Obama slams McCain for smear tactics
Posted by Rick on October 5, 2008
Damn straight. McCain can’t win an election on ideas, so he has to resort to fear and lies. He can’t talk about the economy, which he knows nothing about, so he claims foreign policy as his strength. Then when it becomes clear that his judgment on foreign policy is inferior to Obama’s, he does the only thing he can do… change the subject.
Here’s a news flash, Senator McCain, “swiftboat” tactics won’t work this time around. The days of our nation being hijacked by neo-cons are nearly at an end.
UPDATE: Here’s some light on what is going on inside the McCain campaign. When one of their top advisors was asked about the decision to move into nehative campaigning, the response was, “”It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice. If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.” Gee, you think?
Obama accuses McCain of looking for distractions
“Sen. McCain and his operatives are gambling that they can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They’d rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up,” Obama said at an event in Asheville, North Carolina.
“That’s what you do when you’re out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time,” he said.
Full story here…
This entry was posted on October 5, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, John McCain, smear tactics. Tagged: Barack Obama, John McCain, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 5, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I just watched a Fox News segment, presented by Sean Hannity, that portrayed Sen. Obama as an extreme radical. I am so disturbed by Fox News’ attacks on this man. Frankly, I find Fox News to be a disturbing and troubling component of news converage, especially Sean Hannity. I trust CNN and I want to know it these allegations are founded. I would like to know if the Truth Squad could investigate these allegations by Sean Hannity and clarify these allegations. I am an Obama supporter but I am also intrested in the truth.
Thank you.
October 5, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Estella,
Obama’s own site puts up responses to some of the worst slander. In addition, I would recommend factcheck.org. That site does a very good job of looking at the attacks from both sides. As a rule, it tends to be very objective.
Thanks!
October 6, 2008 at 9:09 am
Here is the fact check, courtesy of CNN:
The Statement: Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin said Saturday, October 4, that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is “someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
Watch: Is Obama a terrorist’s pal?
Get the facts!
The Facts: In making the charge at a fund-raising event in Englewood, Colorado, and a rally in Carson, California, Palin was referring at least in part to William Ayers, a 1960s radical. In both appearances, Palin cited a front-page article in Saturday’s New York Times detailing the working relationship between Obama and Ayers.
In the 1960s, Ayers was a founding member of the radical Weather Underground group that carried out a string of bombings of federal buildings, including the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol, in protest against the Vietnam War. The now-defunct group was labeled a “domestic terrorist group” by the FBI, and Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn — also a Weather Underground member — spent 10 years as fugitives in the 1970s. Federal charges against them were dropped due to FBI misconduct in gathering evidence against them, and they resurfaced in 1980. Both Ayers and Dohrn ultimately became university professors in Chicago, with Ayers, 63, now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Obama’s Chicago home is in the same neighborhood where Ayers and Dohrn live. Beginning in 1995, Ayers and Obama worked with the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge on a huge school improvement project. The Annenberg Challenge was for cities to compete for $50 million grants to improve public education. Ayers fought to bring the grant to Chicago, and Obama was recruited onto the board. Also from 1999 through 2001 both were board members on the Woods Fund, a charitable foundation that gave money to various causes, including the Trinity United Church that Obama attended and Northwestern University Law Schools’ Children and Family Justice Center, where Dohrn worked.
CNN’s review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN that after meeting Obama through the Annenberg project, Ayers hosted a campaign event for him that same year when then-Illinois state Sen. Alice Palmer, who planned to run for Congress, introduced the young community organizer as her chosen successor. LaBolt also said the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the U.S. Senate in 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they encountered each other on the street in their Hyde Park neighborhood.
The extent of Obama’s relationship with Ayers came up during the Democratic presidential primaries earlier this year, and Obama explained it by saying, “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood … the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago — when I was 8 years old — somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense.”
The McCain campaign did not respond Saturday to a request for elaboration on Palin’s use of the plural “terrorists.”
Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now “palling around,” or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.