Will McCain-Palin Be Keystoned?

So much discussion is raging about "what's the big deal about Obama's association with a former terrorist" that I feel I need to find time to chime in. It is not the fact that Obama had an association in this decade with a man who committed such heinous crimes in the past that is troubling. Ayers should be persona non grata throughout the US, but he isn't and that is what it is. What matters is that Ayers' actions, both in the distant past and the recent past as well as in the present, reflect his world view. He is a radical leftist who wants to change the way America works-- how we educate our children, how we dispense criminal justice, how we interact with the rest of the world. I do not agree with his views on these issues. I do not expect that Obama agrees with every detail of every view of every person he associates with. However, he wrote a blurb for a controversial book written by Ayers, so I assume he agrees with the views on the criminal justice system within that book. He served on a board giving out grants for education-related projects with Ayers, so I assume he agrees with Ayers in general terms on his educational philosophy. These are the facts related to his association with Ayers that trouble me. Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist and should be a social pariah but what matters in my judgment of the presidential candidates is that Ayers has a world view with which I am uncomfortable but with which Obama is quite comfortable. The same goes for Rev. Wright, btw. I do not share his vision of the world, either.

People have to pick on Obama's "associtions" because they can't find any fault in his own action or reconrds...knowing someone, even closely--does not mean you hold the same prociples...For peets sake I am married to my husband and we disagree about everything in the political realm!!!

McCain (himself) was invloved in keating 5--Now, palin (herself) is accused of abusing power--BIG difference!

The only person that has "badmouthed Cindy McCain" is JOHN HIMSELF. Campaigning in the late nineties, he called his wife a "unt" with a "C" in front of four reporters. He was "tired", poor thing! Guess he won't ever be tired as president. That kind of slur is unforgivable. Obama wouldn't say that to Michael in a million years. He's a gentleman first and foremost. McCain was even called "McNasty" in high school and has said horrible things to his fellow Senators. I don't want someone like this as my president!

Why would Americans worry about Obama's association with Ayers? He was not involved in any questionable acts and he had nothing to do with the charges being dropped. Ayers was a mainstream guy when Obama met him. I am in my mid-forties and never heard of him until people tried to blame Obama for Ayers' stupidity.
Excuse me for being obvious, but why is it so easy to ignore McCain's associations? He not only associates with con artists and creeps, MCCAIN ASSOCIATES WITH AMERICAS WORST TRAITOR, GEORGE W. BUSH. Bush has committed HUNDREDS OF ACTS of TREASON against his own country! The repugs just ignore this fact. John McCain could find no lower life form to associate with than W(Warcrimes)Bush.

If Obama is so up in Pennsylvania, then why is he campaignly furiously and feverishly there?

Obama is spending a lot of time and money there.

Could it be that many Pennsylvania residents will not vote for Obama who call them 'bitter','clinging to guns and religion'?

If Obama thinks himself as superior to Pennsylvanians, he cannot expect their votes.

Promises,

Ok I don't know if everytime I ask this question of the people that make the claim that Obama somehow bad mouthed Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin if they think I'm being facetious about it or something. But you made this statement "totally unacceptable... as is his treatment of Cindy, and Sarah Palin's family." And I was wondering exactly what this unexeptable treatment you refer to is?

I am being serious because I have never heard or read a quote by Obama about Cindy McCain and the only thing I have evr heard of Obama saying about Sarah Palin's family is that they are off limits. Please explain this to me as I would really like to know about this.

moderate.We will agree to disagree. Have you ever met a perfect politician? One who is free of "associations"? I've never seen one. Imagine, a politician using people to further his career. Shocking. Unlike other politicians that use their daddy's name or military service to further their career. I really don't care about his associations. there is dirt everywhere. I really don't understand what people think he would do if he became president. Round us up and shoot us? Is a difference in policy. And if the only way you can justify voting for McCain after the last 8 years is to falsify your fear, then have at it. Right now, I have to go to work, for the second time today.

Bea:

The only thing I remember about McCain was that he was liked and respected by both sides of the Senate

Both Biden and Hillary had good things to say about him.

In fact, the only "Bad Stuff".... came from the the Bushies....Republicans... the last time McCain ran for President.

McCain definitely does not have the glitz that Obama has, but , among others, he did write a bill around 2005 regarding the need for oversight in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which, had it passed, might have prevented the economic break down of the last couple of weeks.

Neither is my choice for the perfect President... (I felt Hillary should have won....) but I honestly feel that McCain will keep this country safer than Obama could...

Let's face it; Even if we leave Iraq we'll be fighting in Afghanistan ...
and I thought it was awful that Obama encouraged Iraq to wait until after the elections before setting a date for a requested withdrawal!

That was the act of a egomaniac... not of a man running for President!

The ease with which Obama accepted the
comparision of McCain to George Wallace (do you remember who he was?) was totally unacceptable... as is his treatment of Cindy, and Sarah Palin's family.

If McCain had had Axelrod has his campaign manager, he would be in Obama's position.......

So I would suggest that anyone voting for Obama...write in "Axelrod"'s name.
when you've closed that curtain.

Unless, of course, you're voting for McCain!

promises..One other question. And be honest. What did you really know about John McCain before he started his run? I knew he was a POW. And I remember watching him on TV when he was released. That was it. And how much do we really know about any person? It's all political. There's so much bad information floating around out there and even on the news. What ever happened to the news? And with the internet and blogs. Anybody could say anything about anybody and twist it around and make implications and the seeds of deceit are sown. And what do we know about Palin? I only know what I've seen in clips of her rallies. And even if they are taken out of context, it's pretty hard to swallow.

Bea, what do we know about Obama, really. People keep asking questions about his grades in College, where he got the money to go, where is is thesis from Harvard and why isn't there any articles written by him for the Law Review at Harvard. He was the first black president so he must have had something to say about it. And then there's that elusive "vault" birth certificate that no one has seen. They aren't satisfied with the Birth Registration because that's done anytime after birth and means the birth wasn't attended or at a hospital. I guess there could have been a mid-wife but it would say that. I wonder why he's just not turning all this over. What does he have to hide? and what could it hurt. It would stop all the talk.

People go on about Ayers contributing $200 to Obama's re-election to the Illinois Senate.

What about G. Gordon Liddy, convicted Watergate burglars pretty sizeable contributions- totalling $ 5000 to McCain's campaign.

This is what McCain said to Liddy: "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family... It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

In comparison, McCain's relationship with Liddy would also be pretty alarming, if they applied the same standards to themselves. So McCain, while I don't automatically think you must be a criminal because you associate with a Watergate burglar, I don't think you have any right to make a big fuss over Obama's flimsy ties with Ayers when your own record is far from spotless.

Bill Ayers was anti-vietnam war and people who have lived during the late 60s also remember that people used to pack protests around the pentagon during which police baton charged families who were protesting draft a young girl was killed in front of pentagon bill ayers served on the annenberg board who is a republican he was set free when republicans were in power it was the republicans who cut and run from vietnam moderate seeing your boat sinking you are now twisting obama's tax policy which are directed towards lower and middle class but promises is the guy who really is hillarious what he said association denial stuff i have a republican primary2000 vdo of mccain denouncing falwell robertson and recently attending their seminars you supporters are just like who you support erratic.

Obama supporter. I love America too. I love my life, even though survival has become an issue.I was a Hillary supporter and was really down on Obama and the way the primary turned out.I even toyed with the idea of not voting at all. So I've tried to make an informative decision based on issues. I watched his interviews and debates. People forget politics is a dirty business. Where a 5 o'clock shadow can lose you the election.Sometimes, politics aside, you have to use some instincts. I refuse to let other people's fears persuade me one way or the other. I'm sure Obama new who Ayers was. But really what was he supposed to do? Get up and walk out on his job and quit? A job that had the potential to possibly do good for someone.Sometimes you have to work and associate with people you don't agree with. And reverend Wright was hard for me to understand too. But I think there's a fine line in guilt by association. Especially in a case like this. It's not like you can control every person in your environment.

Oh really?

McCain "palls" around with a Watergate burglar, I believe. He has yet to renounce his associations with said burglar involved in the Watergate scandal. How about Sarah Palin giving a speech to the AIP ? Or her husband being a former member of said party? Or how about McCain's questionable judgement, in extension, of picking someone who was associated in some way to the AIP?

And McCain was not "exonerated" or anything in the Keating 5. He just ESCAPED criminal charges, and was reprimanded very harshly by the US Senate Ethics Committee.

If McCain/Palin want to employ this guilt by association rubbish, we should hold them to the same standards. And in this case, they were FAR more involved with some far more shady people.

One would think with Hugo Chavez Obama so far ahead in all the polls he could take off for another vacation right?

Yes,Hannah, thinking people can see through the smokescreen. But you and I mean different things by that. To me, the smokescreen is Obama's slippery response to people pointing out that so many of his associates are, to put it mildly, shady. Rezko, WRight, Ayers, Dorhn, Daley, etc. -- one dubious associate would be something we could overlook, but there's a pattern here. And part of the pattern is not only that Obama associates with these people when it is politically expedient but that he then distances himself when it is no longer helpful to his career to acknowledge the connections. His changing stories about Ayers (like earlier stories about Rezko and Wright)make my head spin, and hurt.

I listened to Obama's tax plan today and I don;t understand something. He said he is going to tax everybody that makes $250,000, that's a lot of small busnesses, I have one. Anyway he followed that up with he was going to see the government would give businesses low interest loans so they could stay in business and grow and pay for expansion and in addition he was going to give a tax break for those businesses if they hired more people. So now I'm taxed but I can get a loan to pay expenses and if I hire more people I can't afford I can get a tax break. I never heard anything like this in my life and I've been in business 16 years. Anybody got any ideas on what he's talking about?

"For your information.. McCain was never cleared of any wrongdoing." crabs

________________________________________

Of course he was!

Are you talking about the Keating 5?
McCain was cleared of everything but a judgement error.

In fact the only ones who were found guilty... were the Democrats!

The difference between McCain and Obama is that whereas Obama always denies his associations with people who might be considered politically incorrect, Mccain doesn't.

I like that in a man!

promises..One other question. And be honest. What did you really know about John McCain before he started his run? I knew he was a POW. And I remember watching him on TV when he was released. That was it. And how much do we really know about any person? It's all political. There's so much bad information floating around out there and even on the news. What ever happened to the news? And with the internet and blogs. Anybody could say anything about anybody and twist it around and make implications and the seeds of deceit are sown. And what do we know about Palin? I only know what I've seen in clips of her rallies. And even if they are taken out of context, it's pretty hard to swallow.

Posted by: hannah | Oct 14, 2008 12:41:23 AM

Sure Obama was 8 when Ayres was bombing the capital but he was 40 when Ayres gave the interview in Chicago Magazine standing on the American flag. I can't excuse Obama for hanging around with Ayres after that. Ayres was standing on the Flag too. Must have given Obama cause for pause but it didn't. After Rev. Wright, and we know he is anti-American, and now Ayres, I'm really suspicious of him. I love America and I feel like I would have to hate America to vote for him.

promises... whatever why doesnt mccain tell us more of his record of 26 years why does he keep changing his campaign theme from experience to country first to reform change to bill ayers to country first I can understand your opinion when you go to a church which has become like a political clubhouse witha pastor who endorses candidates but doesnt file income tax returns a megachurch pastor around my place given his huge mansion in his huge ranch his 16 cars will make mccain look like a poor guy, unlike politicians his only job is to give sermons I hope you ask them how they generate their wealth how much they give to charity not only hold the bible do what bible says dont make a judgement about someone who in the end literally addresses issues that concern all of us. As far as pastors are concerned they are in the tank for special interests they abhor saudi oil but support the same oil executives who earn profit by ripping of average americans.