I think this is the sign of an increasingly desperate McCain campaign. At this beginning of the race, McCain said there would be substance - not partisanship. Now that Obama has won on substance, the Rove/McCain team will do to Obama what was done to McCain in 2000. And to think I once thought McCain was a statesman - before he sold his soul for power.

Palin says Obama is 'palling around' with terrorists
Agence France-Presse
Published: Saturday October 4, 2008


CARSON, California (AFP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took the offensive Saturday, charging Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama with "palling around with terrorists."

Speaking early Saturday at a fundraiser in Englewood, Colorado, Palin told supporters Obama "is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Her comment referred to William Ayers, who supported Obama's first run for public office in 1995.

The relationship between Obama and Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s group the Weathermen that committed bombings on the Pentagon and the Capitol, was highlighted in The New York Times Saturday.

Palin's sharp jab is in step with recent Republican campaign statements that the McCain camp plans to launch a fierce assault on Obama with the presidential election only 30 days away.

The Obama campaign described the attack as "desperate and false."

"Governor Palin's comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign's statement this morning that they would be launching Swiftboat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills," said Obama-Biden spokesman Hari Sevugan.

"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 Raw Story | Palin says Obama is 'palling around' with terrorists

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

So, how ready will the country be to ignore the economy? That's the question, now.


McCain Plans Fiercer Strategy Against Obama

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 4, 2008; A01

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama's character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan's campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Being so aggressive has risks for McCain if it angers swing voters, who often say they are looking for candidates who offer a positive message about what they will do. That could be especially true this year, when frustration with Washington politics is acute and a desire for specifics on how to fix the economy and fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is strong.

Robert Gibbs, a top Obama adviser, dismissed the new McCain strategy. "This isn't 1988," he said. "I don't think the country is going to be distracted by the trivial." He added that Obama will continue to focus on the economy, saying that Americans will remain concerned about the country's economic troubles even as the Wall Street crisis eases somewhat.

Moments after the House of Representatives approved a bailout package for Wall Street on Friday afternoon, the McCain campaign released a television ad that challenges Obama's honesty and asks, "Who is Barack Obama?" The ad alleges that "Senator Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes. Ninety-four times. He's not truthful on taxes." The charge that Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes has been called misleading by independent fact-checkers, who have noted that the majority of those votes were on nonbinding budget resolutions.

A senior campaign official called the ad "just the beginning" of commercials that will "strike the new tone" in the campaign's final days. The official said the "aggressive tone" will center on the question of "whether this guy is ready to be president."

McCain's only positive commercial, called "Original Mavericks," has largely been taken off the air, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's performance at Thursday night's debate embodied the new approach, as she used every opportunity to question Obama's honesty and fitness to serve as president. At one point she said, "Barack Obama voted against funding troops [in Iraq] after promising that he would not do so."

Palin kept up the attack yesterday, saying in an interview on Fox News that Obama is "reckless" and that some of what he has said, "in my world, disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief."

McCain hinted Thursday that a change is imminent, perhaps as soon as next week's debate. Asked at a Colorado town hall, "When are you going to take the gloves off?" the candidate grinned and replied, "How about Tuesday night?"

Yesterday in Pueblo, Colo., McCain made clear that he intends to press Obama on a variety of familiar GOP themes during the debate, as he accused the Democrat once again of getting ready to raise taxes and increase government spending.

"I guarantee you, you're going to learn a lot about who's the liberal and who's the conservative and who wants to raise your taxes and who wants to lower them," McCain said.

A senior aide said the campaign will wait until after Tuesday's debate to decide how and when to release new commercials, adding that McCain and his surrogates will continue to cast Obama as a big spender, a high taxer and someone who talks about working across the aisle but doesn't deliver.

Two other top Republicans said the new ads are likely to hammer the senator from Illinois on his connections to convicted Chicago developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko and former radical William Ayres, whom the McCain campaign regularly calls a domestic terrorist because of his acts of violence against the U.S. government in the 1960s.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. appears to be off limits after McCain condemned the North Carolina Republican Party in April for an ad that linked Obama to his former pastor, saying, "Unfortunately, all I can do is, in as visible a way as possible, disassociate myself from that kind of campaigning."

McCain advisers said the new approach is in part a reaction to Obama, whose rhetoric on the stump and in commercials has also become far harsher and more aggressive.

They noted that Obama has run television commercials for months linking McCain to lobbyists and hinting at a lack of personal ethics -- an allegation that particularly rankles McCain, aides said.

Campaigning in Abington, Pa., yesterday, Obama continued to focus on the economy, even as he lashed out at McCain.

"He's now going around saying, 'I'm going to crack down on Wall Street' . . . but the truth is he's been saying 'I'm all for deregulation' for 26 years," Obama said. "He hasn't been getting tough on CEOs. He hasn't been getting tough on Wall Street. . . . Suddenly a crisis comes and the polls change, and suddenly he's out there talking like Jesse Jackson."

Obama highlighted a new report showing a reduction of more than 159,000 jobs last month, and he linked the bad economic news to McCain and Palin.

"Governor Palin said to Joe Biden that our plan to get our economy out of the ditch was somehow a job-killing plan; that's what she said," Obama told a crowd of thousands. "I wonder if she turned on the news this morning. . . . When Senator McCain and his running mate talk about job killing, that's something they know a thing or two about, because the policies they've supported and are supporting are killing jobs in America every single day."

McCain issued a statement yesterday saying the bailout bill "is not perfect, and it is an outrage that it's even necessary. But we must stop the damage to our economy done by corrupt and incompetent practices on Wall Street and in Washington."

Speaking in Pueblo just as the House was finishing deliberations on the package, McCain blamed fellow lawmakers for the failure to adequately regulate the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"It was the Democrats and some Republicans in the Congress who pushed back and did not allow those reforms to take place, and that's a major reason we are in the trouble we are in today," he said. "Those members of Congress ought to be held accountable on November 4th as well."

Before the bailout crisis, aides said, McCain was succeeding in focusing attention on Obama's record and character. Now, they say, he must return to those subjects.

"We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days," said Greg Strimple, one of McCain's top advisers. "We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama's aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans."

McCain Plans Fiercer Strategy Against Obama

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

That is an amazing signature. I may just have to copy it and use it on another forum that I am on.

Sorry, about that though.

In the interests of fairness, the Weather Underground were at least a borderline terrorist group. I know only a little about the group.

However, If McCain wishes to bring up this as an example of socialist or terrorist interests deep in Obama's camp, then we can ask what he thinks of the current US Administrations support for the terrorist that blew up the Cuban airliner (by way of refusing he be allowed to be extradited to face trial). Or maybe the violent terrorist leader Augusto Pinochet. Or maybe the current dictator of Egypt. Of course the list is endless. Or perhaps supporting terror in Haiti and not so long ago - Argentina.

Obama will probably retain the vast bulk of US terror export, but we can hope for a /little/ change at least.

You mean by airing the story that Obama threaten to prosecute TV Stations, Palin id Desperation?

LOL..

It is Obama who threatened the prosecutions.. What is Obama afraid of?

Barack Obama is a militant liberal. His machinations ten years ago,which were designed to shore up a political base on the South Side of Chicago are the problem for many people. Bill Ayers,Jeremiah Wright. What can he say? Nothing. He can only hope that enough people don't care on November 4th.Even Obama's supporters(most of them) don't believe he sat in that church for 20 years and never heard the venom that Wright spewed.

Absolutely.. and Marxist connection is a very large concern about Obama. This is NOT just a slighly left candidate.. HE is a radial leftist, Marxist.

Besides you forgot about REZKO.. Michael "Jaws" Giorango, Louis Farrankhan,
Alexi Giannoulias..

Look Before You Leap: Obamas Mobbed-Up Allies : NO QUARTER

of course they are desperate. the economy, and mccains idiot stance and comments may have driven the nail in the coffin

Precisely - and it doesn't help that McCain is getting somewhat schizo - signs the bailout then tells Bush to veto it? That is desperation.

BTW - TFAC - I finally broke down and started using my ignore button

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

I would suggest people go to realclearpolitics.com for the best coverage.The polls now do seem to spell trouble for McCain.However if he can cut a couple of points off in a few states and then presume to do five points better on Nov 4th because of Obama's race he could still pull it out.I'm not being racial-I just think the 'Bradley effect' is probably going to be worth a couple of points.I am smiling now because if the Dems lose this one they will probably go collectively insane and the 50 million of them may very well move to France-wouldn't that be a pity?