Sarah Palin attacks over Barack Obama's link to a '60s radical

[UPDATE BELOW]

With exactly one month until election day, will Bill Ayers, the anti-Vietnam War radical who helped found a bomb-planting protest group, morph into what some observers earlier had predicted -- the Willie Horton of the 2008 presidential campaign?

Horton, for those too young to remember, was a felon who, while on a weekend furlough from prison in Massachusetts, committed a heinous crime in Maryland. It happened under Michael Dukakis' gubernatorial watch, and in the final months of his 1988 White House bid the case was effectively used against him by his GOP rivals.

With this year's race entering its final stretch -- and Barack Obama having staked out a solid lead in recent polling -- John McCain's campaign has sent out word it's really ready to play hard ball against Obama (and here we naively thought the game already had been rough).

Out of the gate, it looks like hammering home Obama's link to Ayers could be central to that strategy.

The matter first arose several months ago during the Democratic nomination battle, and the Obama campaign felt compelled to post a page on its website that depicted his association with Ayers as tenuous.

Today, in a front-page story, the New York Times took its crack at airing out the Ayers connection. Here's the key part of the piece:

A review of records ... and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”

Sarah Palin, campaigning in the Denver area, took that ball and ran with it.

The Times' Robin Abcarian relates that Palin, speaking at a fundraiser, used a wry reference to one of the well-publicized questions she faced recently from CBS' Katie Couric to broach the Ayers issue. Said the Republican vice presidential candidate:

There is a lot of interest, I guess, in what I read and what I’ve read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times [audience boos] and I was interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago [audience cheers].

I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in the New York Times, so we are gonna talk about it. Turns out one of Barack’s earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times -- and they are hardly ever wrong [audience laughs] -- was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.' Wow. ...

Referring to Obama, she continued:

This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for for all of us. Our opponent, though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?

[UPDATE: Palin said much the same later in the day at a big rally in Carson, Calif. Abcarian reports that Palin signaled early in her remarks to an overflow crowd of more than 8,000 in the tennis stadium of Carson’s Home Depot Center that she would be going after Obama. “One of my campaign staff said as I was walking out here, ‘OK, the heels are on, the gloves are off,’ ” Palin said.]

Her comments in Colorado already had given the Associated Press the obvious lead for its story -- that she accused Obama of....

... "palling around with terrorists" as part of what the article characterized as a stepped-up effort to portray him "as unacceptable to American voters."

That effort can be expected to accelerate. And, most immediately, Ayers' name almost assuredly will surface in Obama's face-off with McCain in a town-hall setting this Tuesday.

Just as assuredly, the Obama campaign can be expected to use every means at its disposal to keep the spotlight on the issue that seems to have turned the election its way: the nation's economic turmoil.

Indeed, here's how Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan handled the reaction to Palin's Colorado comments:

Gov. Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift Boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills. 

In fact, the very newspaper story Gov. Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Sen. Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less "pals," and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was 8.

What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.

The N.Y. Times' story, by the way, quickly got hit from both the left and the right.

At Daily Kos, it was lambasted as a cave-in by the paper to the conservative critics who never tire of carping about it.

At the National Review's site, it's dismissed as a whitewash job that serves Obama's purposes.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[curious george]

Palin has displayed what a truly despicable person she really is, to make such a horrible accusation against a U.S. senator is really the definition of a dirty campaigner.

She fools no one by pretending to be a Washington 'outsider.' She is clearly quite comfortable to sling mud.

What a horrible thing to say and what a dishonorable way to attempt a win.

I used to have a certain admiration for McCain. No longer. He and Palin have shown just how dishonorably they are willing to behave. Both utterly disgust me.

At this point, they have proven they do not deserve to win the White House. They are an utterly disgraceful pair of politicians.

[Henst]

This hack will read anything placed before her.
One of her advantages to McCain is that even in the dim recesses of her brain, she never connects words and ethics

[RW]

This attack from a woman who fired her top law enforcement officer in Alaska because he wouldn't follow her unethical order to fire a former brother-in-law? How desperately sad that McCain and Palin have stooped to this level to get a foothold as their campaign slides south. Wonder who read the NY TImes to Sarah?

[observer]

How sad that Palin can't talk about the issues that matter and must resort to 2nd grade playground taunts that would make no sense even to a second grader. The McCain camp demeans us all by assuming we as a nation are only stupid voters that would fall for this guilt by association approach. How about an idea on how to fix our broken Country? Shame on you Sarah. We deserve better. And shame on McCain for letting his running mate stoop so low for politics. Nation First? I don't think so.

[Alec]

Now Sarah is ALSO doing the main stream media's job for them- FINALLY !!!
It's about time for Barry's serious lack of good judgement be exposed and his radical ties exposed.
Stanley Kurtz FINALLY got access to the Chicago-Annenburg files that had been "locked up" by the Obama camp in the Illinois State Library. His exhaustive research showed that Bill Ayres was NOT just a casual acquaintance. They attended many meetings together and Obama raised money to fund one of Ayres' "Educational Funds" - that essentially schools young people in his radical beliefs!
He also has ties to other Muslim Radical and his campaign has received money from Hamas and Hezbollah.

I wish the main stream media would stop "drinking the Lool-Aid and look into this left-woing Marxist, Saul Alinsky's befiefs,
It's the company you keep, Barry- and between Rv GD America Wright's 20 years of hate spen out against whites for 20 yerars, your shady deals with convicted felon, Tony Rezko - it comes down to poor judgement, reckless behavior.
Not the kind of man we want leading this Great Nation.
He and his Michelle "America is a Downright Mean Country" Obama- aggry mean woman (ever read her college thesis? SCARY

Vote McCain-Palin 2008
And as much as I know it pains you Hillary, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul supports- VOTE MCCAIN-PALIN.
Don't waste one of the greatest freedoms we have in the wonderful Country!.

YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT!!!
McCain-Palin
We must stop Obama-
ACORN is out in full force- registering illegals, homess, underage voters- even dead people's name and multiple people on the rolls.
YOUR VOTE COUNTS
McCain -Palin 2008
And if you want to read MORE about Obama because you are uniformed, Google any of the above names and visit
www.obamawtf.blogspot.com
(Obama-What's the Facts?)

Tomorrow night at 9 p.m. on Sean Hannity's America (Fox News) will have an exposee: Obama's Redical Connections EXPOSED !!!
Be sure to tune in and TIVO IT !!!

[T]

Is she serious? Her husband was a proud member of the Alaska Indpendence Party, an organization whose stated purpose was to secede Alaska from this great nation. I know the point is to try to make Obama look unpatriotic. But you cannot tell me that seccession is putting country first, nor is it patriotic.

[RAES]

They must be desperate. Obama was 4 years old if she is correct.

That woman is an embarrassment to women in this country.

[RAES]

They must be desperate. Obama was 4 years old if she is correct.

That woman is an embarrassment to women in this country.

[NoMoreBlatherDotCom]

Just because the NYT article was attacked from "both" sides doesn't mean it's balanced. The DK post simply reinforces the NYT/BHO spin, while the NRO post points out what the NYT "forgot" to mention.

And, there's something else the NYT "forgot": the NYT interviewed someone who had documented evidence of a closer Ayers link to the board in question, yet they didn't include that in their article. Perhaps Don Frederick, Jamie Gold, or the CJR would care to weigh in on whether that's an acceptable practice:

http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/008087.html

[Graniteman]

I was a sixties radical who admired Castro and Mao and even made excuses for the Khmer Rouge. But then I grew up and realized that communism was just as bad as fascism and that democratic capitalism, American style, is a pretty good way to live. Bill Ayers, whom I saw in action in Ann Arbor, apparently hasn't learned from history. He still thinks that bombing his fellow citizens to end the Vietnam War was a good idea. The fact that Barack Obama would be affiliated with such a warped personality speaks volumes about Sen. Obama's bad judgment. I am now a centrist Democrat and will vote for McCain and Palin.

[John]

A month ago the LA Times published this story, "Sarah Palin's ties to Alaskan Independence Party are played down." I quote from the article, 'Tonight, Sarah Palin will be nominated as the Republican Party's choice for vice president of the United States. But back home, she has cheered the work of a tiny party that long has pushed for a statewide vote on whether Alaska should secede from those same United States. And her husband, Todd, was a member of the party for seven years."

I want to know more about this. Can you please follow-up with another story?

Thanks,

John

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-aip3-2008sep03,0,6399468.story

[mwf]

I guess when you have nothing to offer, might as well attack your opponent with ole, tired, asinine accusations.

[Bob N]

Go Sara Go!!!

Her are some other items about the ticket she must have seen in the Times:
Read on:
A. Ms. Palin does not appear to have made any trade missions since taking office, and former state officials said the state’s trade staff had been reduced under her watch.
Alaska has also sharply reduced its role in the Northern Forum, an association of state and regional governments from countries including Canada, Russia, Japan and China that works on common issues in northern regions like economic development, flooding and global warming.

B. Unbelievable. Sarah Palin finished her closing remarks by quoting Ronald Reagan:
It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.
When did he say this? It was on a recording he made for Operation Coffeecup — a campaign organized by the American Medical Association to block the passage of Medicare. Doctors’ wives were supposed to organize coffee klatches for patients, where they would play the Reagan recording, which declared that Medicare would lead us to totalitarianism.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
C. At Sarah Palin’s old church in Wasilla, they spoke in tongues. Maybe that’s where she picked it up.
D. This entire election season has been a long-running saga about the rise of women in American politics. On Thursday, it all went sour. The people boosting Palin’s triumph were not celebrating because she demonstrated that she is qualified to be president if something ever happened to John McCain. They were cheering her success in covering up her lack of knowledge about the things she would have to deal with if she wound up running the country.
E. But some Republican strategists who once worked for Mr. McCain say that the attacks and false statements have weakened the brand he built over the years as a straight talker who lamented the bitterness of modern politics. More than half of the respondents in a New York Times/CBS News poll said late last month that Mr. McCain spent more time attacking Mr. Obama than explaining what he would do as president
F. Now comes Ms. Palin, a smiling, bubbly vice-presidential candidate who travels in an alternate language universe. For Ms. Palin, such things as context, syntax and the proximity of answers to questions have no meaning. The Constitution does not state or imply any flexibility in the office of vice president. It gives the vice president no legislative responsibilities other than casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate when needed and no executive powers at all. The vice president’s constitutional role is to be ready to serve if the president dies or becomes incapacitated.
Any president deserves a vice president who will be a sound adviser and trustworthy supporter. But the American people also deserve and need a vice president who understands and respects the balance of power — and the limits of his or her own power. That is fundamental to our democracy.
So far, Ms. Palin has it exactly, frighteningly wrong.

[Argy]

Seriously, Palin. Get a life. Your ticket has become laughable.

[Mark Dudd]

If a person were a candidate fo be or in fact is a judge, and that person was found to associate with a "known" criminal , would he or she be fit for the bench?

[Louise]

Up till now, I was still on the fence re who I would be voting for. Palin's comments have convinced me. I will be voting for Obama.

[steve]

Lets see how low Palin and McCain can go. They are desperate! Open the flood gates to distortion and lies. I guess they do have a lot in common with Bush and Cheney.

Hey Palin, how is troopergate going?

[Ron]

Please! This just shows how desperate and despicable McCain and Palin are! The Republicans can't win on substance. They have to have a Willie Horton or a Swift Boat attack ad! This is no different. Shame on Palin for saying what she did. Shame on McCain for adopting such a tactic. The Republican ticket has now lost all my respect (and my vote).

[lamtep]

Sara there again with your Reindear!!!

[tim martin]

Surprised Sarah Palin even knows who the Weatherman are....this bimbo is the worst and I dont care who Obama has had as friends, at least none of them are stupid...and by the way, the last time a gal winked at me, she was later asking for $400 if i wanted to sleep with her for the hour...a total disgrace Palin is, as in "ah, shucks, how 'stup' can one be"...send her back to AK and McCainb to where ever...I bet Obama gets over 400 electoral votes

[VegasForTheVote]

Maybe the candidate under investigation for ethics violation is the wrong person to start throwing stones at Obama's character.

Also, this Ayers thing has been around for A YEAR... maybe Gov. Palin finally read a newspaper and learned about it.

[stephen pray]

When you have nothing else you smear the opposition. Bush/McCain/Palin are white trash. there is no depth to which they will not sink. garbage.

[monkey]

shazam!

[Mark]

This coming from a woman who agrees with Ronald Reagan that medicare would be a menace to our freedoms.

I suppose the exciting thing about this bit of news is that Sarah Palin has discovered newspapers. Hooray! How 'bout dat? Kinda neato, if ya know what I mean!

[Greg Gray]

Check out Media Matters to see McCain's own connection to G. Gordon Liddy. The McCain campaign needs to look into their own hearts before they start casting stones. The link is: http://mediamatters.org/items/200810040004?f=h_popular

[Larry]

Let's recall Palin's association with the Alaskan political party that wants to secede from the Union.

Let's recall McCain's reprimand from the Senate for his role in the Keating Five Savings and Loan scandal.

Let's recall that people that live in glass houses should not throw stones.

[Jolly Johnson]

This is what a Republican campaign does when they can not compete with their opponents on the issues. They take something which happened when Obama was 8 years old and try to SMEAR him with it so somehow they can deceive the American voters into thinking Obama has done something wrong. More hogwash from the malarkey express.

[Mkoch]

Sad and desperate.

[Eldora]

Does this attack on Obama's association with the educator Ayers make McCain's Keating Five association fair game?

How about his ties to Cindy McCain's father, a convicted felon whose mob connection is well known in Arizona?

Cindy's company's lobbying to lower the drinking age and raise the blood-alcolhol level deemed safe for driving needs airing as well.

Then there's Palin's opposition to shorten bar hours in Wasilla's, the meth capital Alaska. We already know about charging the victims of rape for an evidence kit and her opposition to establishing a program to combat violence against women.

There is also a second ethics violation. While governor, Palin urged voters to vote no to a proposition mining gold mining that would pollute a salmon fishing after she had been warned by the ethics commission to change government's obvious bias against the proposition

Since Palin has exploited her family shamelessly, why not highlight her irresponsibility as a mother to allow her 16-year-old daughter to date a self-described "f***ing red neck rumored to have impregnated an eigth grade girl?

If Obama's casual association with a respected professor of education at the Univeristy of Chicago is to be Swift-Boated, why not?

[Sigmond]

One can only imagine the outcry from the left had McCain been associated with terrorist bombers such as Terry Nichols, Tim McVeigh, or Harvard grad Ted Kazinsky. But it's OK for Obama because it was a long time ago that Ayres was a terrorist bomber.

[ray reyns]

Pathetic little pit bull......a real high IQ approach...wow she reads the NY Times...and McCain is showing signs of castration. his pathetic attacks are symptomatic of a psychologically castrated man...someone that lacks a real feeling of having what it takes and compensates for that with bravado, attacks and viciousness...he is capricious, prone to rash decisions, run by his emotions, unstable and capable of violence....not to be trusted...a weak man under all the bluster. take a look...you can see it.

[lisa]

Obamas connection to Ayers has been proven false months ago...Palin needs to be explaining by she is trying to get out of her own troopergate scandal .....McCain Keating Five connection however is proven...

[Jane]

"Will Bill Ayers, the anti-Vietnam war radical who helped found a bomb-planting protest group, morph into what some observers earllier had predicted -- the Willie Horton of the 2008 presidential campaign? "

Oh yes indeed, if you in the press are stupid enough to bite at the bait. The mere fact that Sarah Palin made a provocative, and largely untrue, statement (see coverage in NY Times), does not mean that you have to give the Republicans the headlines that they are seeking. It just feeds the slime machine, and we'll spend the next weeks covered in more and more slime.

Stop dumbing down the campaign. Stop doing the bidding of the Republican Party. If Palin says something intelligent or new about McCain's policies, by all means, cover it. This isn't news, it's the tactics of desperation.

[PG]

Considering Palin's links to an Alaskan secessionist group, I think she should give a little more thought to her comments... http://tinyurl.com/4ccnt9

[crossroads]

Palin is not only a liar & of questionable intelligence, but now she's right at the sleeze level of McCain. One can only hope that when returned to Alaska she is found guilty of misuse of power, recalled from office, and spends the rest of her life in the backwoods brushing up on English & History. Whatcha think?

[Contessa]

Here goes Palin, desperate to make Obama-Biden look bad, when she was the one who did it herself. If anyone paid any attention to her rhetoric speech/statements during the V.P. debate, Palin copied many of George W.'s rhetoric from the 2000 V.P. debate- though she didn't have to site his name- she twisted the words to her benefit- Palin is very scary- I should know- I live in Alaska and am one of many thousand Alaskans who are not voting for her- Oh, I mean McCain- remember, Palin is the one who wants to expand the role of the V.P.- sounds awfully similar to Cheney. Please, not another 4 years....

[Johnny]

This once again goes to show that Palin's ability to read and comprehend what she has read, does not exist if it's longer than one sentence or the title. Below is a link to the article for anyone to read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

[Rob]

Hey Don, when will you post your highly detailed research on ACORN and Obama's ties to that group? Never? Oh...

[beth]

What she has to say matters not to me....I agree this is just a ploy to take the heat off her and mccain on the economy...i am an independant voter and im voting democrat this time around. the republicans have messed up this nation in the last 8 years.If mrs palin wants to get down to the dirty deeds lets talk about how many republicans have been charged with fraud

[Dave]

The TRUE COLORS of Sarah Palin & John McCain are now being shown. They will only use the parts of a story that suit their truth-spinning agenda. Do you really want someone with this kind of character as President and Vice President?

[Lloyd Hunt]

O Dear, Sarah read her first newspaper …. and she read it incorrectly, recycling a story from a source which debunked the story DUH

For every skeleton in Obama’s meager innercity closet, there are a graveyard of bones in McCain’s massive middle east estates and Watergate break-in associate G. Gordon Liddy and Palin’s walk-in Alaskan separatist wardrobes.

If the Republicans go there against Obama, they will not only lose the election but it will completely end their political careers and their place in history

[Plain Jane]

It only goes to show how low she's willing to go. Add lack of ethics to the long list of lacks.

[Cal]

Wow she can read!

Who woulda' thunk it!?!?

[Mike]

What a nonsense comment! Obama is too long in politics alos he got CIA clearance! Spreading sch lies show how she is not ready to be VP ! Sarah please go home!

[Sharon]

This is so old!!! Dead issue!! Obama was small child when Ayers was part of Weather Underground, the terrorist group. This group was an anti-Vietnam War protest group. I live in California and FBI and that residing national president administration was declaring everyone a communist as a way to combat Vietnam War Protesters. Known as McCarthism!!

Ayers indicted. And Ayers was not convicted!!! Ayers went on to become respected college professor at University of Illinois. He presently is well known for his expertise on school reform and serves/ed on various boards/belonged to various groups. Political Fundraiser was result of Alice Palmer in Chicago when she was stepping down from office. She asked Ayers if he would have fundraiser at his house. They do not associate with each other except for any discussions they may hve had while they served on board together with a charity group. Any claims Ayers still feels same way is bogus!! Earlier some attempts were made to quote him out of context- Hilary claimed he still felt he needed to do more. Fact checked and is NOT TRUE!!

TELL PALIN SHE HAD BETTER WATCH OUT. SHE IS UNDER LEGISLATIVE INVESTIGATION AS GOVERNOR OF ALASKA FOR ABUSE OF POWER!! LEGISLATIVE INVESTIGATION IS TO BE COMPLETED NEXT WEEK. LEGISLATURE RECEIVED POSITIVE DECISION BY JUDGE TO CONTINUE HIS LAST THURSDAY, EMERGENCY APPEAL FILED BY MCCAIN-PALIN O STOP. THIS INVESTIGATION HAS BEEN TOTAL COVER-UP ATTEMPT BY MCCAIN-PALIN TOP ATTORNEY FROM BUSH ASSOCIATION IN WASHINGTON. .THIS IS WHAT SHE DID!! INVESTIGATION WAS STARTED LONG BEFORE SHE WAS CHOSEN AS GOVERNOR.

[jan]

I agree Ray. He picked Palin only because she turns him on. That's putting country first all right.

[Robert Norris]

I think it is time somebody investigated some of Senator Obama's connections. Bill Ayers is not the only questionable
contact he has had. The matter of his association and work for ACORN, as well as his questionable financing of his home should be reviewed.

If it is true that he has campaign staff members or advisors that have profited from the Freddiemac and Fannymae scandals, the public should know the details.

[rckstrdave]

McCain looks desperate. If he can confuse the old and the ignorant with false statements and pseudo patriotic references to WWII, combined with rigged voting machines from Premier Voting Solutions (formerly Diebold), he could really 'win' this election.

[Craig in Dallas, TX]

How is McCain administration going to effectively fight a War on Terrorists if they think Obama is a supporter of terrorism?

[evenakansan]

Palin is more pallitable when she's her normal, under-informed self. When she froths with this kind of lame vitriol, no matter the glint off her teeth, she seems more like a desperately rabid dog who smells only rotten meat yet still hopes to taste it.