Obama Responds To GOP's Bill Ayers Smears

Not only does Obama smash this ridiculous smear perpetrated by the McCain campaign, he throws it right back in McCain's face by telling people why they are hearing about Ayers in the first place. The truth is, McCain does not want to talk about the real concerns of Americans because his ideas have failed long ago. People want change, not the hateful trash that McCain thinks will get him elected.

Tucker Bounds Shows His Guilt By Association Skills

Andrea Mitchell had McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds on the show yesterday to talk about the ridiculous attempt to connect Bill Ayers to Barack Obama. Andrea Mitchell called him out for the absurd notion that Obama is friends with a terrorist but Bounds went through his talking points without even wincing at all the lies he spewed.



They really should be careful with that game though, since guilt by association can be a real problem for both terrorist-lovers John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Even Republicans Know The Truth About Ayers

No matter how blue Illinois and Chicago are, plenty of Republicans and Independents live there. Out of those groups, a few know Bill Ayers and are aware of his past. Though get this, they know that terrorism innuendos (or outright charges of being a pal of terrorists) John McCain and Sarah Palin are peddling is complete crap. The McPalin campaign is grasping at straws to get back in the game and now even this previously debunked story can be beaten over the head with a 2x4 again.

From NPR:

The Obama campaign says he first met Ayers in 1995, when Obama became chair of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million fund that awarded grants to groups trying to implement new programs to improve inner city education in Chicago.

Walter Annenberg, a lifelong Republican and former ambassador who was appointed by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, funded an ambitious program to reform urban education in many cities in the mid 1990s. Ayers was an important member of the group that developed and wrote the grant proposal to the Annenberg Foundation.[...]

"I don't remember ever hearing anyone raise concerns or questions or concerns about [Ayers'] background," says Anne Hallett, who has worked closely with Ayers on the Annenberg Challenge grant and with Obama on education and other community and legislative matters. "And that included everybody I was engaged with," including prominent Republicans, and corporate and civic leaders in Chicago, Hallett adds.[...]

Hallett calls this attack on Obama's association with Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge by further association, "a smear campaign. It's a political diatribe that has no basis in fact. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was an extremely positive initiative. It was well-vetted, thorough, and the fact that it is now is being used for political purposes is, in my opinion, outrageous."[...]

"It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier," said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. "It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

It is beyond silly, the attacks are ridiculous and as we've seen with Palin and McCain, it has brought out the worst in people. Neither Republican can either talk or win on the issues, so character assassainations is the name of their game. I expect as much tonight when McCain goes head to head with Obama at their second debate. McCain is running from the topics that matter to people but that doesn't mean he should expect them to buy the fear card he's selling.

An Incredible First Night In Denver...And Tragedy Averted

If you were one of the millions that watched tonight's speeches (or at least just Ted Kennedy's moving 10 minutes and Michelle Obama's passionate oration) then you know we all saw something incredible in the making. While the media has been trying to frame the convention as an overtly negative, internally divisive event, the reality of what is going on in Denver is anything but. Tonight I heard hope and American stories from Senator McCaskill, a heart-warming few minutes from the man who hired Barack as a community organizer 23 years ago and the cutest thing of all, the Obama kids up on stage talking to their daddy via satellite for all to see.

On stage and throughout the convention, there is the hope for a new day in American politics. Obama speaks to issues while mercilessly defending his character from the uncalled for dirty tricks that McCain applies to this election in order to win through the appeal to fear. Since McCain has nothing to offer our country but more of the same that Bush has given us, he has decided to play in the lowest cesspool of mud that is available in political discourse. Well, Barack Obama isn't going to stand for it and neither are we.

Yet not everyone feels the same way. Some Americans out on the fringe of society hear McCain's call to their fears and ignorant ideas. Tonight, thanks to the great work by Denver, Colorado and Federal authorities, a plot to kill Barack Obama was broken up. Four white supremacists were arrested with various instruments of death, but it was their meth that really gave them up. So their plot probably wouldn't have succeeded, but the fact that it existed is horrifying enough.

We must stop playing to the worst characteristics in our society and stick with the best. What I heard tonight at the convention pointed in the direction of the latter, but all I hear from the other side is nothing of what we need to live in a decent and just society.

Stephanopolous Took Notes For Debate From Hannity

Anyone watching last night's debacle on ABC might have wondered to themselves about the ridiculousness of the questions directed at Barack Obama. One of them even sounded like it came out of the mouth of the reviled Sean Hannity. When George Stephanopolous asked Senator Obama about his relationship with ex-Weather Underground member Bill Ayers I almost flipped out, but now we know that he was taking notes straight from right-wing scion Sean Hannity.

From ThinkProgress:

Hannity, who for months has been aggressively pushing a story about Barack Obama’s connections to a former member of a radical anti-Vietnam 1970s organization called the Weather Underground, interviewed Stephanopoulos on his radio show on Tuesday, where he pressed the ABC host to ask Obama about this:

HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying “I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough.” When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now.

Well he could have just been facetious when talking to Hannity, being an ex-Clinton staffer and all, right?

In the debate last night, Stephanopoulos asked a question that mirrored almost word-for-word what Hannity pressed him to ask:

STEPHANOPOULOS: A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”

An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?

I guess not. To Stephanopolous, Sean Hannity's trafe is relevant political discourse. That must be one thick bubble Mr. Stephanopolous lives in to honestly believe that, otherwise he was just performing a hit job on Barack Obama. You take your pick.