McCain: At Wednesday's Debate I Plan To Bring Up Ayers

Taegan Goddard reports that John McCain confirmed this morning he would try to bring up William Ayers at Wednesday's debate. McCain appeared to blame Obama for the move:

In an interview on a St. Louis radio station, McCain said Obama's comments that "I didn't have the guts" to talk about William Ayers in the last presidential debate have "probably ensured" that the former 1960s radical will come up in Wednesday's debate.

The Huffington Post's Seth Colter Walls wrote Monday that Ayers was "expected" to come up at the debate.

When asked if McCain plans to "go after" Obama on these topics this Wednesday, Bounds added: "So much of a debate is determined by the moderator and the questions that are posed to the candidates. I expect it could come up and I expect John McCain will ask Barack Obama to speak truthfully about his relationship with friend and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. I think that voters deserve to know, deserve to vet these candidates to the fullest extent... Certainly, Bill Ayers raises questions. Certainly, Tony Rezko raises questions."

If it is McCain's intention to raise the issue of Ayers -- with or without moderator Bob Schieffer's prompting -- it would serve as something of an answered prayer to many of the Arizonan's town hall attendees, one of whom even begged McCain to bring on the character attacks in the last presidential debate of the season.

Comments

[gwf1]

02:25 PM on 10/16/2008

1st of all someone please answer 1 question for me. Rachel Maddow boy or girl? 2nd of all msnbc idiots from oberman to tingly felling running down my leg mathews. the biggest joke on tv yet. hence the garbage ratings. also get your fact straight in the Annenberg B.S. your spewing trying to link the republican­s. typical left wing tactics they know they are in the wrong but yet all they have is to distort the truth. after all democratis have been doing that for years. no new news there. if Obama has this thing so sewn up why the very close poll numbers? hmmm. if the worst happens and obama gets in one thing is for sure we can blame everything that goes wrong wth this country in the next 4 years soley on the muppet show of the democrat lefft wing nutballs salute!!!!

[SoCal Bill]

06:16 PM on 10/15/2008

Did anyone mention that William Ayres came with the recommenda­tion of the Annenberg Foundation­, a product of a right wing conservati­ve and heavy contributo­r to the Republican Party.? Mrs Annenberg is a recent contributo­r to John McCain. Would anyone connected also be criticized as being a friend of Ayres like the Eisenhower Hospital in Palm Springs or Gerald Ford or Barry Goldwater or TV Guide?

[wantnowar]

04:16 PM on 10/15/2008

Senator Obama will win the third and last debate and the elections.
All McCain wants is to sate his own vanity, the presidenti­al elections represent for him a kind of vanity fair. Therefore, he should rather use his brains instead of his whip! McCain has no vision pertaining to the economy, is not qualified to solve the huge problems America is coping with. The huge mess has been created by his party, i.e. by Bush, the oil mafia, the weapon industry and the primitive warriors.
His accusation­s and personal attacks against Senator Obama are unfair and unfounded. McCain should rather read Michel Chossudovs­ky’s book: America's "War On Terrorism" or Michel Chossudovs­ky and use this brains in order to understand who are responsibl­e for 9/11. Many European people and a lot of scientists are convinced that the Bush administra­tion had monitored the attacks of 9/11. Bush simply needed a pretext for waging a major military operation in the Middle East and Central Asia and invented the war on terrorism. The only chance for the unpreposse­ssing, little man Bush to enter the annals of history was to use his weapons instead of his brains.

The US needs an honest president, a person possessing dignity, high moral qualities and not a clown and an ignorant hockey-mom­. The whole world is watching the US. So, I hope that every intelligen­t American will make the right decision and vote for Obama/Bide­n.

[Jer1957]

02:52 PM on 10/15/2008

Barack's slavish adherence to the Bush Bail-em All out agenda says a lot. Plainly, he is the London./Wa­ll St candidate in 2008 .

I would like to hear more of Barack's reasons for bailing-ou­t Bush's friends after they are all arrested.

[Likipedia]

07:20 PM on 10/15/2008

Can I hear McCain's as well?
He did vote for it, right?
And that's some contortion­ist position you came up with to try to link Obama to Bush, who, judging by your rhetoric YOU voted for....
Isn't that the bill McCain suspended his campaign for to fix?

[Coinyer101]

08:08 PM on 10/15/2008

he did it to soften the blow on our economy. just because bush damaged it, doesnt mean we should let it collapse. you dont realize the effects of just letting it go down the tubes. the people who would lose their jobs is potentiall­y disastrous­. barack can tweak the system however it is needed as soon as he takes office. you are probably just spouting off some talking point , so i figure im wasting my time, but, maybe someone with a brain will see this.

[Liam]

02:42 PM on 10/15/2008

Good for McCain. Walk right into Obama's trap. Obama is a smart guy, he wouldn't have goaded McCain about "not saying it to my face" if he wasn't sitting on a response just waiting for that.

Here's my guess: Obama is trying to remain positive and not go negative, and there are certain things he can respond to and with in the immediacy of a debate that he kind of can't in ad responses to other ads.

So my guess is that Obama will be able to bring up the Keating 5 and G. Gordon Liddy and the Hussein-er­a Iraq lobbying done by some McCain staffers and even the McCain campaign's own ties to Ayres if McCain brings it up first. In that circumstan­ce, he's responding to a charge rather than slinging mud.

So go ahead, McCain, do it. I'll bet you'll be sorry.

[exmate]

02:21 PM on 10/15/2008

McCain had better be ready to talk about Charles Keating and their relationsh­ip if he wants to talk about Ayres.

[braamer]

01:57 PM on 10/15/2008

Can these hateful lies, like some childish envious tantrum bent on destroying all that remains within it's reach, be the last recourse of the American conservati­ve philosophy­?
No, I do not believe so. But the reemergenc­e of conservati­sm will not be lead by any of its present representa­tives who have abandoned reason to incite this hatred. It will never, in the future, be championed by those who would threaten the country with mindless instabilit­y and foment distrust among it's citizens. No one will trust them.
There is a shame and irresponsi­bility in these attacks and that will disqualify and discredit any conservati­ve who employs them now in desperatio­n.

[WaterRat]

01:20 PM on 10/15/2008

Professor William Charles "Bill" Ayers is a "Distingui­shed Professor of Education,­" at the University of Illinois. So? As Dick Cheney would say. Since he has been accepted by that institutio­n regardless of his past, why does the Republican Hit Squad continue to stretch their bubblegum thinking trying to link Barack Obama with this man? Especially­, since no probes reveal Obama and Ayers as being close friends? POP!
The undecided should look more closely at Sarah Palin and her overuse of power in Alaska, her condemnati­on of a librarian, her acceptance of federal money for the BridgeTo Nowhere. There are many lies and actions that make the more moderate members of our society tremble at the thought of her becoming president.

[Likipedia]

01:18 PM on 10/15/2008

Using "Ayers" logic, what would that make someone married to a member of a party whose founder once professed his "hatred for the American government­" and cursed the American flag as a "damn flag." or remarks that Alaska should "nuke the glaciers" along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska and build a freeway to Juneau. or "When the [federal] bureaucrat­s come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independen­ce by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."
A pal of terrorists­?

[Jer1957]

12:11 PM on 10/15/2008

Yo fantasy-ri­dden guilty lefties.

Obama is not MLK. He is the financial ESTABLISHM­ENT candidate. His enthusiasm for the Bush Bailout--a­nd the subsequent media hype about his 'inevitabi­lity' seals the deal.

[Davwbaird]

12:48 PM on 10/15/2008

yo moma deluded creature from the fabled land of OZ.

[Likipedia]

07:09 PM on 10/15/2008

Oh, now Bush is bad, isn't he your boy anymore? Didn't McCain vote the same way or did he curb his enthusiasm while voting.... Is that the one where the unrepentan­t-righties would pass without added pork?

[Likipedia]

07:13 PM on 10/15/2008

I meant wouldn't pass without the pork, and McCain voted against MLK day, am I correct in that assumption­? Alot of people hated MLK when he was alive. I suppose Obama would then be great if he met the same fate.....

[exmate]

11:24 AM on 10/15/2008

Would not Ayres be more accurately called Vietnam War Protest rather than terrorism?

Ok.... Mahatma Ghani, he was'nt but he was not Osama Bin Laden either.

[ShippyHo22]

11:15 AM on 10/15/2008

Here’s McCain’s problem, he’s a “maverick.­” Meaning he’s a “reactor” not an “actor.” He by virtue of his strengths, reacts to events and ideas after the fact. True, he’s not “Miss Congeniali­ty.” He’s the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Not wanting to be the “target” he sits back searching for one. His entire political career and campaign is that of “reacting” and “pouncing,­” not initiating and inspiring. Events have presented him with so many targets, his maverick reactions have been all over the map. Erratic events have suddenly overtaken the maverick and exposed his Achilles heel: his pride in reacting and pouncing. Problem is he can’t prioritize the targets, and consequent­ly his pouncing on everything makes him look utterly inconseque­ntial.

[Davwbaird]

12:50 PM on 10/15/2008

then when he sees something tasty laying out there in the path, he ventures out and pounces, wham, he has taken the bait and now is in a cage. He is let out time and again but ends back in the cage. Finally he says don't let me out, I am a danger to my self.

[Likipedia]

06:30 PM on 10/15/2008

I feel like an idiot, I thought he meant Ford Maverick..­....

[BarackMarley]

10:31 AM on 10/15/2008

Here are the Top 5 Ways Obama can counter attack McCain's Ayers Attack
http://new­sone.black­planet.com­/elections­/top-5-aye­rs-counter­-attacks/

[bjfairfax]

09:42 AM on 10/15/2008

I hope McCain does bring up Ayers so we can clear the air once and for all. The country is NOT interested in Ayers ... some one Barack did not even know until later in his life and once he found out the truth about Ayers, he denounced him. Evidentall­y a lot of other Americans have forgiven Ayers as he is working with the school system now!

McCain thinks he needs to go negative now that he is so far behind in the polls that he only wants to go negative! Why doesn't he talk about his tactics ... changing his tune EVERY day? The American people want to know about the economy ... how they will get jobs restored to their states/cit­ies!

[Davwbaird]

12:53 PM on 10/15/2008

thye will be sitting to close together for MCCAIN to bring up the moderator would have to bring it up.

[cosmo86]

09:15 AM on 10/15/2008

Ayers was not a concern for McCain until the economy became a huge issue and the only thing I have ever heard McCain say about the economy is, "I can fix it, I know how." But he never has told us how he is going to fix it. I know that I fall under the middle class American and I know I will save more on taxes with Obamas plan.

[ShippyHo22]

10:59 AM on 10/15/2008

Here’s McCain’s problem, he’s a “maverick.­” Meaning he’s a “reactor” not an “actor.” He by virtue of his strengths, reacts to events and ideas after the fact. True, he’s not “Miss Congeniali­ty.” He’s the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Not wanting to be the “target” he sits back searching for one. His entire political career and campaign is that of “reacting” and “pouncing,­” not initiating and inspiring. Events have presented him with so many targets, his maverick reactions have been all over the map. Erratic events have suddenly overtaken the maverick and exposed his Achilles heel: his pride in reacting and pouncing. Problem is he can’t prioritize the targets, and consequent­ly his pouncing on everything makes him look utterly inconseque­ntial.

[Likipedia]

07:22 PM on 10/15/2008

His campaign even had a memo saying he was going to turn the page on the economy, and start with the character crap!