McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace expresses her deep concern over the guys in Obama's neighborhood

[Amerigo Vespucci]

McCain steps up character attack on Obama
AFP
Published: Thursday October 9, 2008

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/McCain_steps_up_character_attack_on_10092008.html

John McCain cranked up a searing character assault on Democrat Barack Obama Thursday, branding him "too risky" for the White House, as he raced to rescue his diving poll numbers.

McCain issued a hard-hitting negative commercial, slamming his rival's judgement and candor and accusing him of not telling the truth about the extent of his acquaintance with 1960s radical William Ayers.

The Obama camp said the ad was "desperate and dishonest" and an attempt to distract voters from the worsening economic crisis and the McCain campaign's darkening prospects in the November 4 election.

Obama, set to launch a two-day bus tour in Ohio, often a decisive swing-state, also hit back with an ad ridiculing McCain's plan to buy up 300 billion dollars in bad mortgages as a waste of taxpayer money.

McCain trails Obama by widening margins in battleground state polls, in national surveys and even on some reliable Republican turf, and time is fast running out for him to turn the race around.

His latest ad noted that Ayers was part of the activist Weather Underground group and his wife was on the FBI's Most Wanted list, and says Obama has disguised the full scope of their relationship.

"Americans say, 'where's the truth, Barack?' the ad says. "Barack Obama. Too risky for America."

Obama has repeatedly said he is not close to Ayers, an assertion backed up by independent fact checking organizations, but said he served on philanthropic boards with him and lives in the same Chicago neighborhood.

Senior Obama strategist Robert Gibbs Thursday blasted McCain's new ad as a "desperate and dishonest political attack."

"It's meant to cover up that John McCain has virtually no answers for the economic crisis," he said on ABC.

But McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace said the ad asked a deeper question about Obama's character.

"If we can't tell Barack Obama to tell the truth about the guys in his neighborhood, who also happen to be domestic terrorists ... how can we trust him to tell the truth about what he could do as president?"

McCain's relentlessly negative comes after the Republican camp said it wanted to turn the spotlight away from devastating economic news.

[Alter Ego]

1. Frame everything in terms of a panicking McCain who sees that his poll numbers

are dropping as the economic crisis worsens.

[Schulzz]

2. Why is McCain always hiding behind women?

:shrug:

[gauguin57]

4. Cuz he's looking at their asses?

I dunno.

[progressivebydesign]

3. Nicole Wallace is that thing that McCranky called his wife. n/t

[wndycty]

5. I take strong exception OBAMA is my neighbor has been since the mid '90's. . .

. . .she can kiss my ass.

[ErinBerin84]

6. Nicole Wallace is an idiot.

In the current Newsweek, the Palin article includes that when Nicole Wallace and McCain staffer Matthew SCully met Sarah Palin for the first time (the morning of the VP announcement), they had no idea who she was....just that she "looks familiar". Uh, I'm a random citizen and Democrat, and I could have recognized her.

[niyad]

7. so now everyone who lives in his neighborhood is a terrorist (my apologies to our DU member

downthread)??

this is getting more pathetic by the day, and I am also sick of the widespread and casual use of the word "terrorist"

notice they don't use that word much about people killing abortion providers and bombing clinics, or sending hundreds of anthrax letters to planned parenthood. THOSE are domestic terrorists.

[wndycty]

8. Well I am a DUer so I probably am considered a terrorist by that standard. . .

. . .and note he is a neighbor who offered a friendly wave when ever folks saw him in the neighborhood, not a friend so there is no need to feature me in an attack ad.

[OKNancy]

9. Why do they keep saying this:

"Obama has disguised the full scope of their relationship."

I don't get it. He has said over and over what is relationship was.
So, do they have some information? Are they calling Obama a liar?
If so, why don't they just spill it?

I think they are full of shit

[spanone]

11. they know the ignorant ones still think he's a muslim

[spanone]

10. he's the negative guy...

[Overseas]

12. Somehow Illinois is full of idiots who elected Obama to state and national office.

And Chicago is a city of idiots too because they elected Ayers Citizen of the Year in 1997.

And McLame donor Lenore Annenberg must be a jerk too because she set up the program Obama and Ayers were on the board for.

Everyone except the RNC is an idiot I guess.

[Citizen Jane]

13. Imagine what would happen if we examined McCain's neighborhoods

Odds are good there would be some even more unsavory characters.

Not a smart can of worms for the Rethugs to open, IMHO.

[yellowcanine]

14. "Americans say, 'where's the truth, Barack?" Says you Johnny, not Americans

[Supersedeas]

15. Meanwhile, the character assassin accomplices in the Media IGNORE the truth there for the checking

[City Lights]

16. McNasty has left the gutter and descended into the sewer.

He's headed for the sewage treatment plant.

[Vinca]

17. McCain must be dumb as a stump. His legacy is going to be

the man who ran the dirtiest campaign in American history and lost. He has no shred of decency left.