This piece originally appeared at RawStory
UPDATE: The Obama campaign has filed an F.E.C. complaint against the American Leadership Project, the group behind the attack featured in this story.
The gritty black and white ad soon to be unleashed in Indiana by the pro-Clinton American Leadership Project is tough:
"Our economy is in trouble, rising prices, unemployment, foreclosures, so what's Barack Obama's plan?...The Associated Press reported that Obama's proposals to cleanup financial markets had no specifics and the Washington Post wrote that what Obama would actually do remains a mystery in too many areas. Call Barack Obama and tell him to give Hoosiers a real plan to fix our economy."
Indiana's 84 delegates are up for grabs, with the candidates running neck and neck in the state, according to polls. Both Democratic contenders and The American Leadership Project (ALP), a pro-Clinton stealth non-profit operating outside the campaign finance laws, are planning on airing competing ads in the Hoosier state, but it's the ALP ad and the organization's $700,000 buy that has the Obama campaign scurrying to reporters in an effort to blunt the attack.
In a press phone call conference, Heather Higginbottom, the Obama Campaign National Policy Director said, "The substance of the ALP attack ad is baseless. Senator Obama has set out a plan with specific policies. He [Senator Obama] has a 48-page economy policy paper to strengthen the economy and it is posted on our website."
Obama supporter, State Representative Ryan Dvorak from Indiana said, "What we got is a lot of Hoosiers excited by a candidate that would bridge the political divide and then we saw Ohio and Pennsylvania inserting a lot of negativity. The ALP is just one of Hillary Clinton's pal groups, run by one of Mark Penn's employees. What I get from my district is that my people want to see a positive outlook."
Continue reading at RawStory.
The video is from American Leadership Project, broadcast April 29, 2008.