Short of a terrorist attack, tonight's town hall-style debate may be John McCain's last chance to re-boot the presidential race.
It's supposed to be his best format, and it may well allow an audience member, rather than the candidate, to question Barack Obama about Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground or Rev. Wright of "goddam America!"
Obama, no doubt, has ready answers, but those are issues that provide ripe fruit for the 7 percent or so of undecided voters that McCain is praying will break right on election day. Those undecideds probably include many who are unsettled at turning the economy over to the GOP, not to mention health care, but still get queasy with the young black guy. (Wonder if Obama is wishing he'd spent a few years in ROTC. With that on his resume, this election would indeed be over now.)
If asked about Ayers, Obama is apparently going to say with a straight face that he didn't know who Ayers was when they met in 1995. Isn't Ayer's notoriety just the sort of thing neighborhoods gossip about, particularly to newcomers?
Nevertheless, the unscripted format poses dangers for McCain. It could allow his disdain for Obama to drip through, barely disguised as it was at the first debate. And it could elicit answers that provide the sort of video-tape item that can stamp "finished" on the campaign script. Consider this anecdote from the Wall Street Journal:
"At a summer event in Denver, a woman in a wheelchair asked Sen. McCain whether he would consider supporting the Community Choice Act that would give disabled people greater freedom on where to live.
'I will not,' Sen. McCain responded. 'Because I don't think it's the right kind of legislation.' A trio of people in wheelchairs left the room after his response.
In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has sharply curbed the number of such events."
McCain may have been right, but imagine TV's video jackpot.
Then there is this curious story from the Politico web site. Did you know McCain is taking weekends off? The story never mentions age, but it doesn't have to. Here's a guy fighting for the political brass ring, and he's not working 7/7?
If that remains the case, I'll predict we'll see more similar stories
Click here for Philly.com's politics page.
i guess Obama has an edge in the election on security issues since he actually knows real live terrorists and will therefore be able to personnally pick them out of a crowd before they blow up the Pentagon, police stations, and sometimes even themselves. Knowing bill Ayers and working with him on fondation boards, a political campaigns, and as a professor is a REAL asset. After all. Obama is just so lucky that Bill Ayers just walked up to him one day and said " you look like a nice young man who wants change. Here is $50,000,000 for you to spread around leftist and socialist activist groups to corrupt education."— dutchman- do you just make this stuff up dutchman?— snowbunny
- wow, dutchman! your command of republican soundbytes, hyberbole and your disregard for facts impresses me! now, go along, take your double digit IQ and scurry back to your cave. you wouldn't want to hurt yourself.— morvak
- 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.— morvak
- Obama and Ayers attended at least six meetings together over six years, Annenberg Challenge records show, and those knowledgeable of the school reform group say it is likely there were other informal sessions of the group that they both attended. But no one on the board or on the Annenberg Challenge staff remembers Obama being any closer to Ayers than to any other member of the board. The Annenberg board also included several civic, business and education leaders, many of them Republicans.— morvak
- Regardless of his background, it was never a problem for anyone — including Republicans and Chicago's most powerful business leaders — to work with Ayers on Chicago's public schools. In fact, Ayers is widely respected in the field of urban education.— morvak
- "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."— morvak
- Nelson says her fellow Republicans "might snort when they hear the name Bill Ayers, because they know he comes from a wealthy family, they know he became a radical activist early in his life ... but beyond just snorting, I don't think anyone gives it another thought." "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."— morvak
- You can really smell the Republicans' desperation at this point. It smells like, VICTORY!— jpb
Comment removed.- Everyone knows the background of Ayers, a terriost and no true American would think of associating him, Most Americans are very familiar with the "Chicago political machine". Anneberg gave the money as charity. He gave and what they did with it are two different issues. Ayers hired Obama. They used the money against it's intended purpose. Instead they used it to promote and "educate" schoolchildren for radicalism instead of it's purpose for acadenics and increase educational test scores. Ayers is a known terriost and the only reson he is given a thought and people express valid concerns today is because he was more than "somebody that lived in Obama's neighborhood" Papers surfaced last week at the U of Illinois that provided these facts and proved Obama lied about his association with Ayers. Ayers is an unrepentant domestic enemy that bombed the Pentagon so regardless of what he does in Chicago public schoolsvia Chicago politics, he is not respected in this country. Ayers brought Obama out in his living room-I guess he was just being neighborly.— americangirl
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The Inauguration: Jan. 20 blog brings you coverage of President-elect Barack Obama's transition into office.
It's written by political journalists from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Send us your comments -- and news tips -- at this address.
Thomas Fitzgerald joined The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2000, and has covered Harrisburg as well as city, state and national politics for the newspaper. He was a “boy on the bus” in the 2004 presidential campaign and during primary contests in 2000 and 1996.
Nathan Gorenstein has covered politics and government in the city, state and nation for the Inquirer. He's worked in the city hall bureau, had a stint on the business desk, and once covered the suburbs. After serving as assistant regional editor, he was named editor of the "Politics" web site.
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