McCain's campaign shifts to full desperation mode

Ivo, what do you think about that?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C_14oSfJUhs

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Obama-Biden Campaign
DA: October 6, 2008
RE: Will the McCain Camp be Challenged on their Lies?

Since the McCain campaign announced they would be launching personal attacks on Senator Obama as part of their "turn the page" on the economy strategy, McCain surrogates have taken to the campaign trail and the airwaves and brazenly lied about the alleged connection between Obama and Bill Ayers.
What they won't tell you is that after a thorough and exhaustive investigation the very story they cite as raising questions definitely concluded that Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close." This finding mirrors the findings of a number of other independent investigations, which found that the relationship alleged is "tenuous," "absurd," and lacking "evidence."

Notwithstanding the facts, we fully expect an increasingly frustrated and desperate McCain campaign to continue to lie in attacking Senator Obama.

However, the question remains -- will McCain and his allies be challenged by the press on their lies or will they be allowed to propagate them with impunity. Please find, below, a list of the most common lies the McCain campaign tells about Ayers and the actual facts that prove them false.

LIE: Obama and Ayers 'palled around' and have a meaningful relationship.
FACT: Multiple independent fact checkers and investigative reporters have concluded that the link between Obama and Ayers is "tenuous" and that there is "no evidence of any relationship."

--AP: Palin Claim unsubstantiated, Obama was a child at the time of bombs and he has denounced Ayers radicalism. "[T]hough she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated... Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers' radical views and actions." [10/5/08]

--CNN Fact Check: Obama and Ayers Are Not "Palling Around." "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." [10/5/08]

--MNSBC: "Obama was never 'palling around' with Ayers." "But as the New York Times reported today, Obama was never "palling around" with Ayers. "A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But 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.'" [10/4/08]

--Washington Post: Obama-Ayers Link "Is A Tenuous One." The Washington Post reported in a fact check that "the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one." [Washington Post, 2/18/08]

--Time: Making An Issue Of Obama's Relationship With Ayers And Dohrn Is "Absurd." "Those have been the options in the debate. But the truth is a third option: Ayers and Dohrn are despicable, and yet making an issue of Obama's relationship with them is absurd." [Time, 5/29/08]

--Chicago Sun Times: Obama's Connection To Ayers Is A "Phony Flap". The Chicago Sun-Times wrote in an editorial, "But Ayers, it is also true to say, has since followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform. His 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, has been praised for exposing how Cook County's juvenile justice system all but eliminates a child's chance for redemption. Is Barack Obama consorting with a radical? Hardly. Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good. And while, yes, Obama is friendly with Ayers, it appears to be only in the way of two community activists whose circles overlap. Obama's middle name is Hussein. That doesn't make him an Islamic terrorist. He stopped wearing a flag pin. That doesn't make him unpatriotic. And he's friendly with UIC Professor William Ayers. That doesn't make him a bomb thrower. Time to move on to Phony Flap 6,537,204." [Chicago Sun-Times, 3/3/08]

--Noam Scheiber Of TNR: "I Don't See Evidence Of Any Relationship" Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, "Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don't see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama's state senate campaigns. (Obama also once praised something Ayers had written about the juvenile justice system.) I'm not saying they couldn't have been casual friends; just that there isn't much evidence for that at this point." [The New Republic, 2/22/08]

--George Packer: The Obama-Ayers "Media Flap Is An Absurd And Opportunistic Piece Of Guilt By Association" That "Deserves To Die A Swift And Ignominious Death." "Now George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton, and a legion of Republican strategists are tying Bill to Obama because they sat on the board of a foundation together. What if they did? And what if they're friendly neighbors in Hyde Park? Bill and Bernardine are also friends with an old friend of mine who has a sterling reputation as a juvenile-court judge. Does that prove anything, other than that they've had successful careers in education and law, respectively? This latest media flap is an absurd and opportunistic piece of guilt by association. Unlike Obama's membership for many years in the church of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, or his comments last week in San Francisco, it raises no questions about his beliefs, only about our trivial political culture. It deserves to die a swift and ignominious death." [New Yorker, 4/18/08]

LIE: The New York Times story cited by the McCain campaign finds evidence of a relationship between Obama and Ayers.

FACT: The Very Story Cited By McCain Finds That a Review Of Records And Interviews Shows That Obama And Ayers "Do Not Appear To Have Been Close" And Obama Has Never Expressed Sympathy For The Radical Views Or Actions Of Ayers. "A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But 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." [New York Times, 10/3/08]

LIE: Senator Obama's political career was launched at a fundraiser hosted by Ayers.

FACT: Barack Obama had served Chicago as a community organizer who helped to restore opportunity to a community devastated by a steel plant closing. After serving as the editor of the Harvard Law Review, he returned to Chicago to run a city-wide voter registration effort in 1992 that helped to deliver Illinois for Clinton-Gore. As the New York Times confirmed, previous coffees had been hosted for Obama's State Senate campaign. State Senator Alice Palmer, Obama's predecessor, introduced some of her longtime supporters to Obama at Ayers home. That's it. It wasn't even a fundraiser. [10/3/08]

LIE: The Annenberg Challenge was a radical organization that promoted a liberal agenda in schools.

FACT: The Annenberg Challenge was funded by Republican Walter Annenberg, an ambassador during the Nixon administration and friend of President Reagan's. Illinois Republican Governor Jim Edgar and the conservative Tribune Foundation both wrote to Annenberg requesting funds for a foundation to help Chicago schools. Republican Governor Jim Edgar and Mayor Richard Daley announced the formation of the Annenberg Challenge in a joint event, and their administrations' continued to work closely with the Challenge throughout its existence. Reading and math scores for underperforming students improved during the course of the Challenge, and as a result of the Challenge there are now hundreds more board certified teachers in Chicago Public Schools. [10/3/08]

LIE: Bill Ayers recruited Obama to the Annenberg Challenge board.

FACT: Obama met Ayers at a meeting of the Challenge Board. Deborah Leff, with whom Obama served on another board, recommended that Obama join the Annenberg Challenge. He was recruited over a dinner with board member Pat Graham. The bipartisan founding board, which included Republican Arnold Weber, elected Obama Chair. [10/3/08]

LIE: Ayers has not been accepted by any community outside of Chicago.

FACT: Ayers is known in other communities like Columbia, SC. He is currently a distinguished scholar at the University of South Carolina where Republican Governor Mark Sanford, who supported Senator McCain's campaign as far back as the 2000 primaries, serves as an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees. By Governor Palin's standards, that means Governor Sanford shares Ayers' views.

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/10/obama_camp_challenging_mccain.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52wiKPmGbb0&feature=related

Everybody has past associations, however obscure, that could be twisted this way. I'm not sure that, in the middle of a banking/real estate melt down and bailout, McCain should have risked exposing his associations with Keating and the savings & loans debacle/bailout or that Pale-in-comparison should risk attacking Obama's pastor when there is video tape of her being "exorcised" at her church. Is this really what the public cares about?

Ivo, I can't believe you mentioned the Hitler association! It's only a matter of time now before it's all over Faux News.

http://brianford.newsvine.com/_news/2008/10/05/1956438-obama-palin-around-with-ayers-or-palin-around-with-the-truth

http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/971106/justice.shtml

Today's Doonesbury makes a salient point in its typically humorous fashion:

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20081006

I've said it before and I'll say it till it happens: put W on Mount Rushmore, because without him we never would be electing a young black liberal lawyer to the Presidency.

given the opportunity to prove me wrong and actually make a positive argument FOR John McCain, all kcgrh does is retreat to negative mudslinging.

I think we Americans have by and large had enough of this sort of unproductive politics, and are ready to turn the page to folks like Obama who are unafraid to address economic and other issues head on.

Not when beating up on a right-wing goof, such as yourself, for instance. This election you little dickenses have gotten particularly obnoxious about having the stuffing kicked out of you here with actual documentation demonstrating just how badly Rushie and The Savage have misled you, then coming back two weeks later and repeating the same lie. Makes my arm tired.

In any case, it ain't working. Who amongst ye was the one trumpeting Rasmussen as the greatest pollster in the land, despite their anti-Obama Flash ads on the home page? Been there lately, KCGrunt?

you libs just can't have a conversation without using the word lie, can you...

Must be a genetic defect......

this is the best you can do? You can't articulate a positive vision for why John McCain offers the best leadership for this country, so you resort to baseless attacks and lies?

That's just pathetic.

The only thing you libs know to do is to scream lie when the facts show otherwise...

Keep being the messiah's water boy..... for you challenged libs, note the lower case on messiah, since he is a phony one...

It's working, KCGrunt! It's working! You've actually convinced two guys in Idaho that Obama's a Muslim mole!

Get used to it, sweetlips: "President Obama"

As The Thin One does.....

is running for president now. That's John McCain.

"Truth is discoverable punky: There were 4 dems and one repub in the "Keating 5"."

Obviously a charter member of the Obama Truth Squad: doesn't like what someone says so runs to the "administrator" to try and change the rules....then....if that doesn't work lets throw some slimy 20 year old dirt on the opponent.

Truth is discoverable punky: There were 4 dems and one repub in the "Keating 5". The independent prosecutor (Google Bob Bennett) was a democrat. Bennett found Mccain's inclusion in the investigation to be "totally without merit"....

Try smoking that in your Truth Squad pipe. Though you likely find it painful the rules of the blog still allow for open dialogue and discourse......at least they do until the fascists that drive your life take control and decree otherwise ......Dude....indeed

I guess Sarah was out chasing witches when they had the Bible lessons on forgiveness. I recall something from the Gospel about Jesus telling His followers that there is more joy in heaven over a repented sinner than...

The sixties are over. William Ayers has grown up and gone from a bomb-throwing radical, to become a teacher and a respected and respectable community.

Sarah is like the stay at home son who complains about his father's generosity to his prodigal brother.

Mr. Ayers evolution is a reassuring example of the strength of the American political system and our ability to put past differences behind us and to work together for our shared future.

I would like to see my grandchildren live in a world which is not blighted by mindless arguing and conflict over inessential issues. There are plenty of real differences yet to be resolved.

Sarah ought to take a moment to review the Beatitudes- there is a lot there about peace-makers and meekness. Nothing about standing tall and fighting.

As The Thin One does......

During the savings and loan crisis of the late 80s and early 90s, McCain's political favor and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan. Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion.

Sound familiar?

In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee. The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.

McCain -- More of the Same.

do you dispute The Thin One kicked off his IL campaingn in William Terrorist Ayres' home, or is this lying to your mind?????

Liberals always resort to the word "lying" or "racist" when they have a hard time refuting FACTS.....

the guy served on the board of a nonprofit which gave out grants for improving children's educational opportunities. Ayers happened to also serve on that board. That's it.

This lying by kcgrh and others is absolutely un-American.

The Thin One, as in no experience to be President, held his kickoff for the IL legislature in Terrorist Ayres home, and worked with this terrorist on at least 1 group. Don't forget, Ayres on 9/11/2001 said he was sorry that his terrorist group did not do more.

I guess this doesn't qualify, to Mr. Ivanov, or the liberals here, as being a good indicator of The Thin One's character. To me, it speaks volumes....

The Thin One, closet racist, not ready to lead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEQz5dltmI

William-I bombed the Pentagon-Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah-GD America-Wright, "Real Estate Tony', A-We make voter fraud a science-CORN, etc. etc.

I'll just be out here "clinging to my guns and religion" and voting for the next President, John McCain.

Swift boats is a-comin'
Barack's in their sight
Swift boats is a-comin'
There's lying tonight

....that everyone got their orders over the weekend. All these new commenters just so "outraged" over this whole issue. Hmmmmm, seems like an organized effort by the followers. Trash the messenger. Classy. Again.

All we need to someone to say it was racist to tie Obama to Ayers....wait, the AP did. Seems like old times.

Do the hypocrites at the McCain/Palin think tank look around at what established media say about their candidate? Rolling Stone just published a lengthy story about McCain that includes at look at his pre-Hanoi Hilton naval career. Never mind that skepticism exists that his imprisonment should be deemed heroic, but his behavior during the Forrestal catastrophe was despicable. On top of that, evidence exists that his father-in-law behaved like a thug while building his business empire and that McCain collaborated with the Pentagon to stop inquiries into the fate of some five hundred POW's who were not released at the end of the Vietnam War.
Senator McCain's campaign should observe the old maxim about living in a glass house and throwing stones.

It's always good to know you've brought some joy into someone's life.

Think about it though. Our woman is good looking, likes men. Is bright and independent and has good values.

Your crone shares her "husband's" fondness for women, got where she is by marrying a hustler and riding his coat tails, is mean, vindictive and nasty and like most leftists has no values. Oh and her ass looks like the twin water towers of Minneapolis/St Paul and her legs could be used for umbrella stands.

never ceases to amuse.

McCain has wrapped himself in a veil of lies. The McCain of 2000 that many admired is deceased and reborn is the McCain of 2008 who is a puppet of the Rove team of dirty politics. They picked Palin for him and made a mockery of this election. McCain is struggling to appear on the side of the people. His record demonstrates that he is not. He supports permanent tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, tax cuts for major corporations even when they ship jobs overseas, and further tax payer support of Big Oil in a era of record oil profits. His latter-day populism is as cynical as his choice of Sarah Palin who can't see Wall St. from Alaska. McCain is running hard from his 26 year legislative legacy, his anti-oversight financial guru, Phil Gramm and from his total acceptance of Bushonomics over the past eight years. His message changes daily. How can anyone have confidence in his ad hoc policies? The vast majority of criticism of Obama is mindless hate speech. These are the people from whom McCain draws his most fervent support. Doesn't that say it all?

I think she'll be the first female president of the US. Down with the communists.

This is appalling. You know better. An acquaintance does not equal a pal. Don't you have the guts to edit the script that is handed to you? I am so disappointed in you.

Why is Obama hiding his Harvard and other college information? Why is he denying the Ayers connection when they have both benefited each other financially? Why hasn't Obama clarified that his community organizer activity was when he was employed by corrupt ACORN? Why would Obama, in light of his radical friends, turn his back on the Clintons? Maybe the Clintons wouldn't have gone along with his radical friends. Obama is hiding his true self from the American people. We deserve to have answers to what he's really about. He could very well be an Ayers puppet.

Arnold R. Weber is A Chicago Annenberg Board Member. He was an Assistant Secretary of Labor and Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Nixon. Weber, former president of the Commercial Club of Chicago’s Civic Committee, is a longtime Republican donor. Weber has admitted to being a member of the **Chicago Annnenberg Challenge Board** founded by KNOWN "TERRORIST" BILL AYERS!!!

Sarah "Pitbull" Palin was doing "guilt by association". This is a two way street. McCain accepted tainted campaign contributions from Arnold R. Weber, an associate of Bill Ayers.

Weber has given $1,500 to the McCain Campaign in 2008! It's true! In 2008, Arnold Weber made two separate donations of $1,000 and $500 to McCain’s presidential campaign. I call now for Senator McCain to renounce this man and to reject these donations. McCain needs to either return them or give them to a charity. There are educational charities in Chicago that might be appropriate.

The "liberal media" isn't investigating why JOHN MCCAIN ACCEPTED TAINTED CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS from this "TERRORIST" associate. This guy doesn't even deny he associates with a known terrorist (...mainly because he hasn't been asked...).

McCain should ask someone at the Annenberg foundation for some suggestions. They are well a well regarded nonpartisan non-profit organization. Hell, they even support FactCheck.org.

It turns out that these types of "facts" are simply baseless attacks with no merit. They are meant to distract the gullible voters. You don't hear about them because most people want to talk about real issues affecting real lives and not play "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon".

For example, it turns out that you can trace Obama's family tree to both George W. Bush (10th cousins once removed) and Dick Cheney (eighth cousins). This is yet another useless fact for games of Trivial Pursuit, but not worthy of any time in this election. Guilt by association is an attack on informed voters and on the democratic process itself.

However... Now RICK DAVIS is worth talking about. Why? Check this out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Davis_%28politics%29

Here is a guy that made MILLIONS as a Washington lobbyist. This guy is a caricature of the very thing that John McCain claims over and over again that he "hates". EARMARKS ANYONE? Rick Davis PRACTICALLY INVENTED EARMARKS. He launched his lobbying career straight from a Reagan White House job! Now he is running the McCain Campaign. How can we believe John McCain is against wasteful government spending after learning about his campaign manager?