Too extreme? For North Carolina?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has condemned a North Carolina Republican Party ad campaign attacking Democratic candidate Barack Obama and his former pastor as “offensive” and asked that it be withheld. The ad "degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats," McCain said.

The ad called Obama “just too extreme for North Carolina” and also criticizes Democratic gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore for having endorsed Obama.

Wow. Think of that - the party of Jesse Helms, calling someone too extreme for this state. Not so long ago almost nothing was too extreme for North Carolina politics, including the Helms’ campaign portraying Democrat Jim Hunt as someone backed by gays and lesbians, not to mention Teddy Kennedy and Jesse Jackson.

What Obama's former pastor said did, indeed, offend a lot of folks, but Obama has repudiated Jeremiah Wright's remarks and most candidates have stayed away from the N.C. Republican Party's style of guilt-by-association ad. But evidently the GOP thinks it's right at home in North Carolina, where there's a rich tradition of this sort of thing in political campaigns -- including the days when the Democrats ran everything.

Here’s a link to Observer reporter David Ingram's story.