AP Becomes Shameless Attack Dog For An Obama Rocked By Palin Comments: Charges Her With Racism To Help “Faltering Campaign”
WASHINGTON - By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.
And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.
Related: Lipstick Off, Palin Says Obama Palling Around With Terrorists - With Video
First, Palin’s attack shows that her energetic debate with rival Joe Biden may be just the beginning, not the end, of a sharpened role in the battle to win the presidency.
“Our opponent … 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,” Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain’s ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.
“This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,” she said. “We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism.”
Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.
Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers’ radical views and actions.
With her criticism, Palin is taking on the running mate’s traditional role of attacker, said Rich Galen, a Republican strategist.
“There appears to be a newfound sense of confidence in Sarah Palin as a candidate, given her performance the other night,” Galen said. “I think that they are comfortable enough with her now that she’s got the standing with the electorate to take off after Obama.”
Second, Palin’s incendiary charge draws media and voter attention away from the worsening economy. It also comes after McCain supported a pork-laden Wall Street bailout plan in spite of conservative anger and his own misgivings.
“It’s a giant changing of the subject,” said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist. “The problem is the messenger. If you want to start throwing fire bombs, you don’t send out the fluffy bunny to do it. I think people don’t take Sarah Palin seriously.”
The larger purpose behind Palin’s broadside is to reintroduce the question of Obama’s associations. Millions of voters, many of them open to being swayed to one side or the other, are starting to pay attention to an election a month away.
For the McCain campaign, that makes Obama’s ties to Ayers as well as convicted felon Antoin “Tony” Rezko and the controversial minister Jeremiah Wright ripe for renewed criticism. And Palin brings a fresh voice to the argument.
Effective character attacks have come earlier in campaigns. In June 1988, Republican George H.W. Bush criticized Democrat Michael Dukakis over the furlough granted to Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who then raped a woman and stabbed her companion. Related TV ads followed in September and October.
The Vietnam-era Swift Boat veterans who attacked Democrat John Kerry’s war record started in the spring of 2004 and gained traction in late summer.
“The four weeks that are left are an eternity. There’s plenty of time in the campaign,” said Republican strategist Joe Gaylord. “I think it is a legitimate strategy to talk about Obama and to talk about his background and who he pals around with.”
Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?
In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.
Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.
Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain’s purpose so well. As the fallout from Wright’s sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America’s promise to treat all people equally.
John McCain occasionally looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina’s Capitol.
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Speaking of the AP. I almost knocked some AP reporter right on his ass yesterday. We had a huge Michael Phelps Parade here and some AP reporter came up and asked me how I felt about it. I don’t think they will be putting my “Go fuck yourself” comment in the news.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:27 amAP is not engaged in reporting. AP is engaged in propaganda. Obama must bebeaten, or we are on our way to a socialist near future.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:33 amDoes anyone see an alternative other than our countries death from the left, or resurrection through revolution.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:45 amwas that a “news” story? It read like Obama campaign spin. Wow what a joke !
October 5th, 2008 at 11:58 amThat’s a bit like what I did to the last reporter who stuck a mike in my face, only when I pushed it away from my face, this smarmy, metrosexual reporter falls to the floor.
That pissed me off so bad that I went back and kicked him several times while he was on the floor and told him , “REPORT THAT”……..!
And as I turned to walk away, everyone who saw within 50 feet were applauding.
Never heard a word from the network schmucks…………
October 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pmIt is not the campaign that is “faltering” it has been John McCain. When you start twittering about Al Gore and putting “democrats” (aka SOCIALISTS) on your cabinet you may as well pour concrete loafers for yourself. Get a clue John and get it now.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:02 pmIf (AP) can point out EXACTLY which/what words or combo of words were “racist” from Gov. Palin’s remarks, please do so now or STFU.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:15 pmIf not supporting Obama means instantly that I’m a racist, then I guess the fact that I don’t like mutton automatically makes me a vegetarian.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:28 pmPost Turtle
October 5th, 2008 at 12:31 pm>While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose hand
>was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a
>conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and
>his bid to be our President.
>
>
>The old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Obama is a ‘post turtle’.’ Not being
>familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was. The
>old rancher said, ‘When you’re driving down a country road and you come
>across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a ‘post turtle’.’
>
>The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to
>explain. ‘You know he didn’t get up there by himself, he doesn’t belong up
>there, he doesn’t know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder
>what kind of a dumb ass put him up there to begin with.’
“No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.”
October 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pmWell he was a hell of a lot more to Obama than “Just some guy who lived down the street”
drillanwr:
when your heroine says Obama is ‘not like us’ it can mean anything you want it to mean. a different race. worldly. educated. take yer pick.
The most important thing to see with what the Republicans are doing is that they have no campaign other than to attack Obama. This is their answer for everything. Attack. this was Bush’s instinct, and it solved nothing. It just points out the emptiness of the rhetoric.
It is reflected in the post by rob from flint. I doubt whether it’s true, since he’s taken to exaggerating what he supposedly did by trying to make himself out as an asskicker. But regardless, it demonstrates the attack mentality. Useless.
Good with that lipstick.
Bon
October 5th, 2008 at 12:40 pmIt is the Obama campaign that has nothing but emptiness.
These are NOT attacks. These are facts.
You can put on that blindfold all you want and claim you don’t see the connections of this man’s failings and his hidden agenda for this country, but you just keep walking into that wall.
PLEASE, tell your Messiah the whole “racist” card thing is so old. Time for a switch in response phrases.
Here’s one for him and you:
“Oh yeah? Well, you’re a poopy-head!”
Actually sounds better than “Racist! Racist!”
How odd the Obama campaign insisted the Clintons were also … racist.
The only people I hear yelling about ‘race’ are the democrats and the Obama campaign.
As to your insinuating ‘code-speak’ being racist … Republicans and conservatives don’t use code speak … and neither do we here.
If we tell you that you’re a fucking idiot we tell you straight up … without pretty $20 words you have to twist and sift through.
Oh, and something I am sure of … Obama and his wife ARE Marxist whores.
And that’s not racist … That is fact. I might have a half-ounce of respect for them if they just came out and admitted to it, and stopped with all the “change” and “hope” bullshit.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:09 pmThe A/P, along with the rest of MSM, have not been journalists for years now. They are all apologists for the left like Bon.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pmThing is… they actually believe there is a place for them in a Socialist society that owns the individual.
For the likes of Bon, it might be Kommissar of Internet Opposition Commenting.
For the A/P…. well the example is Pravda.
If there is no fair and free press during the election, what would make them believe there would be one AFTER?
If the truth is told about Obama it is an attack?
Good thing she didn’t say stuff like he had a funny name; or that he doesn’t look like other men on US currency; or mention that he’s black. No way would any of that be appropriate.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pmPLEASE!!!!!!!!! Will the AP kindly stop TRYING to insult our intelligence? I mean these “guys” are no better than the junkies who will pick anything up off the floor and stick it into their pipes just to see if it will work
October 5th, 2008 at 2:05 pmMichelle Obama, in her new biography, can guffaw over Obama having “a white mother from Kansas” (people said she couldn’t get over it), but Americans aren’t allowed to question Barack’s patriotism without instantly being labeled “racists.”
It’s all out of the Rules for Radicals mentality and the AP reporter should be fired. Plain and simple.
Anyone have an email link to the AP?
We need to put our money where our mouths are and write these people.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:09 pmSo since they can’t actually attack the content of her message there, or disprove her claims they’re going with the vague, ambiguous, difficult to prove or disprove tactic of race baiting. That’s like ending an argument with “well yeah, fuck you then!”, after stumbling to find a reply. It’s emotionally charged for sure but it doesn’t adequately rebut the points brought up by your opponent in the argument.
Here I thought we’d have to wait for jesse jackson or al sharpton to do it.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:14 pmObama is the one that brought up a “failed philosophy” of McCain. She’s trying to state what that philosophy is, and why it’s not failed. He shouldn’t have brought it up. The philosophy of Country First, of America, basically right or wrong. Don’t go overseas and run down your own country, especially if you expect to be President of it–politics ends at the water’s edge. This is what she brought up. Has nothing to do with skin color. It’s the America I believe in, that evidently, Obama thinks needs fixing–that once we were right, but somehow now we’re responsible for whatever is wrong in the world. He brought it up–the philosophy thing. Belief in free markets, in capitalism. Free market capitalism has created far more good than bad, created more wealth than man could ever have imagined. He’s the one running it down, saying it’s a “failed philsophy.” Don’t draw fire, if you can’t take the heat. Your skin color has nothing to do with it. It’s what our soldiers believe in–our country. It’s what they fight for. They don’t fight because they believe there’s something wrong with America, that America is a force for bad. It’s a force for good. We believe it, we stand behind it.
October 5th, 2008 at 3:43 pmAnd I am so sick of the rampant pre-1975 sexism of the media, I’m going ballistic. Calling her a “fluffy bunny”? By another woman? Because she’s a Republican? Wow! You have got to be kidding me! What about that lifelong Dem NOW head endorsing her in L.A.? Suck on that, bunny defamer!
October 5th, 2008 at 3:46 pmI posted about Obama bringing a “failed philsophy”, and it didn’t appear, so I’m doing again. Obama is the one that started the fight–calling McCain’s a “failed philosophy.” You mean the “philosophy” of Country First, of my country, right or wrong (more or less)? Yes, that’s what we believe. It’s what our soldiers fight for, what our country stands for–a shining city on a hill, a force for good in the world. It’s not a failed philosophy–Obama goes overseas and complains about America losing its bearings. Politics used to end at the water’s edge, how can anyone who wants to be President go overseas and run our country down? And all these media, Hollywood and dem politicians that constantly berate our President (even if he was wrong–you don’t hate your own President and call him Hitler)–that might have something to do with “America’s image” overseas. The fact that all the publicity here is anti-our own President. What ever happened to the loyal opposition? Oh, and the “failed philosophy” of capitalism and free markets? That “philosophy” that created more wealth in the last 50 years than the world has ever known ? What a joke!
October 5th, 2008 at 3:52 pm“The Associated Press is wrong,” Palin said, before arguing that the issue had not been adequately discussed.
You Go Girl.
Entire story here…
October 5th, 2008 at 4:23 pmhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081005/ap_on_el_pr/palin_recharged
“Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false.”
If I can discover that Bambi and Ayres were at Columbia at the same time so should AP.
Remember the Chicago entre’, “Who sent ya?” No one gets a shot in Daly machine politics without the introduction by one of the mob. That “sender” was the Alinsky disciple, Bill”the bomber” Ayres.
October 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pmShe is saying that sometimes Obama may have been in bed with people that hate America. How is this racist? He’s received thousands of dollars in donations from people overseas and no one knows who these people are. I’d expect the racist dodge from someone on the far left.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:33 pmBon,
You are a fuckin’ idiot.
Sincerely
October 5th, 2008 at 8:05 pmThe only racist in this campaign is Barry. Tell me he didn’t attend the Million Man March. And who was the main speaker at that march?
Farrakhan!
Yes, that’s right!
Louis Farrakhan. The Jew hating, Hitler loving Farrakhan. Yeah, that one!
His mentor and spritual advisor for twenty years, Rev. Wright, is right up there with Farrakhan. They are one in the same. White-hating, Jew-hating racists!!!
He spent twenty years at that cult, TWENTY YEARS!!!, and you’ve already let him off the hook, just because he said he never heard bad things come out of Wright’s racist mouth. Bullshit!!!
What if McCain had attended a KKK rally in the past? He would have been kicked out of this race faster than you can say WTF!!
There is a dangerous double standard in this country that gives a pass to a black politician that wants to attend a rally that features one of the most racist, hate filled men in this country.
And people are falling all over themselves to put his racist ass in the White House!!!!
If he gets elected, America is fucked. It’s that simple.
Fuck You Bon and every MORON out there that thinks like you do.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:38 pmYou’re gonna fuck it up for all of us and that pisses me off.
MEDIA BIAS ROBS AMERICANS OF THE TRUTH
October 5th, 2008 at 10:12 pm… NOW, AP IS UNFARILY PLAYING THE RACE CARD …
The media’s continual bias in favor of Obama is not only disgusing, it’s against everything that America, a Free Press, and Freedom of Speech stands for. To suggest that there is no media bias in favor of Obama not only robs Americans of the truth, it insults the intelligence of the American people.
TALK IS CHEAP … CHECK OBAMA’S RECORD !!!
A candidate’s track record, and associations are always a legitimate issue when running for President. Let’s take a look at the qualifications, judgement, and experience of Obama, who is running for President. Obama had 25 years to fulfill the potential he displayed as a rising start at Harvard Law School … and, how did he live up to that potential? … He chose to align himself with anti-American racist, Jeremiah Wright for TWENTY YEARS … along with Ferrahkan, Rezko, Ayers, and others. As a community organizer, he registered thousands of voters in Chicago … then, when he ran for the state legislature, he took away their votes, by disqualifying his opponent (a black woman) on a technicality. As a U.S. Senator, he voted present 160 times … he never called a meeting on the Afghanistan committee he chaired (although he NOW says we must shift all our military from Iraq to Afghanistan). He claimed Foreign Policy experience from a 9 day whirlwind photo op to 6 countries. And, he spent almost half of his tenure neglecting his responsibilities as a U.S. Senator, so he could run for President. Senator McCain served America honorably for 22 years in the military. He proved his love for America, as well as his honor, integrity and character, by refusing early release as a P.O.W., even while being tortured. He served America as a ‘contributing’ U.S. Senator, working across the aisle, for 20 years. If Obama’s Twentyfive year track record shows he lacks judgement, and can’t be trusted, who cares what he says about Health Care and the Economy! What Obama never learned is Character. He simply can’t be trusted … ask Jeremiah Wright, a friend of 20 years, who Obama betrayed for personal ambition … and, you Obama supporters really think he won’t betray you If he gets elected??? If he gets elected, you Obama supporters will be facing a HUGE disillusionment !!!
I love trolls
October 5th, 2008 at 10:27 pm@ Bon
Please, grow up. This is politics, not mock UN. Politicians attack each other. It happens. If you do not like attacks so much, if they just “point out the emptiness of the rhetoric” how do you explain Obama’s ad that bashed McCain for not being so old he can’t even use a computer?(despite the fact that he can’t use his fingers well due to beatings in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton)
Or his Spanish language ad that linked McCain to out of context Rush Limbaugh quotes? (Despite the fact that even casual listeners of Rush know that he has little love for the Senator)
Politics is not a hand-holding, save-the-fruit-fly awareness rally. It’s mean, vicious, and gives no quarter(unless you’re a Democrat, then you can be all manner of contemptible and get a pass) If you actually believe that politics will ever be nice and kind, then I have some wonderful ocean front property in Montana I would like to sell you for a good price!
October 6th, 2008 at 4:16 amFunny thing is the left tries to put Farrakan in the same light as Obama. They view him as a freaking prophet. Hell I was the only one in my class who knew anything about the true Nation of Islam and it’s policies and views. No one believed me that they were the black version of Nazis/Klan. Hell even in the class we spent studying the Nation of Islam they never once mentioned it being a black supremacist group. Instead they referred to it as a “Civil Right Activist Group” That’s like referring referring to the KKK as the southern democrat rights activists.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:29 amOT here. Anagram: Palin Folk/Plain Folk. She connects with normal, everyday people (emphasis on ‘normal’). AP = Another Pravda
October 6th, 2008 at 6:43 amGod bless drudgereport for sifting through the bias!
October 6th, 2008 at 7:58 amFarakahn lives in the same neighborhood as Obama, Ayers lives 4 blocks away. What a neighborhood. And this isn’t some big apartment neighborhood like in NYC. These are fancy “mansion” type homes and fancy “brownstone type” townhouses. I want a reporter to ask Obama: have you ever met Farakahn? Socialized with him? Spoken on the phone? How much? Exchanged correspondence? Can we see the letters? What if McCain had buddies who were close to David Duke, like Fleiger and Wright are close to Farakahn? What if McCain lived in the same neighborhood as Duke? Would anyone question the press’ right to ask?
October 6th, 2008 at 8:21 amThis has been the problem, two sets of standards. We have not hollared about this until now but hopefully not too late. What in the hey has this country come to? The left hate us regardless of not knowing most of us and won’t believe facts unless they write them. This hate is a sickness, this character assassination, this name calling…what is wrong?
October 6th, 2008 at 9:40 pm“This hate is a sickness, this character assassination, this name calling…what is wrong?”
Dennis gets alot of it here…
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43636
The source of it was Communist efforts to demoralize and destabilize America as Yuri Bezmenov starts to explain here…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1
The collapse of the Soviet Union left a vacuum which ‘figureheads’ of the left (I’d call Ayers one, Farrakhan another) have been trying to fill since then and that’s why they treat Obama, a far left radical, as a Messiah. Their ’second coming’.
I’ve listened to and read up on Obama’s ‘300 foreign policy advisors’ and, if they gain power, I’d watch for them to attempt to model America after Communist China. A very strong central gov’t with severe central planning (a more severe form of Carter economics) yet a modicum of capitalism and individual liberty.
I realize I’m generalizing and there’s alot more evidence supporting what’s going on but it’s early….
October 7th, 2008 at 5:08 am