There’s a fight brewing between the McCain campaign and the North Carolina Republican Party over an ad that the NC GOP wants to run. The ad is racist, at its core, and seems to paint a picture that Obama hates America because his pastor thinks that Freedom of Speech means … well, freedom to speak.

From the overwhelmingly attractive folks at TPM:

John McCain promised at a town-hall meeting today that he would bring “every pressure to bear” to stop the North Carolina GOP from running that ad hitting Obama over his controversial pastor, an issue that McCain said wasn’t a legit one.

Take a look:


Indeed, a top McCain strategist is now telling Time magazine that the ad won’t be running at all — the implication being that McCain managed to put the kibosh on it behind the scenes.

But guess what — a spokesperson for the North Carolina GOP just told me that this isn’t the case. Here’s the statement I just got from the spokesperson, Brent Wilcox:

I’m not sure where this gossip is coming from but that is not the case. The ad is still scheduled to run early next week.

The spokesperson added that it’s set to run statewide.