McCain Questions Obama Radical Ties

Politico: Candidate Stokes Debate Over ’60s Radical’s Ties To Obama, Saying His Defense “Borders On The Outrageous.”

(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.

[leftyintexas]

You are vile and ignorant and you deserve to die in the gutter. If you want to know who will wipe McCains azz, I''''ve told you it will be Effendi Snob-oma after he licks Hillary''''s behind. It''''ll be good practice for him and he will be grateful for the McCain employment.

Posted by mudrose at 09:09 AM : Apr 22, 2008

How was your visit to see the Pope? I can see by your posting that the visit did a lot of good to that highly intellectual mind of yours. Ha!Ha!Ha! Only 273 left! Enjoy! Ha!Ha!

[kmccliment]

I think Ayers and Obama met to discuss that if Obama becomes president Ayers will be pardoned and hired as sec. of state. And why? Because "I CAN"!

[obama8years]

Not only does Obama have ties to Ayers.

Remember the article of Hamas in the church bulletin, that was Obama church.

Obama and Wright have involvement in the ISM

canadafreepress.com/index.php/ article/2462

[mudrose-2009]

WHO WILL BE THE SECRETARY OF DIAPERS IF MC-STAINS IS PRESIDENT - I BET IT WILL BE HANNEDY, HE WOULD LOVE TO WIPE MC-STAINS BUTT
Posted by BLACKSPIRIT3

You are vile and ignorant and you deserve to die in the gutter. If you want to know who will wipe McCains azz, I''ve told you it will be Effendi Snob-oma after he licks Hillary''s behind. It''ll be good practice for him and he will be grateful for the McCain employment.

[ranger1948]

When i heard they were allowing felons to enlist i was against it. After thinking about it i thik it is a great idea. Bring our troops home after we train all our convicted felons how to perform as a military unit and send them to Iraq. Let George go and be their leader there. At least we won''t be wasting the best America has to offer.

[watcher269-2009]

McCain supports the Bushit/Cheney military decision to:

Strained by the demands of a long war, the Army and the Marine Corps recruited significantly more felons into their ranks in 2007 than in 2006, including people convicted of armed robbery, arson and burglary, according to data ...

McCain supports giving Felons GUNS!

McShame supports Arming Felons with the latest military technologies so when the come back to the States - they can use them against us!

McSame supports teaching Felons how to kill Iraqis at first - then the felons will come home - find out there are no jobs or health-Care for them and the FELONS will start killing YOU to get what they want and need!

A Vote for McSAME is a vote for higher Crime rates in the United States!

Vote for Trained Killer Felons - Vote McCain!

[watcher269-2009]

Oh the McSHAME OF IT!

Our sons, daughters, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, are being kept in Iraq by a cynical policy not only with no end in sight, but also one that our forces cannot ultimately resolve, and instead depends upon the actions of Iraqi factions and political leaders. Twelve (12) billion ($12B) of our tax dollars are being spent every MONTH, just waiting and waiting for others to act.

That''s a surrender of our national sovereignty.

And, here''s something the rest of us know, but may be a surprise for the McCainaanites: Iraqi political leaders do what they perceive to be in THEIR own interests, not because it may help the US. Our so-called political leaders live in a parallel universe, seeing events in Iraq from a US prism, and keep our brave troops in harms'' way to serve their own vanity, and for McCain, his Presidential ambitions.

[dewardbowles]

The politics of fear are dead. Those who continue to exploit fear as a political tool have not figured it out yet.

I will vote the same way the average person is voting right now by sending in their own money to the various campaigns. Here are statistics that must be reported.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/select.asp?cycle=2008

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/donordems.asp?filter=A&sortby=S

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/donordems.asp?filter=A&sortby=X

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/donordems.asp?filter=A&sortby=P

Millions of average Americas are sending their own money to one of the candidates. The other candidates are being financed by mostly a few wealthy people.

The only thing I fear is what the candidates have to do for the people who financed their campaigns after they are elected.

I know their is only one candidate who will owe the average American if they are elected. My vote is for them. You decide for yourself.

[kansas1946]

At least we know McCain loves his country.
Obama has dual citizenship and very questionable associates.
***********************************************

And who exactly are those "questionalable associates?"

[kansas1946]

In the 1960s, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn saw themselves as urban guerrillas who just might be able to overthrow the U.S. government and force an end to the Vietnam War. They were members of the Weather Underground, a radical offshoot of the antiwar movement, who went into hiding for a decade after a bomb accidentally exploded, killing three members of the group.

Nearly 30 years after surrendering to police, Ayers and Dohrn, both in their 60s, are tenured university professors whose work on school reform and juvenile justice have won them bipartisan respect.

********************************************

I think John''s senility is showing. Just exactly when was Obama hanging out with this guy. Obama was born in the 60''s when this guy was going to prison. He is much older than Obama and has done tremendously positive things with the remainder of his life. He works with the mayor of Chicago. What is John McCain''s point???????
I just think he is not thinking clearly, grabbing at straws from the idiot bloggers that started this BS. I this someone you REALLY want for president? Someone who can''t distinguish a "radical" from a solid citizen.

[kansas1946]

Nearly 30 years after surrendering to police, Ayers and Dohrn, both in their 60s, are tenured university professors whose work on school reform and juvenile justice have won them bipartisan respect.

Ayers is an informal adviser to Mayor Richard M. Daley and has been awarded more than $50 million in charitable grants for his promotion of small schools as a solution to a crisis in education. Dohrn lectures widely on children''s law and serves on a variety of boards and committees. Together, they have raised three boys in the intellectual haven of Hyde Park, where Sen. Barack Obama is a neighbor.
************************************************

John McCain is such an idiot. Here is the "radical" that Obama knows. Sounds really scarey, don''t you think.

[ranger1948]

When you are fighting with pigs you have to get in the mud. Obama thinks his associations are irrelevant. I think his associations show his true beliefs and are very relevant to the issue.

[rick_harsch]

Obama understands Mr. Ayers frustration with the oppression and alienation that typical white America has forced upon the proletarait.

[obama8years]

canadafreepress.com/index.php/ article/2462
OBAMA TIES TO HAMAS....(Why doesnt the News Report this!!!) Same reason they didnt report rev wright till a year later.


If Barack Obama didn%u2019t know about Abunimah%u2019s writings (and Abunimah says he did), the same as his claims of being unaware of Reverend Wright%u2019s remarks after 20 years, then Obama is not competent to be our President. Abunimah likes to lie and claim Al Awda has nothing to do with the ISM or Electronic Intifada, though plenty of evidence exists on the website the homepage at www.StoptheISM.com showing the contrary.

But Obama%u2019s association with the ISM through his church and lobbying in Chicago goes even deeper than just his past links to Al Awda and Ali Abunimah. His pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, are both equally involved with the ISM.

[nanging3]

At least we know McCain loves his country.
Obama has dual citizenship and very questionable associates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI77cU3
jsFs&eurl=http://www.ziggidy.com/index.p
hp?option=com_content&view=article&id=
322:baracks-original-race-speech&catid=1

[nanging3]

OBAMA HATE WHITE PEOPLE..IN HIS OWN WORDS AND VOICE..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI77cU3
jsFs&eurl=http://www.ziggidy.com/index.p
hp?option=com_content&view=article&id=
322:baracks-original-race-speech&catid=1

[kansas1946]

%u201CUnable 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%u2019t afford a third term of President Bush%u2019s failed policies and divisive tactics."

********************************

Amen. This just shows how desparate John McCain is to win. The very thing that he railed against in 2000, these slime-tactics used on him, he has not joined hands with the devil and is guilty of the same thing. He is a war-hawk, knows nothing about economics, he has no new ideas, he is a Bush clone on policy, he is past his time.

[ioweign]

Ask McCain about the Forrestal



Incompetence Or A Stunt

''Wet-starts'', done either deliberately (the starter motor switch allowed kerosene to pool in the engine and give a wet start) or accidentally, shoot a large flame from the tail of the aircraft. ''Wet starting'' was a common practice among young ''hot-dog'' pilots.



http://judicial-inc.biz/82jjohn_mccain_and_the_uss_forresta.htm

[blackspirit3]

TONY PERKINS A MCCAIN SUPPORTER - Tony Perkins is President of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America''''s premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South. In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list. SHOULD MCCAIN DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM MR PERKINS?

[blackspirit3]

McCain stated %u201CWe can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans." NOT FOR OBAMA - LETS JUDGE HIM FOR WHAT SOMEONE DID WHEN HE WAS 8 YEARS OLD, LET''S JUDGE HIM ON WHY HE STAYED AT TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH FOR 20 YEARS. BUT LET''S FORGIVE MCCAIN FOR NOT VOTING FOR THE 1990 CIVIL RIGHST ACT AND MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY.