Posted on 10/12/2008 1:55:00 PM PDT by pissant
The Republican Party on Monday morning will make a new push to convince voters that distant ties between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former radical William Ayers are somehow disqualifying for the presidency.
The Republican National Committee plans to e-mail “an audience of tens of millions” the link to a new video on the subject called “Guilt by Participation” and encourage recipients to forward it to friends and family, aides said.
“Barack Obama has no problem with forming relationships when politically convenient,” says the menacing narration, accompanied by brooding music.
The title comes from a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by conservative scholar Stanley Kurtz, who wrote on Sept. 23: “The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming 'guilt by association.' Yet the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation.”
The 80-second video ends with a new slogan, a variation of one Republicans have used in the past: “Barack Obama: Career First. Country Second.” The slogan is likely to be used again, officials say. The video flashes garish lettering like “WANTED BY FBI” and “DON’T REGRET SETTING BOMBS.”
The Obama campaign on Sunday released a roundup of media quotes headed “McCain's Strategy of Distracting From the Economy ... How's It Playing With Republicans?”: “In case you missed them, below are stories across the country voters are reading and hearing about McCain’s closing strategy, even conservative pundits, Republican officials and Republican voters are rejecting it."
Among those quoted was Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who said on “Fox News Sunday”: “[T]he main thing to say about these negative ads, which, I don’t think — almost none of them has been across the line — they haven't worked. Obama's favorable rating is as high as it's been in three months. It's actually gone up in the last month. So it's a stupid campaign.”
Republican officials don’t claim that the Ayers issue is moving numbers for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). A Republican official replied that the reason for the continued push is: “Ayers has been effective from the standpoint that it helps further doubts that already exist about Obama's judgment and how much we really know about him.”
The video begins: “Barack Obama. He launched his political career in the home of William Ayers, a 1970s domestic terrorist, a founder of the Weather Underground in the ‘60s.”
The Obama campaign released an ad Saturday saying he began his career at a Ramada Inn in Chicago, “not in anyone’s living room.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former Republican House leader Rob Portman of Ohio defended the attention to Ayers: “I saw yesterday there had been nine different explanations about his relationship with Bill Ayers and when he met him and who he thought he was, and so on. And so that's the issue, is his judgment and his truthfulness.”
During a discussion about Ayers on “Fox News Sunday,” Obama chief strategist David Axelrod said to McCain campaign manager Rick Davis: “[E]very single charge that you've thrown out has been debunked by FactCheck.org.”
You are both wrong and right. You are wrong because we need to let people know that Obama is a radical. His associations are relevant and his negatives are going up as the attacks commence and we are seeing a tightening in the polls because that. Nothing McCain did in the last debate helped him but the attacks have and we see the results. I do agree we need to focus on free market economic solutions and talk about Fannie and Freddie. It isn’t like we can’t chew gum and skip rope. This needs to be a full frontal attack on everything Obama. He is a liberal and a radical who associates with radicals. The message must become simple in the minds of voters, Obama is too dangerous to be President because of both the economy and his radical liberal ties.
HAMMER HIM 24/7.
We have the cash to do it! McCain has 160 million, PAC 200 million (I’ve heard) and NRA will spend 40 million to defeat the Muslim.
Unleash the hounds of hell on this Muslim!
Unfortunately, just enough to elect an America-hating Marxist the next president.
I pray for our country, and work my butt off trying to keep the Zer0bama out of the White House.
Mike Allen also broke the phony story that Fred Thompson was going to drop out in Iowa at the last minute. McCain needs to stay on attack till election day. Ayers shouldn’t be the only thing and it hasn’t he has attacked them on the economy and he has talked up his policy. So people who can’t seem to keep track of more than one thing at a time ought to say out of it.
The message that needs to be the overriding theme is that Obama is too dangerous to be President. Obama supporters are going nuts. The comments by Lewis are racist and are going to help McCain again. McCain/Palin are coming back. Look at the polls on a state by state basis, look at how things are closing up.
Mike Allen is a little wise ass too. I email him often and he fires back pretty regularly with pithy replies.
Recently, I asked him if he thought McCain would be a viable candidate if he attended a KKK church run by David Duke and launched his political career at Timothy McVeigh’s home?
Have not heard from his since.
It’s getting out. I ran into 2 people who had not heard of Ayers until they saw the CNN Anderson Cooper report— amazing!
Mention this still, but front burner DEMS TO BLAME FOR ECONOMIC MESS and ACORN. Time to turn up that heat.
The truth hurts.
I WISH THEY WOULD THROW IN ..... AYERS, TIMOTHY MCVEIGH, TWO OF A KIND.
Unfortunately, most of the people voting today, don't know who the hell Williams Ayers is. Nor do they care. Nor will you make them care in the 20 days before the election. Because no matter what you do or say about Bill Ayers, it will not give that old lady beck the 90% of her Wachovia stock that she lost. She knows about Bill Ayers, but unless Bill Ayers Blows up the capitol tomorrow, that still won't put money back into her retirement fund.
There are bigger and better issue on which we can win. The Bill Ayers issue requires too much of a learning curve for most voters. Ultimately, most people vote their wallets. Put the emphasis there.
When I ask people about Ayers, the younger voters don't know and don't care, and the older voters know and don't care.
You are wrong because we need to let people know that Obama is a radical. The problem here is that McCain is supposed to be a Maverick. so what's the difference between being a maverick and a radical? Don't tell me; I'll tell you. To the Average voter, little or nothing.
Remember that I agree with you on Obama 100%, but we cannot nor will not win on that issue. If Bill Ayers goes to jail tomorrow, and is executed the next day, it will not sway votes, not at this stage in the game.
That's rich! They've gone from saying that Obama didn't know about Ayres to this?
That living room launched happened and McCain/Palin should continue to hammer it home. Obama got started with Ayres and Obama stayed with Ayres for years.
Now, McCain/Palin can show Obama is covering up his coverups.
God above, I just thought I hated Clinton.
Shame. And shame on the SnotPress for covering it up.
ACORN....Definitely.
Great clip...
If McCai and company wants to win the White House, they better purchase primetime slots on both cable and public stations and running this between now and election...
I agree that both issues, radical Obama allies and our current economic meltdown, need to be addressed by McCain. They are of equal importance and as Maelstorm suggests, we must throw everything in our arsenal at Obama. I would like to see the McCain campaign spell out details of the Obama plan to give back taxes to those who have not paid any. My understanding is that this would not be a one time gift, but a yearly bonus. Also, the FICA taxes will be reduced for wage earners by transferring a percentage of their current contribution to their employers who will then be burdened with higher employment costs. Small businesses will find this burden significant and job loses will follow. Socialism keeps whittling away at productive labor and everybody loses.
Here is a line for the debate:
"What Obama has been raised on is a Minestrone of Malcontents, Ayers, Wright, ACORN, and now Farrakan." It was a soup not only full of beans but full on nuts."
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