June 26, 2009 5:13 PM
- Text
McCain Questions Obama Radical Ties
(The Politico)
This story was written by Ryan Grim and Mike Allen.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stoked debate over a '60s radical's ties to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, saying Obama's defense "borders on the outrageous."
William Ayers - a former member of the Weather Underground, which embraced bombing in its effort to end the Vietnam War - became an issue in the Democratic nominating race at last week's debate. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Obama's past meetings with Ayers are part of a "larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain." Republican sources said McCain plans to make a major issue of the connection in the months ahead.
Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether he has any doubt that Obama shares his sense of patriotism, McCain brought the subject up.
"I'm sure he's very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question," McCain said.
"He became friends with him and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weathermen," McCain said. "Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who says they're unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?"
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded aggressively, calling McCain's salvo "smear politics."
"Unable to sell his out-of-touch ideas on the economy and Iraq, John McCain has stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000," Burton said. "The American people can't afford a third term of President Bush's failed policies and divisive tactics."
David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, says in the forthcoming issue of Newsweek that the campaign is planning to expand its research and rapid-response team in part to counteract charges about Ayers.
"He's not going to sit there and sing 'Kumbaya' as the missiles are raining in," Axelrod told the magazine. "I don't think people should mistake civility for a willingness to deal with the challenges to come."
As a defense, Obama said during the debate: "The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either."
McCain seized on that, calling Coburn a "great humanitarian" and "in my view, one of greatest spokespersons for the rights of the unborn."
"To compare him with Dr. Coburn, who spends so much of his life bringing babies into this world, that in my view is really - borders on outrageous," McCain said.
At the debate, Obama said of Ayers: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
Axelrod told Politico's Ben Smith in February: "Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school. ... They're certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together."
Information about the pair's connection has been dribbling out over the past few months. Obama first met Ayers in 1995, during Obama's first state Senate campaign, and the two met with a small group of local liberal activists at Ayers' house. Exact details of the meeting are unkown because Obama and Ayers have declined to discuss it.
By Ryan Grim and Mike Allen
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stoked debate over a '60s radical's ties to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, saying Obama's defense "borders on the outrageous."
William Ayers - a former member of the Weather Underground, which embraced bombing in its effort to end the Vietnam War - became an issue in the Democratic nominating race at last week's debate. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Obama's past meetings with Ayers are part of a "larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain." Republican sources said McCain plans to make a major issue of the connection in the months ahead.
Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether he has any doubt that Obama shares his sense of patriotism, McCain brought the subject up.
"I'm sure he's very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question," McCain said.
"He became friends with him and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weathermen," McCain said. "Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who says they're unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?"
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded aggressively, calling McCain's salvo "smear politics."
"Unable to sell his out-of-touch ideas on the economy and Iraq, John McCain has stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000," Burton said. "The American people can't afford a third term of President Bush's failed policies and divisive tactics."
David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, says in the forthcoming issue of Newsweek that the campaign is planning to expand its research and rapid-response team in part to counteract charges about Ayers.
"He's not going to sit there and sing 'Kumbaya' as the missiles are raining in," Axelrod told the magazine. "I don't think people should mistake civility for a willingness to deal with the challenges to come."
As a defense, Obama said during the debate: "The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either."
McCain seized on that, calling Coburn a "great humanitarian" and "in my view, one of greatest spokespersons for the rights of the unborn."
"To compare him with Dr. Coburn, who spends so much of his life bringing babies into this world, that in my view is really - borders on outrageous," McCain said.
At the debate, Obama said of Ayers: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
Axelrod told Politico's Ben Smith in February: "Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school. ... They're certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together."
Information about the pair's connection has been dribbling out over the past few months. Obama first met Ayers in 1995, during Obama's first state Senate campaign, and the two met with a small group of local liberal activists at Ayers' house. Exact details of the meeting are unkown because Obama and Ayers have declined to discuss it.
By Ryan Grim and Mike Allen
-
Brian Montopoli Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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