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Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Daily Spin: The end tonight? Or a turnaround?

 

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.

Posted by Nathan Gorenstein @ 7:05 AM  Permalink | 27 comments
Comments   
Posted 08:18 PM, 10/07/2008
cusoraider
Nate, John McCain has no idea how to re-boot anything!!!!!
Posted 05:16 PM, 10/07/2008
GinnyK
It would be nice if discussions of Bill Ayers stuck to the facts. Ayers currently holds the title Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is the son of Thomas G. Ayers, former Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison (1973 to 1980), Chicago philanthropist and the namesake of the Thomas G. Ayers College of Commerce and Industry. During the Vietnam era Ayers helped found the Weather Underground. This group was vehemently opposed to the Vietnam War. They thought it immoral and used violent tactics, including bombings, to try to end the bombings. Barack Obama was eight years old when Ayers founded the Weather Underground. By the time Obama met Ayers, Ayers was - as mentioned above - a professor at the University of Illinois and a responsible member of his community. There is no evidence that Obama was aware of Ayers radical past. It is absolutely clear that Obama does not share Ayers political perspective. As an Obama supporter, I find it disheartening that so many McCain supporters seem unable to discuss issues and instead rely on the politics of smear and fear to promote their candidate.
Posted 05:14 PM, 10/07/2008
Tony_From_PA
Kevin, give me a break! The GOP philosophy of defending the unborn, then not providing ANY kind of support once the child is out of the womb is pathetic. Whar do you think of preemptive wars like Iraq? I guess there have not been any civilian casualties over there. How about Guantanamo Bay? Abu Graib?
Posted 04:23 PM, 10/07/2008
djoseph
If you want to talk about Ayers, then you've got to talk about Keating, Pastor Hagee, McCain's first disabled wife whom he left for a much younger woman he was having an affair with, Todd Palin's membership in a secessionist party, and the Palin's membership in a church that doesn't believe in evolution or and that views gays as sinners (that is, that they are "damned"). Oh, what's that? You don't want to talk about those things? I didn't think so.
Posted 04:09 PM, 10/07/2008
AlwaysSunny
I heard Sarah is hosting a beer pong tourney at McGillan's for the big debate
Posted 03:30 PM, 10/07/2008
longshanks
This is wonderful. Coming from a woman that not only can't articulate what news publications that she reads but blasts the 'liberal' media at every corner, only to turn around and quote information from the very publications that she degrades. If that wasn't bad enough, this bimbo is firing up the hate groups and racists with her remarks. McCain and Palin should be ashamed of their divisive tactics and the nation should let them know how we feel by sending them home in short order on 11/4. It's over for Palin. McCain will be dead soon and Palin will have made herself look like a colossal moron with bigoted ideals. Neocons are classless people full of hatred and intolerance. "CNN producer Carey Bodenheimer reported Tuesday that at several recent rallies, Palin has stirred up crowds by mentioning the "liberal media." Routinely, there are boos at every mention of The New York Times and the "mainstream media," both of which are staples of Palin's stump speech. Bodenheimer said some audience members are openly hostile to members of the traveling press covering Palin; one crowd member hurled a racial epithet at an African-American member of the press in Clearwater, Florida, on Monday."
Posted 03:21 PM, 10/07/2008
Yankee Air Pirate 12
Hey FIZZY-Shame he didn't save a couple of cannisters of nape,could've dropped them on your block & ended your miserable existence.
Posted 03:17 PM, 10/07/2008
longshanks
I'd like to hear how women having abortions is affecting Kevins's life? How exactly is a woman's private business ruining your life? Get a real cause.
Posted 01:39 PM, 10/07/2008
KevinS
OBAMA: Apathetic to defense of non-voting babies, says "Its above my paygrade".... Mother Teresa: "The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.".... CATHOLICS: Make your stand in defense of the unborn.....
Posted 01:06 PM, 10/07/2008
Tony_From_PA
Here we go again. Distraction from the GOP. Is there a mster cloning machine somwhere where Repubs are bred? Now back to issues. Hos is McCain different from Bush?
Posted 12:15 PM, 10/07/2008
FIZZY
Let's define "terrorism" here! A man flies a million dollar jet aircraft over a destitute country filled with villagers who barely have enough to eat. He drops bombs on innocent women and children burning them to death. Why? Did these people attack America? No! Did they bomb the World Trade Center? No! What was their crime? They wanted to choose their own type of economy, and it wasn't going to be a capitalist system that would allow America to rape their land like the French did for decades. That man was John McCain and THAT was terrorism. But yea, I forgot, God is ALWAYS on our side right?
Posted 12:09 PM, 10/07/2008
Leron
Why isn't Ayers in jail? What a scumbag loser.
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Comment removed.
Posted 11:35 AM, 10/07/2008
Gibba Mang
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Palin failed to pay $25K in taxes for her children's travel expenses paid by the state of Alaska. Can you really trust Palin in the WH if she can't even pay her own personal taxes? Palin's lack of ethics is astounding that she would flaunt her power as governor. Read more here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122334021713509963.html
Posted 11:27 AM, 10/07/2008
longshanks
This is the end....beautiful friend. This is the end....John's only friend...the end.
Posted 11:21 AM, 10/07/2008
americangirl
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.
Comment removed.
Posted 11:07 AM, 10/07/2008
jpb
You can really smell the Republicans' desperation at this point. It smells like, VICTORY!
Posted 10:34 AM, 10/07/2008
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."
Posted 10:34 AM, 10/07/2008
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."
Posted 10:33 AM, 10/07/2008
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.
Posted 10:32 AM, 10/07/2008
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.
Posted 10:31 AM, 10/07/2008
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.
Posted 10:26 AM, 10/07/2008
morvak
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.
Posted 10:22 AM, 10/07/2008
snowbunny
do you just make this stuff up dutchman?
Posted 09:42 AM, 10/07/2008
dutchman
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."
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About Inquirer political writers

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 FitzgeraldThomas 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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