(Reporting by David Morgan, editing by Jackie Frank)

Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:44am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain accused North Carolina's Republican Party of being "out of touch with reality" over its refusal to pull an advertisement criticizing Democrat Barack Obama.

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I think McCain is onto something here. Let’s face it, the conservative pundits with the exception of Medved and a couple others, were wrong on McCain. We (not that I’m a pundit) thought that McCain didn’t stand a chance. Furthermore, we thought that McCain was not conservative enough for the Republican Party and we didn’t want him to win. Well, the base was wrong; Republicans and independents won McCain the nomination. Maybe, we are out of touch with reality. Maybe, McCain is right.

As for strategy, this is a win-win situation. Obama’s pastor hurts him as a candidate. It keeps Hillary in the race longer. So, the Republican Party can play the ad with its full effect. Meanwhile, McCain looks good to all of those people out there that do want a more, let’s say, traditionally polite campaign. The only thing I’m worried about is that the Democrats will eventually get privy to all of this and nominate Hillary, who I think will be harder for McCain to beat. The excitement for Obama is already wearing off, as all excitement does.

Finally, we need the conservative base to vote for McCain. Don’t abandon him just because he isn’t as conservative as you are. It will just be a shot in the foot of the Republican Party, if we do.

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In an NBC interview aired on Friday, the Arizona senator said he has done all he can to persuade the state party to cancel the television ad that criticizes Obama as "too extreme" because of controversial remarks made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable," McCain told NBC's "Today" Show.

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McCain brings up an excellent point to remember. He is bringing us back to a traditional and historical perspective that makes the Republican Party look great! Let us thank McCain for that.

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"I've done everything that I can to repudiate and to see that this kind of campaigning does not continue," he added.

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Republicans, I understand that this comment hurts. But don’t be offended so easily. A McCain win will be a Republican win. Don’t let a little difference in election season become a big difference in the course that we take as a nation.

Ironically, if Obama had spoken about his pastor the same way McCain speaks about the Republican Party, we might actually respect Obama a little. Then again, Obama has no excuse for being in that nut’s church anyway.

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Asked if the state party's unwillingness to heed his call raised questions about his leadership, McCain replied: "I don't know exactly how to respond to that."

North Carolina is one of two states holding the next crucial Democratic primaries on May 6 in the tight race between Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton to oppose McCain in the November presidential election.

Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, has come under fire for attending Wright's church in Chicago where the fiery black preacher made a number of racially charged statements about the United States.

Wright, who is now retired, said in a PBS interview that people are trying to paint him as "some kind of fanatic."

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It is understandable that Wright is upset. He is not a fanatic. He is an entertainer and a fraud. As a privileged, American, male, W.A.S.P. I feel obligated to speak the truth at the risk of overstepping my bounds. Wright exploits the people that he claims to love and his rhetoric of victimization has done more to oppress black Americans than the evil and entirely morally repugnant, sad, sorry, little racists in the K.K.K over the last two or three decades. I can’t do anything for the black community, but I know what the black community needs. It is the same thing that every ethnic group needs; freedom, opportunity, personal responsibility, and leaders who will encourage it.

Back to Mac, McCain is the kind of leader who speaks to all Americans with the same message of freedom and responsibility. He could be the man to draw blacks back to the Republican Party. McCain leads by example. He stood in Arlington before a crowd that won’t vote for him on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Although I didn’t agree with him, he has visited Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina and may appeal to the blacks there. He walked the bridge in Selma on his tour of forgotten places. His example is admirable and it does not go unnoticed. Nothing will change during the campaign, but a McCain presidency shows promise for the improvement of race relations in the future of the Republican Party.

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: April 25, 2008

BATON ROUGE, La. — Senator John McCain took direct aim at the Bush administration on Thursday as he stood in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and declared the handling of the disaster “terrible and disgraceful” and pledged that it would never happen again.

Asked at a news conference outside St. David’s Catholic Church if he traced the failure of leadership straight to the top, Mr. McCain, who has said he wants to campaign with President Bush, said emphatically, “Yes.”

Later, Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus that if the disaster had happened on his watch, he would have landed his plane “at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally.”

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McCain took a cheap shot at Bush with his criticism of the Katrina response. He falls right in line with the “government needs to save me” crowd. Look, flying to the disaster area is good for morale and PR. But that isn’t what is going to fulfill the promise never to handle a future disaster the way this disaster was handled.

The truth is that our country is too big for a federal response even to huge disasters. What we need is local disasters response forces and local responsibility. Bill Clinton’s FEMA failed. He missed a great chance to explain carefully that a large centralized government, which is what the Democrats want, is what allows these problems to happen.

It is easy to say what should have been done after the fact.  Criticizing the “little things” like making an appearance at the site is not constructive. McCain runs the risk of alienating the conservative base of the Republican Party that he needs to court.