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Shallow Nation

October 4th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

Video & Photos: Sarah Palin Says Barack Obama “Palling Around” with Terrorists 10-4-08

Sarah Palin at a rally in Carson, California, October 4, 2008

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has accused Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists who targeted their own country.” Palin was reacting to a story published in the New York Times on October 4, 2008, regarding Obama’s association with Bill Ayers who was once a part of the Vietnam era 1960s anti-war group The Weather Underground.

Palin’s attack delivered on the McCain campaign’s announcement that it would step up attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate with just a month left before the November general election.

“We see America as the greatest force for good in this world,” Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, “Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Sarah Palin at a rally in Carson, California, October 4, 2008

Palin made similar comments later at a rally in Carson, California.

Obama’s Chicago, Illinois, home is in the same neighborhood as Bill Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in the early 1970s, including the Pentagon and the Capitol, and the two have met several times since Obama’s 1995 campaign for a state Senate seat.

Palin cited an article in Saturday’s New York Times about Obama’s relationship with Ayers, now 63. But that article concluded that “the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called ’somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.’ ”

Several other publications, including the Washington Post, Time magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The New Republic, have debunked the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship.

Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan called Palin’s comments “offensive” and “not surprising given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift Boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills.”

Sarah Palin at a rally in Carson, California, October 4, 2008

With Obama rising in polls while the country struggles in the grip of a financial crisis, Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign decided to shift attention away from the troubled economy and onto issues of his opponent’s character, judgment and personal associations, the Washington Post reported.

Source: Palin hits Obama for ‘terrorist’ connection

Here is video of Sarah Palin’s remarks about Barack Obama “palling around” with terrorists.

Here is a CBS Report on the McCain-Palin campaign’s new aggressive strategy, as characterized by Palin’s remarks.

Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, fired back almost immediately in a statement: “Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swiftboat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills. In fact, the very newspaper story Governor Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Senator Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less ‘pals,’ and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was eight. What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.”

Source: Palin: Obama Is ‘Palling Around With Terrorists’

Bill Ayers in 2006

Bill Ayers in 2006 Photo source: Copenhaver Institute

Although the New York Times article has been characterized as a whitewash, it seems fair to acknowledge that Bill Ayers, in later years, has reformed from his 1960s radicalism that led to violent acts. From Scott Shane’s October 4, 2008 New York Times article on Bill Ayers:

In the stark presentation of a 30-second advertisement or a television clip, Mr. Obama’s connections with a man who once bombed buildings and who is unapologetic about it may seem puzzling. But in Chicago, Mr. Ayers has largely been rehabilitated.

Federal riot and bombing conspiracy charges against him were dropped in 1974 because of illegal wiretaps and other prosecutorial misconduct, and he was welcomed back after years in hiding by his large and prominent family. His father, Thomas G. Ayers, had served as chief executive of Commonwealth Edison, the local power company.

Since earning a doctorate in education at Columbia in 1987, Mr. Ayers has been a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the author or editor of 15 books, and an advocate of school reform.

“He’s done a lot of good in this city and nationally,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said in an interview this week, explaining that he has long consulted Mr. Ayers on school issues. Mr. Daley, whose father was Chicago’s mayor during the street violence accompanying the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the so-called Days of Rage the following year, said he saw the bombings of that time in the context of a polarized and turbulent era.

“This is 2008,” Mr. Daley said. “People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life.”

Source: Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths

Sarah Palin Photos: Photo credit: AP