ninme

The Sunday Times - Desperate McCain gets tough with attack on Obama’s character
As the Democrat builds a lead in key states, the Republicans are trying to fight back by focusing on his ties to a corrupt donor

Some McCain advisers believe it is better for outside groups to hit back with personal attacks on other “friends” of Obama, such as his pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright. But Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, went straight for the jugular yesterday with an attack on Obama for “palling around with terrorists”, a reference to his links to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground which took responsibility for explosions at the Pentagon and Capitol during the Vietnam war.

The New York Times yesterday chronicled Obama’s relationship with Ayers and concluded that the Democrat had “played down his contacts” with him, even if the two did not “appear to have been close”. In 1995 Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a left-wing project to raise school performance co-founded by Ayers, which distributed $50m funds to little effect. Obama later served on the board of the Woods Fund, an anti-poverty charity, with Ayers.

Ah right, the whitewash. Then there’s the CNN article that says — in passing, mind (”don’t worry, y’all can take our word for it”) — that National Review has debunked the “close relationship” along with the NYT, Chicago Sun-Times, etc.

Then, late last night:

CNN has now apparently changed its faulty article and substituted The New Republic for National Review in the list of publications supposedly debunking the notion of an Obama-Ayers relationship. That doesn’t solve the problem but only highlights it. To report fairly, shouldn’t CNN also note that National Review has offered evidence establishing a significant working relationship between Obama and Ayers?

Hah. Not to mention the fact that getting a quasi-pro-Obama statement from National Review isn’t exactly on par with yet another one from The New “Shock Troops” Republic. Back to The (London) Times article:

Independent groups are stepping up their attacks. The conservative Judicial Confirmation Network has started to run a $1m advertising campaign in bellwether states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, linking Obama to Rezko, Wright and Ayers — “a man who helped to bomb the Pentagon and said he didn’t do enough”.

Freedom’s Defense Fund, another independent group, has been running advertisements in Michigan which begin, “Meet Tony Rezko. One of Obama’s top donors”. They go on to list Rezko’s convictions before concluding, “You should know who Obama’s friends are”.

Grover Norquist, the influential conservative tax lobbyist, said there were more well funded attack advertisements on the way. “Obama comes from the most corrupt political machine in the United States,” Norquist said. “The McCain campaign should be saying, ‘Let’s take the guy’s head off. He is a crook’.”

Norquist believes McCain will eventually side with those advocating more negative attacks. “At the end of the day he’ll say, ‘Guys, I want to be president. One thing I believe about John McCain is that he really, really, really wants to be president.”

The resurrection of Palin, 44, in her first and only vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden, her Democratic opponent, has lifted spirits inside the McCain campaign. Advice to “let Palin be Palin” has worked, they believe. Insiders say she is no longer as “tightly wound” as she was when conducting disastrous television interviews with Katie Couric, the CBS newscaster.

I dunno. I think the whole thing is weak sauce. Weak sauce in a way that looks worse than it is and is just going to turn people off. “Ooh look at these horrible attack ads he’s running when the NYT and CNN have proved they weren’t even close!”