Willie Horton Mastermind Takes Aim at Obama

The right-wing activist who derailed Michael Dukakis' presidential bid with the infamous 1988 Willie Horton ad has set his sights on Barack Obama. Floyd Brown’s first anti-Obama spot highlights the senator’s opposition to expanding death penalty use against gang criminals—in a year when inner-city violence raged in Chicago. The ad will run in North Carolina before the primary; Brown has set up several front groups to depict Obama as soft on crime and terrorism.

"The campaign by Hillary Clinton has not been able to raise Obama's negatives," Brown tells Time. “It is absolutely critical that Obama's negatives go up with Republicans.” Adds the ad man, “This is a long march to November.” (More Barack Obama stories.)