on the stump that he backs Second Amendment protections. His campaign has released a radio ad featuring American Hunters and Shooters Association head Ray Schoenke telling hunters the Democratic nominee won’t come for their guns.
“The bottom line is this. If you’ve got a rifle, you’ve got a shotgun, you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it away,” Obama said earlier this month in Pennsylvania. “Alright? So they can keep on talking about it, but this is just not true.”
(Obama also said at the time that even if he wanted to take hunters’ guns away, he “couldn’t get it done” since he doesn’t “have the votes in Congress” – a statement that did not exactly put sportsmen’s fears to rest.)
Obama’s running mate Joe Biden, meanwhile, suggested recently that Republicans will use the issue to scare voters away from the Obama-Biden ticket.
