The Stump

A new ad by MoveOn.org linking Charlie Black, John McCain’s political adviser, to various autocratic countries Black once lobbied for makes Noam Scheiber second guess Barack Obama’s decision to call off 527 groups. MoveOn’s ad suggests there’s still a chance Democrats will strike a balance of using the Obama campaign to drive most of the message while a few, well-funded, independent grassroots groups like MoveOn will push the envelope, Scheiber writes. Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr needs to be careful with his criticism, according to Michael Crowley. Barr, who once fired a gun at a fundraiser, is being an opportunist by lecturing Mike Huckabee on guns, Crowley writes.