UPDATE: The RNC confirms that the mock Obama video it put up on its site -- in which a voice impersonation of the president pledges to hand the census over to ACORN and offers thanks to Bill Ayers -- was never meant to be released to the public.
"After checking on this I found out that this was an internal concept that inadvertently got posted on you tube and was taken down shortly after the error was realized," emails RNC Communications Director Trevor Francis. "The concept you saw lacked substantiation, proper internal reviews and approval, and in the end isn't something that we are going to release. I don't know if we will use impersonators in the future."
* * * * *
Marking Barack Obama's 100th day in office, the Republican National Committee published a video that uses an Obama impersonator to mock the president as beholden to a teleprompter and a hypocrite on a range of policy issues.
The web ad, which has an off-sounding Obama voice commenting over footage of the inaugural address, was briefly posted on the RNC's YouTube page on Wednesday. But shortly after its release, the spot was unceremoniously removed from the site.
After a request for comment, RNC spokesman Trevor Francis said the committee planned on releasing a new version of the video with better editing and citations. He said the updated version will likely come out later today.
The early, unreleased version of the video shows the faux-president pledging to increase spending and hand the census over to ACORN, as well as celebrating a Treasury Secretary who failed to pay his taxes. There is even a shot at Obama for his association with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, with the president thanking "Professor Ayers" for clapping after he pledged to put together "a report that characterizes our returning service members... as people who may become terrorists."
"100 days ago, a man read a grand speech from a TelePrompter," the text at the beginning of the RNC spot reads. "What if the Teleprompter had accidentally switched to reality-mode?"
Watch:
Beyond pushing a greatest hits list of attacks on the president, the video also provides a window into the anti-Obama anger that still consumes much of the GOP. Chairman Michael Steele has been the target of criticism from some senior party members who believe he hasn't gone far enough in attacking the White House's agenda.
UPDATE: The House Republicans, meanwhile, released their own incendiary ad attacking the president. The spot, titled "Day 101," includes footage of the Pentagon burning on September 11th alongside clips of terrorist training videos and violent protests in the Middle East.
Complete with dreary background music, the video challenges Obama on his decision to close Guantanamo Bay and release memos detailing the Bush administration's policies on torture. The video also shows Obama's handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, airs a bunch of headlines and news clips about CIA interrogations and flashes of terrorist training videos.
Watch: