The Pump Don't Work 'Cause the Vandals Took the Handles

David Weigel | October 6, 2008

Look, I can understand why the McCain campaign thinks it's worth its time—its precious, 30-days-to-the-election time—to remind voters that Obama befriended Weather Underground worthy Bill Ayers. Here's a candidate with a Muslim name! Who knows a terrorist! Guys, this writes itself!

What I don't get is why Team McCain ignores evidence that the Ayers association leaves voters sort of confused and bored. On August 21, a 501(c)4 group launched a one-minute ad about Ayers. The American Issues Project informed press that it would spend $2.8 million running the ad in two swing states: Ohio and Michigan.

Michigan, Michigan... hasn't that been in the news? Ah, yes.

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

It's not like the Ayers attack fell totally flat. Obama's campaign had to spend money on an ad rolling back the attack. But it didn't spend much, and it didn't spend money in Michigan. If the Ayers story was having an impact, you'd expect it to move some number of voters away from Obama. It didn't. It's probably just too tenuous and complicated. (Obama's relationship with the man is neither, but as the AIP ad demonstrated, it takes a lot of time in the editing booth to go from "60s radical is friends with Obama" to "Muslim terrorists blew up the WTC.")

This is all a long-winded way of saying "read Jim Geraghty."

One has to suspect that Obama's ties to Wright, Rezko and Ayers — sounds like a law firm of evil — have persuaded just about all the voters that they're going to persuade. But Americans are furious over the financial mess, and eager to blame somebody. The McCain campaign would be doing the nation a service by spelling out exactly whose bad decisions helped get us into this mess and how.

You get the sense that McCain's camp is just too surprised that Obama is surviving the WrightRezkoAyers attacks to shake it off and adapt to the economic scene.

Comments

|10.6.08 @ 8:34AM|#

In response, the Obama camp is running ads about the "Keating 5." Advantage in this economy: Obama.

|10.6.08 @ 8:37AM|#

Barack Obama know this COLLEGE PROFESSOR who, back in the SIXTIES....zzzzzzz....

SCARY BLACK CHURCH!!!

|10.6.08 @ 8:38AM|#

The election is Obama's to loose. Who was cozy with who and how much heavy petting went on is no longer relevant. All that matters from now on is the economy. In the strange calculus of the electorate, the media is reporting to me that Obama is seen as better on the Economy than McCain. As long as Biden isn't taking checks from Chinese monks, that's the election.

|10.6.08 @ 8:44AM|#

The McCain campaign would be doing the nation a service by spelling out exactly whose bad decisions helped get us into this mess and how

That might work if he hadn't gone to Washington to kick ass and chew bubblegum to get the first bailout through--and failed. Whoops!

One thing he could do, I suppose, is attack the second bill as loaded with pork, and say that's why he tried to get the first one through--because he knew anything afterward would have crap attached.

|10.6.08 @ 8:53AM|#

In a contest between an economic idiot (McCain) and a Marxist (Obama), I'll go with the idiot every time. For some "reason," "Free Minds and Free Markets" seems to come down to an overriding fear of who will be most likely to take away my pot and my internet porn, not who is most likely to destroy capitalism. Ayn Rand wept.

BDB|10.6.08 @ 8:54AM|#

You know, this is the last attack they'll be able to use that involves the 1960s, since the Baby Boomers are about to hand the leadership of the country over to Gen X.

So they gotta play that oldie one more time, as it were.

ed|10.6.08 @ 8:56AM|#

Say, here's another story that writes itself:

Top three recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, 1989-2008:

Dodd, Christopher (D-CT) $165,400
Obama, Barack (D-IL) $126,349
Kerry, John (D-MA) $111,000

What are the chances that the Senate will investigate itself in this matter?

BDB|10.6.08 @ 8:59AM|#

BTW, who the fuck says "pal around with terrorists"?

rhywun|10.6.08 @ 9:05AM|#

Baby Boomers are about to hand the leadership of the country over to Gen X

Nah--Obama is still baby boom.

BDB|10.6.08 @ 9:09AM|#

rhywun-

But he wasn't in college in the 60s, which makes certain political strategists cry.

David W.|10.6.08 @ 9:38AM|#

actually law firms don't have names like that any more, at least new ones starting up don't. They have names like GillespieWeigel PLLC or The Reason Firm LLC now.

|10.6.08 @ 9:38AM|#

So our October surprises are two things that aren't all that surprising, Obama and Ayers and the Keating 5.

Call me when the October surprises are surprising. I want a secret meth lab or at least a secret bondage dungeon. Now that would be interesting.

|10.6.08 @ 9:38AM|#

I saw pictures of McCain hugging a terrorist and war criminal responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands, if not more. I think the Obama campaign should run ads showing those.

Oh, wait--they already did.

Nevermind.

|10.6.08 @ 9:43AM|#

I am always amused by these mindless Obamabot minions who show up in droves at blogs all across the web. Some of those folks are paid staffers, some are volunteers, many are Obamabot zombies.

Discussing Obama's friendship with terrorist Ayers is fair game. Discussing Palin's "Troopergate" affair is fair game. Discussing Obama's decades long close association with "God damn America" Wright is fair game. Discussing Todd Palin's past participation in this Alaska "secession" organization is fair game.

Those topics and many other topics are fair game while those discussing relate facts and truths. These issues point to a person's character and judgement. Those issues are only fair game when discussed with maturity and common sense. Most, not all, but most of what I read being written by Obama staffers at blogs, most of this is simply not true. I also read "stretching of the truth" by McCain supporters, but much less in number and much less in wild claims.

Part of this disparity in numbers between Obama and McCain blog commentaries is Obama can afford to pay people to work blogs in massive numbers. McCain cannot afford to have the same done.

A point which is critically important is all these "bad" people associated with Palin or McCain, none of those people blew up buildings nor perpetrated violent terrorist acts upon our country. Yes, there is Troopergate and there is Keating, there are other incidents of not good favor, but none of those incidents involve widespread terrorist attacks on our country, much like the 9-11 horror. Ayers and his old friends are terrorists, this is beyond debate.

Very few, most likely no readers here would associate with Ayers. This would be like associating with Islamic terrorists. This is distasteful, this is inappropriate, this is selling out your dignity at a cheap price. Obama using Ayers to launch his political career, Obama maintaining friendship with Ayers, Obama simply being in the company of Ayers, is a slap across the face of our country and is for Obama to sell his dignity to further his political career. This does call into question Obama's character and his judgement.

Obama associating with Ayers is like one of us playing golf with O.J. Simpson.

These issues are fair political game but must be addressed with fairness and truth. We cannot afford to play deceitful games; our country's future is at stake.

Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

|10.6.08 @ 9:48AM|#

OK, then we can discuss why Sarah Palin, in her acceptance speech, quoted a violent racist who advocated the murder of RFK three years before it actually happened.

Wow, what a great issue--that should help clarify the many huge issues facing our nation.

Ass.

|10.6.08 @ 9:55AM|#

Purl Gurl | October 6, 2008, 9:43am | #

I am always amused by these mindless Obamabot minions who show up in droves at blogs all across the web.

Paul, yours is the only name on the thread I don't recognize.

Nice talking points, though.

BDB|10.6.08 @ 9:56AM|#

If the Dow falls below 1000 today, no one will care about RezkoAyersWright.

Rezko, Ayers, and Wright LLC|10.6.08 @ 9:58AM|#

I am always amused by these mindless Obamabot minions who show up in droves at blogs all across the web.

joe is not mindless. You need to get a lawyer.

|10.6.08 @ 10:00AM|#

Here's a candidate with a Muslim name! Who knows a terrorist! Guys, this writes itself!

For a more rational, and less in-the-tankish take on this, try hier.

It's not that surprising that he wouldn't find Ayers and Wright objectionable company--in the very liberal, Hyde Park/Ivy League circles that he's traveled in since attending Columbia, people with such views are more mainstream than, say, the average conservative evangelical Christian. That itself makes Obama far more liberal than the image his campaign attempts to portray. . . .

But in any event, he is clearly not the mainstream partisan of nonideological change that he is running as, and it at least seems worth pointing that out.

The More Things Change...|10.6.08 @ 10:02AM|#

Did you guys know that Governor Clinton planned anti-war protests with Communists? And that he smoked marijuana and dodged the draft?

|10.6.08 @ 10:08AM|#

While America burns, the McCainiacs fiddle. Cue the bread and circuses.

I didn't think my opinion of the great "maverick" (wink, wink) could get any lower, but is there something beneath shitsucking pond scum?

If these clowns keep it up I am changing my Barr vote to an Obama vote just out of spite.

|10.6.08 @ 10:09AM|#

Nah--Obama is still baby boom.

rhywun, we've had this discussion before, so it'll just have to suffice to say that you're wrong, and are history's greatest monster as a result of that fact.

|10.6.08 @ 10:15AM|#

OK, then we can discuss why Sarah Palin, in her acceptance speech, quoted a violent racist who advocated the murder of RFK three years before it actually happened.

OK, I'll bite. WTF?

|10.6.08 @ 10:17AM|#

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/governor-palins-reading-l_b_126478.html

|10.6.08 @ 10:19AM|#

...I am changing my Barr vote to an Obama vote just out of spite.

Depending on what state you live in, a vote for Barr is a vote for Obama.

|10.6.08 @ 10:19AM|#

Of course she was quoting the "before he went of the deep end" Pegler, and was reading a speech which she in no sense "wrote" (or even understood in parts, I'd bet), but hey, since we are ballooning phoney-baloney issues....

|10.6.08 @ 10:21AM|#

"Depending on what state you live in, a vote for Barr is a vote for Obama."

When you read the baseball standings, do you understand what a "half-game" means?

I am guessing not.

|10.6.08 @ 10:29AM|#

"Weather Underground worthy Bill Ayers", says Wiegel.

Do you Libertarians think that hanging out with an unrepentant terrorist is not a matter to consider when judging a presidential candidate?

If so, it explains your electoral performance.

|10.6.08 @ 10:34AM|#

I agree with BDB. If the Dow falls below one thousand, that's going to be pretty big news.

;-P

rhywun|10.6.08 @ 10:38AM|#

If the Dow falls below one thousand, that's going to be pretty big news

Down 400 already. That's a start :)

you're wrong

Look it up.

|10.6.08 @ 10:40AM|#

rhywun,

The joke is, BDB didn't write "falls 1000 points," he wrote "falls below 1000."

See, you can tell it's really funny, because I'm explaining it.

LarryA|10.6.08 @ 10:43AM|#

if you really want to have fun, you might consider whether someone with billions of dollars, a George Soros for instance, might have leveraged the housing loan market to set off the looming meltdown just before the election.

|10.6.08 @ 10:48AM|#

The way things are going, linking the Weather Underground and the divine Obama is likely to result in an increased sympathy for terrorists and their methods.

|10.6.08 @ 10:53AM|#

Person of Choeler,

Shouldn't the target of your ire be the Annenberg Foundation for giving the money to Ayers? It's not like Obama hired him to run the challenge. He got a job there. Do I have to apologize for everyone I've worked with? Am I screwed because I worked for Countrywide back in the day?

BDB|10.6.08 @ 10:53AM|#

Shit! I meant 10,000.

|10.6.08 @ 10:59AM|#

Well, that would be pretty big news, too.

|10.6.08 @ 11:00AM|#

I used to be on the board of my local Habitat affiliate. What would I have done if I found out that another board member had been a bomb-thrower in the SixtiesMan?

Probably nothing. What would you do? Quit?

Abdul|10.6.08 @ 11:01AM|#

I agree that Obama's relationship to Ayers is sideshow stuff. But Matt Welch (above) links to an article in today's Washington Post about McCain's first marriage. Isn't that even more sideshow stuff? And it's being pushed by a newspaper, not the Obama campaign.

Voters have always made up their minds on the sideshows and not the main acts.

BDB|10.6.08 @ 11:04AM|#

The Dow is down at 9800.

This stuff is looking pretty silly by comparison. It's almost surreal.

rhywun|10.6.08 @ 11:11AM|#

because I'm explaining it.

I know it's Monday morning but I'm not that slow :)

Well, that would be pretty big news, too.

Yup.

thoreau|10.6.08 @ 11:14AM|#

For some "reason," "Free Minds and Free Markets" seems to come down to an overriding fear of who will be most likely to take away my pot and my internet porn, not who is most likely to destroy capitalism. Ayn Rand wept.

Drink!

And, for those playing the Sarah Palin drinking game:

Maverick.

|10.6.08 @ 1:52PM|#

If McCain had opposed the bail out he would have guaranteed winning the election....

Of course the same goes for Obama.

These two really must love America.

Kreel Sarloo|10.6.08 @ 2:15PM|#

Sarah Palin had better be careful about bringing up Obama's whackjob preacher.

'mericans might be godly folks and all but for the most part they find holy rollers to be utter whackjobs.

Obama's too polite to say anything really nasty but once his surrogate's get done with Palin's blessing against witches and the rest of the whackjobbery old Rev Wright'll just look like he maybe just used a little excessive imagery.

|10.6.08 @ 2:17PM|#

I am always amused by these mindless Obamabot minions who show up in droves at blogs all across the web.

Joe is not technically an Obamabot...more like a Democrat shill.

I think in the primaries he wanted Hillary to win.

|10.6.08 @ 2:26PM|#

Dodd, then Richardson, then Obama, actually.

johnl|10.6.08 @ 3:54PM|#

The Ayers "relationship" is no big deal and I don't know why people keep bringing it up. But the apparent Rezko bribe is a real problem and McCain ought to be trying to shed light on that.

|10.6.08 @ 8:05PM|#

Of course,Sarah Palin sleeps with a card carrying member of a radical group with ties to terrorist organizations,and John McCain thinks thats just great.

Jim Treacher|10.9.08 @ 3:07PM|#

Racism. Racism. Racism. Racism. Racism.

Also, racism.

"Of course,Sarah Palin sleeps with a card carrying member of a radical group with ties to terrorist organizations"

Next debunked myth, please.