Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, October 09, 2008 1:58:38 PM
Team McCain has a new ad out this morning called “Ayers”, a
comprehensive attack on Obama on his relationship with former Weather
Underground terrorist William Ayers. This isn’t just a suggestive
30-second spot. It’s one minute and forty seconds that detail the kind
of work the two did together, Ayers’ early political partnership, and
Obama’s obfuscation of the nature of their political partnership in
Chicago:
Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Friends. They’ve worked together for years. But Obama tries to hide it. Why?
Obama launched his political career in Ayers’ living room. Ayers and
Obama ran a radical “education” foundation, together. They wrote the
foundation’s by-laws, together. Obama was the foundation’s first
chairman. Reports say they, “distributed more than $100 million to
ideological allies with no discernible improvement in education.”
When their relationship became an issue, Obama just responded, “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood.” That’s it?
We know Bill Ayers ran the “violent left wing activist group” called
Weather Underground. We know Ayers’ wife was on the FBI’s 10 Most
Wanted list. We know they bombed the Capitol. The Pentagon. A judge’s
home. We know Ayers said, “I don’t regret setting bombs. …. I feel we
didn’t do enough.”
But Obama’s friendship with terrorist Ayers isn’t the issue. The
issue is Barack Obama’s judgment and candor. When Obama just says,
“This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” Americans say, “Where’s
the truth, Barack?”
Barack Obama. Too risky for America.
The length of the spot would normally indicate that this is intended
for web viewing only. However, John McCain gives the standard broadcast
endorsement at the end, which strongly suggests that they will do ad
buys in 90-second chunks in some battleground states for this. Recent
reports had Obama outspending McCain 3-1 since the conventions, but
perhaps Team McCain wanted to conserve its cash for this attack.
I suspect this is not the end of this subject, either. I’d expect at
least one more ad featuring John Murtaugh, the son of the judge whose
home got bombed by the Weather Underground. Murtaugh, who is running
for the New York state legislature, has already released a statement
through the McCain campaign attacking Obama for associating with an
unrepentant leader of the terrorist organization that tried to kill him
as a boy. I’m certain he will happily participate in an ad to put a
human face on Ayers’ terrorism.
This ad demonstrates that McCain has no intention of nibbling around
the edges on Ayers. He will go after Obama with everything he has on
this subject. This also puts pressure on McCain to “say it to his face”
in the next debate, as Obama will certainly challenge him to do after
this ad airs. Bob Schieffer, the next debate moderator, may already be
writing the question for it now.
All he wants to do is to talk about the financial crisis, except of
course that when he had the chance to do that in front of millions, he
had nothing to offer except the stalest, most banal talking points.