A group of North Carolina conservatives have launched a website, ExposeObama.com, seeking to paint Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as a far-left liberal weak on crime. 

In the site's description in its "About Us" section, it states, "We are a committed group of conservatives concerned that Barrack Hussein Obama would be the worse possible President for America at this time, or any time. ... Obama is a liberal, only slightly more stylish than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, but equally dedicated to the same causes. He will not bring unity or harmony rather he will bring back the confusion, depression and humiliation of the dismal Carter era."

The site asks visitors to help an ad attacking Obama as being soft on violent criminals during his tenure in the Illinois State Legislature.  On TheNation.com website, blogger Ari Berman posted an article today - "Willie Horton Returns as Barack Obama" - criticizing the tactics.  He points out that Obama did vote against the death penalty for gang-related murders. 

At the same time, then-Republican Governor George Ryan had place a moratorium on the death penalty in 2000 and later vetoed the same bill Obama opposed.  In 2003, Berman writes, the sentences of 156 death row inmates were commuted based on information that showed they were wrongly accused. 

Berman reveals the the Obama attack ad is tied to Floyd Wright, creator of the famed Willie Horton ad that, in part, helped sink the Michael Dukakis 1988 presidential bid.

Writes Berman: "The new ad is intending to scare, not to inform."