Posted on 11/01/2008 8:31:11 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Republicans try to use Oxford don to smear Barack Obama
The Republicans accuse Obama of 'palling around' with Ayers
Sarah Baxter in Washington
Leading article: Barack Obama is America's future
The Republicans have made a last-minute attempt to prevent Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House by trying to recruit an Oxford academic to “prove” that his autobiography was ghostwritten by a former terrorist.
With two days before the election, Obama is poised to become America’s first black president, according to polls showing he has an average six-point lead over John McCain, his Republican opponent.
Dr Peter Millican, a philosophy don at Hertford College, Oxford, has devised a computer software program that can detect when works are by the same author by comparing favourite words and phrases.
He was contacted last weekend and offered $10,000 (£6,200) to assess alleged similarities between Obama’s bestseller, Dreams from My Father, and Fugitive Days, a memoir by William Ayers.
Ayers, now a university professor in Chicago, co-founded the Weathermen, a radical 1960s underground group that bombed government buildings in Washington and New York. The Republicans accuse Obama of “palling around” with him.
The offer to Millican to prove that Ayers wrote Obama’s book was made by Robert Fox, a California businessman and brother-in-law of Chris Cannon, a Republican congressman from Utah. He hoped to corroborate a theory advanced by Jack Cashill, an American writer.
Fox and Cannon each suggested to The Sunday Times that the other had taken the initiative.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
On the other hand, this may be more than personal preference. All so-called "conservative" English dailies (The Times, Financial Times, and Telegraph) are favoring Obama. FT publicly endorsed him. What makes them go in full force toward Obama? His economic policy does not exactly fits their view on economy.
The only thing I can think of is that Obama is expected to do whatever bailout or nationalization to shore up tottering financial system. He is expected to go full stream with full power of state. As for McCain, he may be heading for the same direction, but his party has vocal opponents to such unapologetic use of state power. He cannot be counted on with 100% certainty in this regard. Economic conservatives or not, now that entire British financial system is facing ruin and Britain has nothing else than finance to make a living, these erstwhile free market champions are all signed up for full government bailout. That is the impression I got from reading three paper for a last month or so. Add usual disdain from Euro intellectuals on Republicans, and you get piece like this.
By the way, I don't see it as a smear. Barak had close association with Ayers, and it should be looked into. It is a serious problem.
she urges Americans to elect Obama.
She(or whoever wrote the headline) purposely expanded scoped the scope of the headline to “Republicans” instead of the guy from wnd who is behind the ayers wrote obama’s book stuff...
How would this be-otch feel if 0bama was palling around with someone who used to be an IRA bomber?
All she might say is, "Rubbish!" and move on.
Hey Tiger... why isn’t Jack’s piece “London Times Inquires About ‘Dreams’ Fraud” on FR yet?
Cashill is doing yoeman’s work to keep the Ayers question alive. Here’s another Ayers related shocker:
Did Obama’s Children Touch the Rings of Death? [Scalding FReeper Rant]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2122424/posts
[Every voter should know about the rings Ayers and Dohrn wear, about the inspiration of Obama’s logo, and
about the TWO radical couples who babysat Obama’s kids.]
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