Organizing for America | Stephen Fox's Blog: Palin has either lost her mind and/or this is Karl Rove at work! Palin says Obama 'palling around' with terrorists

Palin has either lost her mind and/or this is Karl Rove at work! Palin says Obama 'palling around' with terrorists

By Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News - Oct 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pm EDT

Also listed in: 10 groups

Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content

Tags: biden, Bill Ayers, blue star moms, chicago, Obama, palin

By JIM KUHNHENN,
Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago

CARSON, Calif., - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin
on Saturday accused Democrat Barack Obama of "palling around with
terrorists" because of an association with a former '60s radical,
stepping up an effort to portray Obama as unacceptable to American
voters.

Palin's reference was to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the group the Weather Underground. Its members took credit for bombings,
including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol,
during the Vietnam War era. Obama, who was a child when the group was active, has denounced Ayers' radical views and activities.

In 1970, the group was blamed for a pipe bomb in San Francisco that
killed a police officer and injured another. Three members of the
group were killed in 1970 in an accidental explosion of a bomb in
their Greenwich Village basement.

While it is known that Obama and Ayers live in the same Chicago
neighborhood, served on a charity board together and had a fleeting
political connection, no one has provided evidence to say the pair
ever palled around. And it's simply wrong to suggest that they were
associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts.

Nonetheless, Palin made the comments at two appearances in separate
states.

"Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal
around with terrorists who targeted their own country," Palin told a
rally of about 10,000 gathered at a tennis stadium in Carson, a
suburb of Los Angeles.

That echoed comments she made earlier in the day to donors at a
private airport in Englewood, Colo.: "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own
country."

Falling behind Obama in polls, the Republican campaign plans to make
attacks on Obama's character a centerpiece of candidate John McCain's message in the final weeks of the presidential race. Coming late in the campaign, Palin's remark could be particularly incendiary, however, and could knock Obama off his focus on the troubled economy.

The campaign was clearly prepared to raise the Ayers' connection to
Obama. In addition to Palin's comments at her appearances Saturday,
the McCain campaign distributed Palin's comments to reporters.

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,"
Palin said. "We see America as a force of good in this world. We see
an America of exceptionalism."

The Obama campaign called Palin's remarks offensive but not
surprising in light of news stories detailing the campaign's come-
from-behind offensive.

"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," Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a
statement.

Palin's remarks come as e-mails circulate on the Internet with
suggestions that the Democratic candidate is secretly a radical,
foreign-born Muslim with designs against the U.S. Obama is a native
of Hawaii who lived in Indonesia as boy. He is a Christian.

Palin, Alaska's governor, said that donors on a greeting line had
encouraged her and McCain to get tougher on Obama. She said an aide
then advised her, "Sarah, the gloves are off, the heels are on, go
get to them."

The escalated effort to attack Obama's character dovetails with TV
ads by outside groups questioning Obama's ties to Ayers, convicted
former Obama fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and Obama's former
pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Ayers is 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 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.

In an interview with CBS News earlier in the week, Palin didn't name
any newspapers or magazines that shaped her view of the world. On
Saturday, she cited a New York Times story that detailed Obama's
relationship with Ayers.

Summing up its findings, the Times wrote: "A review of records of the schools project 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.'"

Earlier Saturday, Palin spent 35 minutes at a diner in Greenwood
Village where she met with Blue Star Moms, a support group of
families whose sons or daughters are serving in the armed forces.
Reporters were allowed in the diner for less than five minutes before being ushered out by the campaign.

Palin, whose 19-year-old son, Track, deployed last month as a private with an Army combat team, was overheard at one point commiserating with one of the mothers: "Any time I ask my son how he's doing, he says, 'Mom, I'm in the Army now.'"

Reader Comments	Comments RSS
Comments are closed for this post.

McMuckRaker | Report to Admin

By Amunaor Oct 5th 2008 at 12:40 am EDT (Updated Oct 5th 2008 at 12:40 am EDT)

Associating Obama with the activities of Ayers, would be like associating McCain with the Kent State massacre, where National Guardsmen gunned down four students during a Vietnam war protest rally, simply because McCain supported another grossly misguided war, causing the presence of armed Guardsmen. Obama was 8 years old at the time of the Ayers incident, not to mention that all charges against Ayers were dropped. These manufactured allegations involving Barack are only an indication that Camp McCain has run out of ammo and wishes to go down in a heap of their own excrement.

The absurdity of the two associations is just that, absurd!

Why doesn't McCain himself step up to the plate and elucidate these false allegations instead of sending his brain-dead co-pilot out, while he chuckles backstage like Beeves, or is it Butt-head?

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

Keep Focus (Make a joke of this)! | Report to Admin

By K teacher from WV Oct 5th 2008 at 1:57 am EDT (Updated Oct 5th 2008 at 1:57 am EDT)

It is time to make fun of McCain by making a joke
out of all his lame brain attacks against Senator Obama. Make some false faces. Show Obama putting all of these on. Obama Muslim, Obama, pig with lipstick, Obama terrorist, Anti-flag guy, whatever else?

I just think we need another video similiar to the one he did with the kitchen sink. Mock all of these accusations. Show Obama with muscles at the end. "Ability to overcome" (super-hero)
makes a great President!

Anyway, I don't know how to put all this stuff together. Where are the artists here?

It could be an add that captures all of this stuff and shows Obama with his sense of humor.
At the end tie it into Halloween. It's Halloween what else can the McCain campaign bring out of the dark? Ha, ha, ha!!!!!

At the end show Palin/ McCain/Bush/Karl Rove in Halloween terrorist costumes! Pretty Scarey!

Then back to the economy issue! They want Obama to focus on this instead of the economy. Don't do it. If they bring it up in the debates, have him put a mask on and let people laugh at it. Or have him put all those masks on. Then he shouldn't address it at all, focus back on issue after that. (just an idea)! I don't know, will it work? We need to handle this in such a way that it will capture positive attention to Obama's personality! But, tie it into Halloween since it is right before the election!

Their ignorance is down right embarrassing. | Report to Admin

By Jan Oct 5th 2008 at 4:44 am EDT (Updated Oct 5th 2008 at 4:44 am EDT)

No matter what your political preference is, the gutter politics have just got to stop. Why can't politicians campaign on their own merit alone? What a concept that would be.

Wasn't the Obama/Ayers connection put to rest long ago? Will someone smack them upside the head and give McCain and Palin the information they're lacking so they quit campaigning on lies? Many fact checking sites have sorted those out long ago and they could easily take a moment to look them up and I'm more than willing to help get them started with just a few of the many sites: Link ; www.factcheck.org ; www.snopes.com ; Link

Of course, I know the McCain and Palin are banking on people believing the rhetoric. But how low can you go, misleading the sheep that way? And why is it that McCain and Palin have to belittle themselves constantly by reverting to lies about their opponents?

Yeah, I know, there are those that will believe anything that their preferred party has to say, and these same people won't take the time to investigate to find out what is true and what is not, but there comes a times when if nothing else everyone needs to really stop and look at the type of campaign they're running.

I'd be asking myself: 'Why do they have to stoop so low? Why not just tell me your platform and what you plan to do for our country? What kind of people are you that you have to crawl in the gutter to campaign?'

And something more important to me, I hate that people McCain and Palin say they are Christians and behave in such a manner as they do.

I long for a day when the news media no longer sensationalizes such propaganda, but instead does investigative reporting to give the readers and viewers truth and hard facts, because quite frankly most people won't do it on their own.

Re: Their ignorance is down right embarrassing. | Report to Admin

By Debi from Penhook, VA Oct 5th 2008 at 10:15 pm EDT (Updated Oct 5th 2008 at 10:15 pm EDT)

Darn. (As Palin would say.) I wrote a big long comment and lost it.

McCain and Palin spread lies because they've got nothing else.

It won't work! | Report to Admin

By Jannis from Detroit, MI Oct 6th 2008 at 12:08 am EDT (Updated Oct 6th 2008 at 12:08 am EDT)

John Mc Cain and Sarah Palin will use any means necessary to try to win the White House. But it will not work! I beleive that no matter what tactics they try in an effort to win, that they will fail and backfire on them.

ALL COMMENTERS: PLEASE WRITE A LETTER TO EDITOR FOR BATTLEGROUND STATES! | Report to Admin

By Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News Oct 6th 2008 at 1:13 am EDT (Updated Oct 6th 2008 at 1:13 am EDT)

The confines of this and any other "PREACHING TO THE CHOIR" DIALOUGES are child's play compared to winning this battle on the editorial pages of those 13 battle ground states. It is easy to send the same letter out to hundreds of papers, one at a time, once you have written the perfect 200 page letter, or if you prefer a longer forum, call ahead to request permission to submit an op/ed length, like 600-1000 words! this is kind of what I do for a living, so believe me it will work!!!!!

What about Keatitng? | Report to Admin

By Mike Mansfield Oct 6th 2008 at 10:16 pm EDT (Updated Oct 6th 2008 at 10:16 pm EDT)

First of all I want to say to Stephen, who is probably reading these replies, I'm sorry I said you were a likely troll. I'll try putting that other places, too, if you want. I was out of line; but I didn't think so at the time.

Second, McCain has his own trash in the background; and the Keating scandal is just one of them.

What about conspiring with the enemy? I don't know that he did; but he spent an awful lot of time with "commies" during his five year stay. How do we know he isn't the "Manchurian Candidate" the neocons claim Obama is? Five years is a lot of time for brain washing, isn't it?

I don't really believe what I said there; but it IS as believable as the trash about Obama. Also, I actually DO believe McCain revealed things that he would have normally faced court martial for doing if his Dad hadn't been an Admiral.

Re: What about Keatitng? | Report to Admin

By Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News Oct 11th 2008 at 3:31 pm EDT (Updated Oct 11th 2008 at 3:31 pm EDT)

Troll? I must have already forgotten about it, but I would have remembered you name, I am sure...things like that are so far removed from the truth and so outside of my reality that they don't sink in at all...anyway, thanks for your belated apology....I vaguely remember one comment like that at San Francisco for Obama, not from your part of the nation!? That group has one zealous crackpot whose bizarre remarks overrule almost any of the others. Surprising in such a cosmopolitan city! Any way, forget about it; WE HAVE AN ELECTION TO GO OUT AND WIN! Please check all of my new articles at Opednews, whose level of journalism I respect more than even Huffington Post, since everyone can publish at Opednews, free from any unpredictable editorial criteria, the bane of the "left wing" media.

Re: What about Keatitng? | Report to Admin

By Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News Oct 11th 2008 at 3:32 pm EDT (Updated Oct 11th 2008 at 3:32 pm EDT)

What is a troll, anyway?

Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.