La NRA irá a por Obama

15 millones de dólares invertirá este otoño la National Rifle Association (NRA) en los estados del Oeste Montañoso y el Medio Oeste, con el único propósito de poner en entredicho el historial legislativo de Obama en temas de armas. Pennsylvania es el estado que cuenta con el mayor número de afiliados a la NRA per capita en toda la Unión. Y otros tres estados decisivos -Wisconsin, Michigan y Missouri- están en el Top 5 de estados que más armas y material de caza consumen -por detrás de Texas y Pennsylvania. La organización cree además que la reciente decisión del Tribunal Supremo de anular la ordenanza que prohibía portar armas en el Distrito de Columbia, un éxito político para la NRA, ayudará a movilizar a sus bases. NRA plans $40M fall blitz targeting Obama

(...) The National Rifle Association plans to spend about $40 million on this year’s campaign, with $15 million of that devoted to portraying Barack Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment rights upheld last week by the Supreme Court.

“Our members understand that if Barack Obama is elected president, and he has support in the Senate to confirm anti-gun Supreme Court nominees, [the District of Columbia v. Heller decision] could be taken away from us in the future,” Chris Cox, head of the NRA’s political arm, told Politico.

The politically powerful gun rights group will split its message efforts between communicating with its 4 million members and the tens of millions more firearms owners across the country.

This fall, NRA members will get automated phone calls, mail pieces and pre-election editions of the group’s three magazines making the case against Obama. More broadly, the group will use an independent expenditure effort to hammer the Democratic nominee via TV, radio and newspaper ads in some of about 15 battleground states in the Midwest and Mountain West.

“We look forward to showing him ‘bitter,’” Cox said, referring to Obama’s statement this spring that some in rural America “cling” to guns and religion out of bitterness.

Since 2000, Democrats have made a conscious decision to avoid alienating gun owners and Second Amendment enthusiasts, as many in the party believe a NRA-stoked backlash cost Al Gore his home state of Tennessee , as well as West Virginia and Arkansas, in the 2000 presidential election. In the days leading up to Election Day four years ago, Democratic nominee Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) even went so far as to symbolically court gun owners, donning camouflage and hoisting a 12-gauge in what turned out to be a goose hunt in more ways than one. (...)