A 527 group, the Freedom's Defense Fund, has released two race-baiting ads in Michigan, linking Obama to former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and to his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times calls these two of "the roughest advertisements of the political season."

Freedom's Defense Fund ad "Obama's Friend: Rev. Wright:"

It is worth mentioning that in the New York Times article about the ads, Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, is quoted as saying, "Considering that these ads have only run on television a couple of times, this group is getting a wealth of attention it would otherwise never get just by this article appearing in The New York Times."