« Previous | Main | Next »

Palin Expands Ayers Attack

Share

October 07, 2008 4:34 PM

ABC News' Imitiyaz Delawala reports: For the fourth day in a row, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin attacked Barack Obama's association with former 60's radical William Ayers in an attempt to raise questions about Obama's judgment.

At an outdoor rally before thousands of enthusiastic supporters in Jacksonville, Florida this morning, Palin raised her now-regular criticism tying Obama to Ayers, a founding member of the Weather Underground group which claimed responsibility for bombings at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol in the early 1970s.

Palin  called Ayers one of Obama's "earliest supporters" for hosting a 1995 meeting kicking off Obama's bid for the Illinois State Senate. She mocked claims this week by the Obama campaign that the Democratic presidential nominee did not know about Ayers' past before the 1995 meeting.

"Now our opponent's campaign is claiming for the first time, Barack Obama wasn't aware of Ayers' radical background. Barack recently remembered him as just a guy in the neighborhood," Palin said.  "Wait a minute there. You mean to tell me he didn't know he had launched his own political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist?"

Palin then expanded the attack on Obama's judgement, questioning Obama's association with former Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson. Johnson briefly served as the head of Obama's vice presidential selection committee this summer, but resigned after reports came out that he received 7 million in mortgage loans with rates below market averages from lender Countrywide Financial. The McCain campaign has accused Obama of seeking economic advice from Raines--who while is an Obama supporter,  has not served as an official advisor to the Senator.

"You know, what's next, claiming that he didn't know two of his biggest supporters were running Fannie Mae, the subprime mortgage giant? Palin said. "Maybe he thought they were just guys in the Washington neighborhood."

Palin continued the line of attack by questioning Obama's judgment in saying he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"And since he got called out on his plans to meet unconditionally with terror state leaders like Ahmadinejad, will he now claim he was unaware of his radical background?" Palin added, in mocking reference to Obama saying at a Democratic primary debate last year that he would meet leaders of rogue states without preconditions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this election is about the truthfulness and judgment needed in our next president," Palin concluded. "John McCain has it and Barack Obama doesn't."

October 7, 2008 in Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (216)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

rdorr - thank you for the information. This was not information that I had heard previously.

I would think that anyone trashing someone for this kind of association should re-think it. If Republicans are speaking out against this smear and calling it such, then the RNC and McCain/Palin need to think again. By reasoning Palin is using, then all the people on the board should be called terrorists or terrorist supporters.

I highly doubt a former Reagan ambassador can be considered a terrorist.

Posted by: This is SO Old | Oct 7, 2008 4:56:55 PM

Only one lying here is your man Obama.

I think you better go to CNN.com and click on the politics link, view the video report just posted 1 hour ago showing how involved Obama was with Bill Ayers!

CNN is not known to be on the Republican side of anything, but I have to admit this is going to blow Obama out of the water! The report clearly points out just how much Obama and Ayers were involved on these boards, and where they sent the these funds.

Funny how CNN finds that money was given to the Rev. Wright's church! Obama claims not to know this man Ayer's when clearly this report blows his story away!

I am really surprised CNN did this report, I guess they figured that eventually this stuff would come out so they better be ahead of the other liberal media groups!

Enjoy the report Pamela and all you Liberals! It is all downhill from here for Obama and his radical group of friends!

Posted by: chuck | Oct 7, 2008 4:57:08 PM

Sarah Palin seems like a real sweetie!
Joe Biden has a death in his family and she keeps her nasty smear campaign going.
John McCain and Sarah Palin, please explain to the American people who are losing their homes, their jobs, their pensions and their health care, along with many elderly people who can no longer stretch their weakened dollars to get enough to eat, exactly how holding your hateful KLAN-like rallies is going to help them

Posted by: Truth Matters | Oct 7, 2008 4:58:25 PM

Palin should keep her mouth shut concerning Obama's supposed relationship with Bill Ayers. They were acquaintances on a professional basis, that's it. They didn't "pal around" together. He is much older than Obama. Palin is a pea brain, to say the least. If and When she appears on Meet The Press or Face The Nation and has something intelligent to say when she is questioned, then I might gain a little respect for her. Until then, she should shut her trap cause only garbage is coming out of it.

Posted by: geecee | Oct 7, 2008 4:58:42 PM

This is crazy; if all the McCain/Palin fans actually believe Obama is a radical terrorist. They may seriously cry or try to do harm to themselves after he wins...LOL; that's funny to me.

Posted by: Dem4Life | Oct 7, 2008 4:58:47 PM

Palin, read this:

DOW CLOSES DOWN 508 POINTS AS MARKETS FAIL TO REGAIN CONFIDENCE

Posted by: newz4i | Oct 7, 2008 4:59:26 PM

This is really more about mind games than substance. There will be a debate tonight, and their objective is to try and light a fuse by setting Obama up to react with exasperation when the subject "rears its ugly head".

Posted by: rogerthomas | Oct 7, 2008 4:59:31 PM

What about McCain's associations with Raffaello Follieri? Follieri pled guilty to multi-million dollars of fraud and money laundering. McCain celebrated his 70th birthday on Follieri's yatch and was seen boarding Follieri's yacht in Montenegro in August, after Follieri pled guilty to the charges.

Maybe McCain's plan to get us out of this economic problem is to get advice from people who know how to swindle people out of money.

Posted by: Mack | Oct 7, 2008 4:59:43 PM

Doesn't Palin know that the Annenberg, as in the Annenberg Challenge, was a long-time Nixon/Reagan friend and supporter?

Does anyone think that the conservative Annenberg Foundation would give money to a "terrorist?"

If Obama is being smeared for working with Ayers, who got the Annenberg Challenge money for Chicago schools, wouldn't that make the Annenberg Foundation a "supporter of terrorists?"

Posted by: theswindon | Oct 7, 2008 5:00:01 PM

Why are Mclame and Palin so scared of Obama? I don't want a bunch of chicken sh**s in the white house!

Posted by: Joe | Oct 7, 2008 5:00:15 PM

Who is the true terrorist here???

Sarah I hate to tell you this but several people served on the same board. One was a priest. Our you calling all them terrorist also??? They worked just as close to him as Obama, and what about all the students and professors of the college for years worked side by side this man, are they also terrorist?

And what about McCain?? What about Keating 5, yes he found not guilty but he was still very very good friends with the guy who was found guilty?

What about the US Council For World Freedom. You want some bad crap... this is bad.

Let not forget Sarah Palin association's with the radical Alaska Independence Party that wants to secede from this great country, the United States of America.

And here is a quote from Alaskan Independence Party founder Joe Voegler:
“The fires of Hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag!”

I wonder how Palin explains her husband''s verified membership in the "ALASKIAN INDEPENDENCE PARTY?" Seems she doesn''t believe in the UNITED States of America, does she??

hey Sarah, go ahead and bring up Obama's pastor...
I'll take an angry marine pastor over some witch doctor...

and also don't forget McCain's pastor(s) the one who said New Orleans desrved what it got, it was punishment from God...

STOP THE MADNESS. I JUST LOST MY A** IN MY 401K AT THE AGE OF 50. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN FROM THIS MOMENT ON.

I have sat at my work desk all week with nothing to do but blog. I pray I still have a job come Friday. What is wrong with you people. McCain/Palin have nothing to offer anyone. They can't even help themselves. Open your eyes and stop being stupid. Let the facts drain into that brain. Go do fact finds on McCains plans... They will destroy the middle class. You can't have a country without the middle class. Stop just stop.

Posted by: becky | Oct 7, 2008 5:00:47 PM

Dem4Life & Truthmatters:

I think you better go to CNN.com and click on the politics link, view the video report just posted 1 hour ago showing how involved Obama was with Bill Ayers!

CNN is not known to be on the Republican side of anything, but I have to admit this is going to blow Obama out of the water! The report clearly points out just how much Obama and Ayers were involved on these boards, and where they sent the these funds.

Funny how CNN finds that money was given to the Rev. Wright's church! Obama claims not to know this man Ayer's when clearly this report blows his story away!

I am really surprised CNN did this report, I guess they figured that eventually this stuff would come out so they better be ahead of the other liberal media groups!

Enjoy the report Dem4Life and all you Liberals! It is all downhill from here for Obama and his radical group of friends!

Posted by: chuck | Oct 7, 2008 5:01:02 PM

Obama does "not see America like us."
Obama is "not like us," not "Joe Six pack."
Obama is "not with us "hockey moms."
Obama is "not one of us."

Ah, exactly who is this "us"?
Are all Americans part of this "us," or are the moderate Republicans, Democrats, Independents, "media elite," liberals, and minorities excluded?

Do John McCain and Sarah Palin in fact believe that a divided American electorate, controlled by a McCain-Palin faction called “us,” will be able to repair the damage that has been visited on the United States of America in the last few months, in the last 8 years?

Posted by: DMD | Oct 7, 2008 5:01:15 PM

Grasping at straws. Ayers is a non-issue. Palin & co. are getting boring in their desperation. No one's listening. We're too busy worrying about what happens to us when the depression hits.

Posted by: counting crows | Oct 7, 2008 5:01:45 PM

Re: The INSANE photoshopping claims. Obama has had a US passport since he was a kid. You have to send a copy of your birth certificate (or other citizenship documents) to establish citizenship for a passport. Anyone who has gotten a passport knows this. His passport (and the records establishing his citizenship) would have been reviewed every time he renewed his passport.

Of course, his first application was long before there was anything called "photo-shopping". To assert that Obama photoshopped his passport when he was a boy inicates the ultimate depths of absurd lying that the right wing operatives are willing to sink.

Posted by: cinnamonape | Oct 7, 2008 5:02:23 PM

Who cares? This woman is such a hyprocrit. She and her husband are members of a group that wants Alaska to secede from the U.S. She attends a church where her pastor proudly claims he cast a witch out of a community. She allows hecklers to yell racial epithets at African Americans and this same woman encourages hate groups to brand Senator Obama a terrorist. If Palin is not careful, many will soon come to regard her as a terror to the the Republican brand.

Posted by: Shedrick | Oct 7, 2008 5:02:25 PM

Plain is such a disgrace. I can't wait to send her "six-packing" back to Alaska where she belongs, youbetcha.

Posted by: dem in chicago | Oct 7, 2008 5:02:43 PM

Dear ABC:

Why doesn't your coverage of these events include the hate-filled reaction of the crowds? "Treason," "Kill him," and "Traitor," as well as racial slurs directed at African-American media covering the events. The Republican campaign is inciting violence - why the news blackout?

Posted by: Wiscon108 | Oct 7, 2008 5:03:49 PM

Palin and McCain are showing their true colors in their desperate attempt to mislead voters and steal this election.


They've both proven themselves to be confused, uneducated, hateful, uber-ambitious, self-serving, right-wing extremists, eager to play the race/gender/class/character/fear card.


They epitomize everything wrong with Washington politics - they are, by far, the very dirtiest of candidates - moderate "mavericks" they are not.


They are pathetic cartoon characters who attract the scariest backwoods extremists and warmongers to their rallies and use inflammatory remarks to stir emotions, prey on fears, and even encourage bigotry and incite verbal threats against the opposition.


They are dragging this campaign and our country down into gutter. They are an utter disgrace.

Posted by: Mia | Oct 7, 2008 5:04:27 PM

my husband joined a political party that wants alaska to leave the united states.

That founder said america was horrible and he had no use for her BS, and he would never die under her flag.

palin gave a speech to these people


isnt that a domestic terrorist?

palins throwing rocks in mccains glass house

Posted by: Bhrandon | Oct 7, 2008 5:04:32 PM

Post a comment