Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said the accusations leveled against The Tea Party Victory Fund's new "Obamaphone" ad are "pretty sophomoric."

 

Think Progress, The Nation and other publications have criticized the ad as being racist, but Blackwell, who heads the Tea Party group that ran the ad, told the Examiner in a phone interview that this assertion is "ridiculous on its face."

 

"The ad draws a bright line of division between two sharply different views of the world," the former mayor of Cincinnati said. "...This ad, taken in its totality, attacks the President's policies, practices and worldview, and his promise to transform America. We don't need to be transformed. We need to have the traditions and practices of a free market economy and limited government restored. And I'm ready to take this fight, not only to Ohio, but to any other part of the country where we can raise the money to run this ad."

 

As Ohio State treasurer and later Secretary of State, Blackwell was the first black person elected to an executive statewide office in Ohio.

 

In response to the assertion that the ad's target audience was three mostly-white Ohio counties — Lucas, Summit and Mahoning — Blackwell noted most counties in Ohio are predominantly Caucasian. But he added, "[The ads] are running on cable stations that go into homes of all Ohioans of every race and ethnicity."

 

Blackwell also said the accusations of being racist are in keeping with the tactics of liberals. "The Left has the tendency to call anything that it disagrees with as being over-the-top or racist or extremely conservative," Blackwell said.