Palin Accuses Obama of 'Palling Around With Terrorists'
Sarah Palin takes a swipe at Barack Obama for his ties to Bill Ayers, founder of a 1960s radical group.
FOXNews.com
Palin in St. Louis
Sarah Palin speaks at a rally at Saint Louis University after the vice presidential debate Thursday. (AP Photo)
Sarah Palin, using some of her strongest language to date to question the character of the Democratic presidential nominee, accused Barack Obama on Saturday of "palling around with terrorists."
Palin, speaking at a closed fundraiser in Colorado, was referencing Obama's ties to Bill Ayers, a founder of the 1960s radical group The Weather Underground. That relationship was examined in a front-page article in The New York Times on Saturday.
"This is not a man who sees America as you see America, and as I see America," Palin said. "Our opponent, though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect -- imperfect enough that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. Americans need to know this. ... I think, OK we gotta get the word out. This is in fairness to the electorate we gotta start telling people what the other side represents."
The Times article she mentioned concluded that Obama and Ayers did not appear to be close.
Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan released a statement in response accusing McCain's campaign of launching "Swiftboat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills."
He said the Times article made clear that Obama and Ayers were not close, "much less 'pals'."
Ayers' group took credit for bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol four decades ago.
Ayers now is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002, and he has denounced Ayers' past activities.
The McCain campaign has indicated it will step up its attacks on Obama's character and judgment in the final month of campaigning.
Palin, for instance, said on Friday that some of Obama's statements on America's foreign policy should disqualify him from being president.
"Some of his comments that he has made about the war that I think may -- in my world -- disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief," Palin told FOX News. "Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there, supposedly just air-raiding villages and killing civilians. That's reckless."
She was referring to Obama's remarks last summer about Afghanistan in which he said: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians which is causing enormous problems there."
Republicans lashed out at him at the time, though the Associated Press published a fact-check shortly afterward that showed, by their count at the time, Western forces had killed 286 civilians in the country, compared with 231 killed by militants in 2007.
The escalated effort to question Obama's character dovetails with TV ads by outside groups questioning Obama's ties to Ayers, convicted former Obama fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer followed up on both of Palin's remarks Saturday, citing Obama's Afghanistan comments and ties to Ayers in questioning his judgment.
"Apparently Senator Obama has no problem associating with someone like that, and somehow thinks that this unrepentant terrorist is rehabilitated," she told FOX News.
Click here to read the article on Ayers in The New York Times.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
