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Independent Group With Links to McCain Campaign Assails Obama on Ayers

August 22, 2008 10:14 AM

"Beyond the speeches, how much do you know about Barack Obama?" asks the new TV ad from a non-profit conservative group called the Americans Issues Project. "What does he really believe?"

The ad then tries to tie 9/11 to the Weather Underground and William Ayers, and Ayers to Obama.

"United 93 never hit the Capitol on 9/11," says the ad, "But the Capitol was bombed thirty years before – by an American terrorist group called Weather Underground…that declared 'war' on the U.S. – targeting the Capitol, the Pentagon, Police Stations, and more. One of the group’s leaders, William Ayers, admits to the bombings, proudly saying later: 'We didn’t do enough.' Some members of the group Ayers founded even went on to kill police.

"Obama’s political career was launched in Ayers’ home," the ad continues, "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?"

Asked by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos about his relationship with Ayers, Obama said,"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...The fact 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."

Obama said the Ayers argument is a "kind of game in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, that somehow their ideas could be attributed to me, I think the American people are smarter than that. They're not going to suggest somehow that that is reflective of my views, because it obviously isn't."

Ed Failor, Jr. sits on the board of American Issues Project. The executive vice president of Iowans for Tax Relief, Failor was a senior adviser to the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, as this cached press release shows.

The press release was only taken down from the McCain website in the last few weeks -- the Google cached version shows it being on the McCain website as recently as June 29, 2008 -- though the McCain campaign says Failor hasn’t had anything to do with their campaign in months.

The spokesman for the American Issues Project, which says it intends to spend $2.8 million on the initial ad buy, is Christian Pinkston, who also worked for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Eight years ago, Pinkston gave McCain's presidential campaign $250. Seven years ago Ayers gave Obama state senate campaign $200.

- jpt

August 22, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (187)

User Comments

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Ri;ey: All I can say is I love your statement. When are the American people going to wake up before its too late. Don't they know that Obama will not be running the country Biden will behind the scenes if Obama is elected. Are we that stupid?

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 1:03:09 PM

con me not: I love those true comments. And you are absolutely right. Most of the American public believes whatever Obama says because they think he is going to change the world. The only change he knows is what is in his pocket. I know that Bill and Hillary Clinton know him like a book without the cover. The only reason Hillary is supporting him is because she will run for the senate again and the democrats would turn against her. Many democrats are turncoats. They are like a bunch of cry babies. Its either or with them. Kennedy, Kerry, Carter and three turncoats that turned their back on Hillary. I don't like any of them. And to show how crooked the DNC is they now want to seat all the MI and FL delegates but when Hillary wanted that they wouldn't do it for her. Hillary should never endorsed Obama or campaigned for him she just should have supported him. He is making a fool out of her and she don't realize it but I hope Hillary's voters are smart enough to all vote McCain and leave Obama in the dust.

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 12:59:12 PM

Peach: Whatever is in the dark about Obama will come to the light eventually. We all know his background but many people just don't want to face it that's why they will vote for him. In my time he wouldn't even be a candidate running for the presidency. He is underhanded and crooked like the DNC especially Nancy Pelosi. I am hoping the republicans take back the house. She is a snake in the woods. Because of her Hillary didn't get the nomination. She pressured the superdelegates that wanted to wait until the convention for their vote but she didn't want that so Obama got the votes. I don't believe he will win in the general election because no matter what the news media states most of Hillary's voters will elect McCain. Then all we will need is a republican house speaker.

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 12:50:01 PM

Fact check: Why wasn't the original birth certificate shown on TV and I don't mean the registration of birth. I mean the words birth certificate. Who is kidding who.

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 12:23:12 PM

Willem van Oranje: Let's go on record to say true American's stand for American and don't set bombs off like Ayers did. Don't defend Ayers actions. Obama knew Ayers well, received donations from him and had dinners with him. He has close ties to Ayers and everyone knows it. Why try to hide it. Obama spent his younger days with crooks and the public is well aware of it. I am hoping McCain beats him out. Its too bad Rice won't accept being his running mate because McCain would win in a landslide.

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 12:11:21 PM

Peter: Yes, you do have to make 5 million per year to be rich. How far do you think a million goes. There are houses and condo's selling for a million or more. And for your information Biden was for the war like McCain and Obama said he was against it but he wasn't in the senate when the vote was decided. He is wishy washy, a liar and fake. Get a grip. He doesn't even have the intelligence to run this country that's why he picked Biden. Obama if elected will be president in name only Biden will be running the country.

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 12:05:33 PM

Beckie: You are so right. Obama doesn't have the intelligence, capabilities or experience to run this country. Biden will be running it from behind the scenes while Obama is president in name only. Obama has the worst background of any candidate that ran for president of this country. His association with several crooks alone especially Ayers. And he cannot say he wasn't good friends with him, because Ayers was a racist, anti-american like Obama was in his younger years. Obama had a book published called The Audacity Of Hope but the words in that book were from pastor Wright because that's what he was preaching that day. Obama took those words and had it published making over a million dollars when Wright should have been given half that money. Obama cannot form words for his speeches so he has to use the speeches of RFK, JFK and MLK. For a Harvard graduate he is really dumb. I would love to know what kind of grades he got. And does he have a legal birth certificate. Investigation on him reported he was born in Kenya because his mother was refused passage on a plane to Hawaii and had to leave later. When she came to Hawaii she registered him there. What he has in the US is a Registration of Birth only. What happened to his birth certificate. Is Kenya covering up those facts?

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 12:00:39 PM

Willem van Oranje: Haven't you been up todate with politics lately? Of course McCain can't find Osama bin Laden in Pakastan because that country will not permit us to look for him there. Get a grip and read more. If he is in Pakastan they will not release him to us. Obama is not interested in Osama bin Laden and never will be. That was just one of his false statements made as usual. Bush didn't even look for Bin Laden. Its too much trouble and a waste of time for us when the soldiers should be coming home instead. And we don't want trouble with Pakastan we have enough being in Iraq.

Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 25, 2008 11:50:15 AM

According to conservative commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, Sen. John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is a 'dual loyalist,' 'neocon warmonger' involved in activities that 'none dare call treason.'

Scheunemann's former employer, Orion Strategies, is a lobbying firm with strong ties to Mikheil Saakashvili's administration in Georgia.

Since Georgia attempted to retake South Ossetia by force, triggering a sharp, violent rebuke by Russian forces, Sen. McCain has been by far the most strident advocate of US support for the former Soviet state. And his top adviser, says Buchanan, may well be the next Henry Kissinger or Zbigniew Brzezinski.

"He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man," he wrote.

In his recent history, Scheunemann was a key member of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which lobbied President Clinton for war with Iraq for years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was also a signatory on a letter to President George W. Bush, just days after the terrorist attacks, demanding an invasion of Iraq and threatening political consequences if the president did not comply.

In addition, Scheunemann served as executive director of Ahmad Chalabi's group, "The Committee for Liberation of Iraq," a pro-war organization formed in 2002. Chalabi, once dubbed the "George Washington of Iraq," has since been accused of providing false information to US authorities and is currently under investigation.

"Most important, Scheunemann's former lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, received at lest $800,000 from the government of Georgia between 2004 and May 15, 2008, when Scheunemann finally severed his ties -- officially, at least -- to the firm," notes The Nation. "Before that, between January 1, 2007, and May 15, 2008, Scheunemann was officially on the payroll as both Georgia's lobbyist and McCain's top adviser, during which time Georgia paid Orion and $290,000 and McCain paid him $70,000."

While the Bush administration has conceded that the Russian response to Georgia's aggression is not grounds for starting another war, Scheunemann and Orion Strategies have succeeded in making Georgian membership in NATO a popular position. Sens. McCain and Obama, along with the Bush administration, are all pushing to have the embattled nation inducted into the alliance, bringing a pact of war along with it should Russian forces again cross into the country.

"Others who were once uneasy about the influence of conservatives on Mr. McCain say that their worries have not been realized, even as Mr. McCain has taken conservative positions," writes Elizabeth Bumiller in the New York Times.

"This is the situation in which the interventionists have placed our country: committed to go to war for countries and causes that do not justify war, against a Russia that is re-emerging as a great power only to find NATO squatting on her doorstep," said Buchanan.

"[T]here doesn't seem to be any momentum either for a direct legal challenge or a congressional investigation, which could subpoena the players and get sworn testimony," reported Robert Dreyfuss for The Nation.

McCain staff have called the criticism of Scheunemann's ties to Georgia "disgraceful," and even alleged that Democrats are parroting claims injected into Western media by a Russian public relations firm.

Posted by: STILTON | Aug 24, 2008 4:28:18 AM

Let's try it this way.

Peach: Ayers did not target civilians, he targeted objects. Do you believe that destroying (government) property is *always* bad? Even when you believe that you are doing it for a greater cause?

What's your opinion on the Gaspée Affair and the Boston Tea ‘Party’?
To refresh your memory: in the first, insurgents destroyed a warship from their government; in the second terrorists destroyed property owned by a government-friendly company worth roughly $1,2 million (in 2008 dollars).

Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 22, 2008 11:39:10 PM

Silly McCain has been signaling to Osama bin Laden where to hide: he likes to say that he would follow OBL to the ‘Gates of Hell’.

But not Pakistan.

OBL is in Pakistan

Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 22, 2008 11:18:34 PM

McCain got away with just a slap on the wrist in the Keating Five scandal was by

...


I'm sure you can guess it

....

Correct. Raising the POW card.

Take for instance his supporter Senator Bob Dole back then: "He has been held hostage before under very difficult circumstances. So let us not keep him hostage here in the Senate,"

Source: New York Times, October 23, 1990.

Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 22, 2008 11:14:31 PM

EYES WIDE OPEN, McCain was dead center deep in the Keating 5 scandal, but a Republican congress gave him a mere slap on the hand. Obama's crew has ALL the documents on Keating, and if blowhard McCain wants to be so incredibly stupid to throw the tired old Retzo crap out again, Obama's camp is going to clean McCreep's clock.

Posted by: GlovesAreOff | Aug 22, 2008 10:43:36 PM

Zaggs -

Good memory about Obama wanting to go after Pakistan. I'd forgotten that. He's a little quick on the trigger with some things and then a little slow on the update with others -- like the crisis in Georgia/Russia.

Posted by: Peach | Aug 22, 2008 10:13:06 PM

William -

Ayers hasn't turned his life around. He said in 2001 that he regretted not setting more bombs and doing more harm to government installations and civilians.

Posted by: Peach | Aug 22, 2008 10:10:15 PM

Apparently Barry never learned that we are known by our associations. And his are doozies.

But we shouldn't be surprised. He admits in one of his biographies (the first one, I think) that his favorite professors were Marxists. I can see he hasn't changed or grown through the years either. Pity.

Posted by: Peach | Aug 22, 2008 10:08:33 PM

Finally, someone is getting on this Ayers story. Bloggers have known about this story for 1.5 years. And then mainstream media wonders why their profits are down. LOL

Posted by: Peach | Aug 22, 2008 10:07:12 PM

Obama says Americans should know better but in all reality their are way too many ignorant Americans and their are some that just want to believe these lies as gospel.

Posted by: con me not | Aug 22, 2008 8:16:53 PM

When will you people wake up and admit that you picked the wrong man - a Chicago-style, Washington-style politician? You all picked lousy the last 8 years - don't repeat the mistake again! BO is not fit to be pres!

Posted by: Beckie | Aug 22, 2008 7:48:44 PM

What is truely ironic is that Republicans like to portray them as ‘Real Christians’, and that Christianity is about forgiveness and not being judgemental because God is the only one who has the right to judge.

Yet, when they are confronted with Ayers who has been a bad man but who has turned his life around and has become a truely valuable and distinguished member for his community and society through his work and his charity work, all they can muster is hate.

Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 22, 2008 5:33:44 PM

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