By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 21, 8:12 PM ET
WASHINGTON - A conservative nonprofit group with a past link to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign wants to spend $2.8 million on an ad questioning Democrat Barack Obama's relationship to a founder of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground.
The ad, which is expected to begin airing Thursday in Michigan and Friday in Ohio, focuses on William Ayers, whose Weatherman organization took credit for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.
American Issues Project, the sponsor of the ad, is a nonprofit 501(c)4 organization. One of its board members, Ed Failor Jr., was a paid consultant for McCain's campaign in Iowa last year. The campaign paid his firm $50,000 until July 2007. American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston said Failor has no connection to the McCain campaign now.
The ad signals the emergence of the type of tough advertising by independent organizations that operate outside the financial limits of campaign finance law. It is reminiscent of the Swift Boat ads aired against John Kerry four years ago questioning his military service and are widely blamed by Democrats for contributing to his defeat.
Organizers sought to air the ad on Fox News Channel, but a Fox spokesman said the network declined to run it. He would not say why.
Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002.
Obama also was the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform group of which Ayers was a founder. Ayers also held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s.
"Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as, quote, 'Respectable' and 'Mainstream,'" the ad states. "Obama's political career was launched in Ayers' home. And the two served together on a left-wing board. Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"
Obama's campaign accused McCain of having a hand in the ad, saying he "dispatched his paid consultant to launch this despicable ad from a so-called 'independent' committee." Federal Election Commission records show the last payment from McCain's campaign to Failor's consulting firm, Targeted Consulting, was July 2, 2007.
"Instead of invoking Paris, Britney and obscure sixties radicals, Sen. McCain should take the day off at one of his seven homes to consider whether his support for outsourcing, tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and continued spending of $10 billion a month in Iraq is really putting 'country first,'" Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
Obama has distanced himself from the radical activity of the Weather Underground. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" in April, Obama said he "deplored" Ayers' actions in the 1960s.
"Mr. Ayers is a 60-plus-year-old individual who lives in my neighborhood, who did something that I deplore 40 years ago when I was 6 or 7 years old," Obama said then. "By the time I met him, he is a professor of education at the University of Illinois. We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education."
This week, the University of Illinois refused to release records relating to Obama's service on the Chicago Annenberg Exchange. The university said the donor of the records that document the charity's work has not yet turned over ownership rights to the material.
The university said it is "aggressively pursuing" an agreement with the donor and will open the collection to the public as soon as one is finalized.
Obama's campaign has said the senator does not have control over these records.
The ad is the first for the American Issues Project. As a nonprofit organization, the group can raise unlimited amounts of contributions, unlike political action committees that are governed by campaign finance laws.
Pinkston, the group's spokesman, said it will identify contributions used to pay for the ad.
McCain in the past has criticized independent groups, even those that support him, that air negative campaign ads.
In a statement, Failor, who is executive vice president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said: "When the American public fully understands the close, continuing relationship between their potential president and a remorseless domestic terrorist, we believe it will send a chill down their spines."
Ayers was a fugitive for years with his wife, fellow radical Bernadine Dohrn. But after surrendering in 1980, the charges against Ayers were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct.
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Associated Press writer Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 19, 11:16 PM ET
RALEIGH, N.C. - A combative Barack Obama said Tuesday that Republican John McCain "doesn't know what he's up against" in this election and challenged his rival to stop questioning his character and patriotism.
Obama, campaigning in a state where he hopes to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win in more than three decades, implored his supporters to fight for the presidency.
"Our job in this election is not just 'win,' although I'm a big believer in winning," Obama said during the rally. "I don't intend to lose this election. John McCain doesn't know what he's up against."
"He can talk all he wants about Britney (Spears) and Paris (Hilton), but I don't have time for that mess," Obama said.
His remarks carried forward a theme of feisty campaigning he debuted earlier in the day.
Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Fla., Obama reaffirmed his early opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and said the strategy of sending in 30,000 additional troops last year had not produced the political reconciliation necessary to achieve lasting peace in the country.
McCain supported the Iraq invasion and was an early champion of the surge.
"These are the judgments I've made and the policies that we have to debate, because we do have differences in this election," Obama told the veterans. "One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can't disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism. I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same.
"Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country," Obama said to applause.
McCain stood before the same audience a day earlier and said Obama "tried to legislate failure" in the Iraq war and had put his ambition to be president above the interests of the United States. He said the Illinois senator did this by pushing for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq and by voting in the Senate against a major appropriations bill to help fund the troop increase.
Responding to Obama's comments, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "Barack Obama has made it clear that unconditional withdrawal in Iraq is more important to him than victory in Iraq. That's not a criticism of his patriotism, that's a criticism of his judgment."
A decorated Vietnam war veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Arizona Sen. McCain has sharply questioned whether the 47-year-old Obama has the experience and character necessary to serve as commander in chief.
McCain also has spoken out strongly against Russia's invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, using Obama's absence from the campaign trail during a Hawaiian vacation last week to take a hard line against the Russian government. His tough talk led some of Obama's foreign policy advisers to suggest McCain may have complicated the conflict.
Obama strongly condemned Russia's actions Tuesday but said U.S. involvement in Iraq had imperiled its ability to take a leadership role in the matter.
"We failed to head off this conflict and lost leverage in our ability to contain it because our leaders have been distracted, our resources overstretched, and our alliances frayed," Obama said.
The Illinois senator also praised Joe Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman thought to be among the top contenders to be Obama's running mate, for calling for an additional $1 billion for reconstruction projects in Georgia.
I hear the call from the old white man , down by the river canal! He sounds the same old tired voices brought back to life , by those he courts...The republican guards trying to protect the king and his throne !...He was and is a steward of the right , The right to bash the common man , who's standing tall and brings the dreams of all that walk the path of life , He talks of change in a time when faith is the last bastion left for the great society !.The old white man , his tired soul , Lays claim to waste the truth beholden to his own reality !.I hear the pleas of the old white man for joining hands ! , yet bothered is my conscience for I know ignorance when I hear it. The common man , on the other hand , enlightens my forgiveness for he tells me to , Blame not the old man ! for he craves freely what he undermines as the path into the promise land !....Yet there I've been !, says the common man !, And you will stand beside me when the horns of promise I've Kepted alive reveal to all , The time has come !.
BARACK OBAMA 2008 !....
The consequences of continued congressional inaction on gas prices are unacceptable. We've called on the Speaker to call Congress back into an emergency session this month and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act. We must continue to make a stand until the Speaker complies.
TODAY IS BARACK OBAMA'S BIRTHDAY !
HOW ABOUT WE GIVE THE MAN A NICE $25,000,000.00 MILLION DOLLAR DONATION AS A GIFT !..
I ALLREADY PUT IN MINE !... LETS GET THIS MOVEMENT FUNDED PEOPLE !...
FIRED UP ! READY TO GO !...
TODAY IS BARACK OBAMA"S BIRTHDAY !
HOW ABOUT WE GIVE THE MAN A NICE $25,000,000.00 MILLION DOLLAR DONATION AS A GIFT !...
I HAVE ALLREADY DONATED MINE ! LETS GET THIS MOVEMENT FUNDED PEOPLE !...
Its amazing to me how the Republicans in congress are willing to stage a rally for more off-shore oil drilling , yet they will not stage a rally for more affordable healthcare for the current 42,000,000 million americans who do not have any healthcare coverage at all !.
Its amazing to me how John McSame can critisize Barack Obama for being a "Celebrity" , Like a" Paris Hilton " , Yet someone forgot to mention to John McSame that the " Hiltons " have donated more than $4,000 thousand dollars to his presidental campaign ! , What a cheap way to give thanks to your supporters !. Hopefully the Hiltons will now support Barack Obama !.
Its amazing to me How John McSame is yelling to the four corners of our land , How Barack Obama wants to raise taxes , Yet he will not mention how he plans to pay down the $9,000,000,000.00 trillion dollar deficit this country faces over the next several years, While at the same time cutting taxes ! Economist"s want to know what kind of math he is using !.
Its amazing to me How the american people seem to be now in the off-shore oil drilling bandwagon !, Yet they seem to have forgotten just how devastating the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill was to the environment , and how the company had to be taken to court in order for it to pay for the clean-up !.
Its amazing to me how John McSame can go on these town hall meetings and claim that congress has a 19% percent aproval rating , He keeps telling people its lower than the aproval rating of president George W Bush !, Yet he forgets to mention the fact that he has been in congress since the age of the dinosaur !.So in reality he is part of congress and he does have a %19 percent aproval rating !.And he is not even in office yet !.
Its amazing to me how all these political pundits rely so much on these recent , latest , current , just now , up to the minute polls for their observations on the presidential race ! That seem to show John McSame gaining ground on Barack Obama ! Yet none of these polls are taking into consideration the massive young voter following that Barack Obama has and that will help him win the next election for president of these United States on november 4 , 2008 !.
JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT PEOPLE !...
By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 15 minutes ago
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.
Republican rival John McCain, who earlier dropped his opposition to offshore drilling, has been criticizing Obama on the stump and in broadcast ads for clinging to his opposition as gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon. Polls indicate these attacks have helped McCain gain ground on Obama.
"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.
"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done."
Asked about Obama's comment, McCain said, "We need oil drilling and we need it now offshore. He has consistently opposed it. He has opposed nuclear power. He has opposed reprocessing. He has opposed storage." The GOP candidate said Obama doesn't have a plan equal to the nation's energy challenges.
In Congress, both parties have fought bitterly over energy policy for weeks, with Republicans pressing for more domestic oil drilling and Democrats railing about oil company profits. Despite hundreds of hours of House and Senate floor debate, lawmakers will leave Washington for their five-week summer hiatus this week with an empty tank.
"The Republicans and the oil companies have been really beating the drums on drilling," Obama said in the Post interview. "And so we don't want gridlock. We want to get something done."
Later, Obama issued a written statement warmly welcoming a proposal sent to Senate leaders Friday by 10 senators — five from each party. Their proposal seeks to break the impasse over offshore oil development and is expected to be examined more closely in September after Congress returns from its summer recess.
The so-called Gang of 10 plan would lift drilling bans in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but retain an environmental buffer zone extending 50 miles off Florida's beaches and in the South Atlantic off Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, but only if a state agrees to the oil and gas development along its coast. The states would share in revenues from oil and gas development.
Drilling bans along the Pacific coast and the Northeast would remain in place under this compromise.
The plan also includes energy initiatives Obama has endorsed. "It would repeal tax breaks for oil companies so that we can invest billions in fuel-efficient cars, help our automakers re-tool, and make a genuine commitment to renewable sources of energy like wind power, solar power, and the next generation of clean, affordable biofuels," Obama noted.
"Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven't always supported," Obama conceded. "I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact."
Nevertheless, Obama said the plan, put forward by mostly moderates and conservatives led by Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., "represents a good faith effort at a new bipartisan beginning."
Earlier in the day, Obama pushed for a windfall profits tax to fund $1,000 emergency rebate checks for consumers besieged by high energy costs, a counter to McCain's call for more offshore drilling.
The pitch for putting some of the economic burden of $4-a-gallon gasoline on the oil industry served a dual purpose for Obama: It allowed him to talk up an economic issue, seen by many as a strength for Democrats and a weakness for Republicans, and at the same time respond to criticism from McCain that Obama's opposition to offshore drilling leads to higher prices at the pump.
In linking McCain to the unpopular President Bush, Obama struck a theme from Ronald Reagan's successful 1980 campaign against President Jimmy Carter by asking a town-hall audience in St. Petersburg: "Do you think you are better off than you were four years ago or eight years ago? If you aren't better off, can you afford another four years?"
Obama primed the crowd by noting new government figures showing 51,000 jobs lost last month and citing 460,000 jobs lost over the last seven months. He tied other bad economic news from the Bush administration to McCain and offered his energy program as one route to relief.
"This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months," Obama said during a two-day campaign swing in Florida. "It will be enough to cover the entire increase in your heating bills. Or you could use the rebate for any of your other bills, or even to pay down your own debt."
(This version CORRECTS paragraph 10 that compromise would retain a buffer zone of 50 miles off Florida Gulf beaches, instead of allow drilling within 50 miles
