The Pump Don't Work 'Cause the Vandals Took the Handles
David Weigel | October 6, 2008, 8:27am
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.
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. 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
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