"Old" news about to re-break?

According to the New York Sun, the McCain campaign is gearing up to talk about Bill Ayers:

WASHINGTON -- The McCain campaign is gearing up to criticize Senator Obama for his past associations with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and a former Weather Underground operative, William Ayers, in the home stretch of the presidential race.

The McCain campaign, according to one aide, decided it would play the Wright and Ayers cards after Mr. Obama's campaign ran ads linking Senator McCain to a talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh. "Our position is we are no longer going to feel constrained to avoid his very real associations in contrast to the very fictional associations he has imputed to John McCain in this campaign," this aide said.

The Wall Street Journal on September 19 quoted one of Mr. McCain's top aides, Mark Salter, as saying the campaign was "tired of catching spears." He also said, "They played it one way, we played it another way. Now we're both going to play it the same way."

I don't think they really need Jeremiah Wright; after all, Wright only talked the talk. Ayers is the real thing.

Plus, Obama made no secret of his ties to Wright. Ayers is the real stealth scandal: a coverup within a coverup within a coverup. They are definitely hiding something.

Therefore, Team Obama would prefer that this all be about Jeremiah Wright. Naturally; that way, they can scream about how it's "old" news. And of course "racism":

Any decision to run ads that feature Mr. Obama's former spiritual adviser, Rev. Wright, is bound to attract jeers from the press. Already, Time magazine's Karen Tumulty has written that an ad featuring a former Fannie Mae chairman, Franklin Raines, was racist. Mr. Raines, like Mr. Obama, is an African American. An ad that pointed out Mr. Obama's longtime association with Rev. Wright, who emphatically hollered in one videotaped sermon: "God Damn America," will likely draw responses from Democrats claiming that Mr. McCain is appealing to the racial fears of Americans.
Ah, but hold on. There's more.

There's Ayers (although why he seems to be playing second fiddle to Wright, I'm not sure):

The McCain campaign's push will likely not be limited to Senator Obama's ex-pastor, whom the Chicago lawmaker criticized in the spring after having earlier said he would not disown him. Another association will be William Ayers, the former agent for the Weather Underground, a violent left wing group that exploded defense labs and other government buildings in the late 1960s and 1970s. Mr. Ayers, in an interview with the New York Times published on September 11, 2001, said he regretted not doing more when he was in the group. Senator Obama attended a fundraiser at the home of Mr. Ayers and also served on the board of the Woods Foundation with him in Chicago.

Mr. McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, on a conference call with reporters Monday said that Mr. Obama has not been as forthcoming as he should be about his relationship with Mr. Ayers. "What we know for sure and is beyond debate and argumentation is this: Senator Obama said that William Ayers is a guy he lives in his neighborhood. We know that that is a disingenuous and untruthful answer. ... There is a greater relationship than that of a guy who lives in my neighborhood between the two of them," he said.

Boy, is that the understatement of the campaign.

There's now a lot more than the fundraiser at the home of Mr. Ayers and their service together on the board of the Woods Foundation. Surely, the Sun reads the Wall Street Journal. By now, they must have heard that a young lawyer somehow landed the top job handing out millions of dollars to radicalize school children in the name of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

Again, here's Clarice Feldman:

How is it possible that Obama in writing two autobiographies could ignore his 13 year-long association with Ayers if he were not purposely trying to hide or downplay it? How is it possible that the media could continue to ignore the CAC story? How is it possible that American voters, who regularly indicate such enormous concern over educational issues, could be so long kept in the dark by the Fourth Estate about the educational project Obama ran into the ground while he aided his revolutionary pals in recruiting Chicago kids to their extreme left wing mission?
I realize that the story isn't being reported, but why is the Sun being cute and dangling tantalizing hints? (The left is freaking; I found the link at Raw Story.)

Unless the goal is delay, I can't --

Oh, now I get it.

Is that it? Are they all locked into the traditional "October surprise" routine?

I guess I should remind myself that in the blogosphere, October surprises are usually rehashes of August and September news....

Maybe I should be patient.

posted by Eric on 09.26.08 at 12:46 AM





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Comments

When will we hear that that "catching spears" comment was racist?

Dennis   ·  September 26, 2008 10:22 AM

October Surprise sounds about right. Let Obama coast along with his small lead, and then put him in a mad scramble free fall in the last weeks.

tim maguire   ·  September 26, 2008 01:35 PM

As an add, it's a little disorienting when you get your news from the blogs instead of the major media. I laughed when the media, professional journalists all, got blindsided by the out-of-nowhere Sarah Palin pick.

I'm not a particular news hound, I'm not nearly as political as I once was, but I've known about Palin as a potential VP for so long I can't even remember where or when I first heard about her.

tim maguire   ·  September 26, 2008 01:44 PM

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