Final Debate: McCain Brings Up Ayers, ACORN

McCain goes where he hasn't before in a debate: Bill Ayers. "We need to know the full extent of that relationship," he declares. Then he accuses the community organizing group ACORN of committing, potentially, "one of the greatest frauds of voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy in this country."

It is a wild accusation, not grounded in any bit of reality. Just asked Florida Gov. and McCain surrogate Charlie Christ, who says the allegation is being overblown.

Obama responds by explaining his relationship with Ayers: "Bill Ayers is a professor of education in Chicago. 40 years ago when I was eight years old he engaged in despicable acts with a domestic group. I have roundly denounced those attacks. Ten years ago he and I served on a school board funded by one of Ronald Reagan's close friends ... The fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign," he concludes, "says more about your campaign than it does me."

McCain glared and smirked during the exchange.

Here's Maude Hurd, of ACORN, responding to McCain's accusations:

"We appreciate that Senator McCain's effort to stir up the Republican base by attacking a community group that is trying to increase public participation in our democratic processes. However, these attacks reflect an increasingly panicky candidate; unfortunately the Senator McCain we saw tonight is very different than the Senator McCain who stood shoulder to shoulder with ACORN at a February 20, 2006 immigration reform event.

It is clear for us to see that John McCain was for ACORN before he was against ACORN; he was for reform before he was against reform; and he was a maverick before he became erratic. What is really going here is that Senator McCain and his allies are part of a coordinated effort to engage in what appears to be an unprecedented effort to suppress voter turnout."

Comments

[BrighterStar]

Obama still is not willing to tell the truth on the Ayers topic. At first he was just a guy from the neighborhood. Now he is just a guy that he served on some education committees with. The truth is that he had a close working relationship with Ayers. Ayers selected Obama to run the foundation he started and Obama launched his political career in the Ayers living room. This is not surprising. Obama is a socialist and he hung around like minded thinkers. The problem is that if he tells the truth to the American people about who he is and what he thinks he would never get elected. So in this election the truth is the enemy of Obama.

[bobbysgurl]

McCain had the floor last night. If babble was what we were looking for McCain had the opportunity last night to dish it.

By the way, McCain did everything in his power not to "come on with it," until he was goaded into it by Obama. I truly believe McCain did not want to lie on national tv, but I was wrong.

[BrighterStar]

Obama was the only one not willing to tell the truth.

[grizhead63]

Keep it coming boys! Everytime wingers bring this or acorn or wright up the dems get another million voters! Broken record, Sean "Flipper" Hannity dead issues.

[njm50]

HOW SAD !!!!!!! VOTE EARLY

[njm50]

vote, vote, vote

[notthistime]

don't be silly or lazy. He adressed Ayers multiple times and there are multiple articles written by MSMs since early this year and you can catch some responses on You Tube. Look it up.

If you are that concerned, what is up with McCain and Libby?

[BrighterStar]

He has adressed it several times but his story keeps changing and he is still not telling the truth.

[harriettubman]

Did anyone notice how McCain went into left field after discussing John Lewis's comments? I believe Obama was even baffled. All of a sudden McCain said the people at his rallies, veterans, wearing their hats.....a­re good citizens and people. I was like WTH? John Lewis was talking about Palin and McCain's rhetoric.

[AngryCenter]

Yep, he was trying to insinuate that Obama somehow was calling EVERYONE at their rallies bad people. It was very transparent.

[AngryCenter]

My "pummel the TV moment" was when he said - twice - that everyone should have the same "access to education as Obama, Michelle, myself and Cindy had".

Excuse me? Obama's "access to education" was the same as rich-b1tch Cindy's or my-daddy's­-an-admira­l McCain? Obama pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, you smug SOB.

[harriettubman]

Obama explained it and McCain had the audacity to repeat again "the public needs to know the full extent of that relationship". Is McCain insuating that Obama helped plan bomb attacks with Ayers when he was only 8 yrs old? LOL.....

[UpstateNY]

It is deliberately vague - so it can be used to scare us (like Willie Horton for the first Bush and the awful Swiftboaters against Kerry in the last election). It's an old Republican tactic (it was even used against McCain in 2000) and it's worked great for them up to now. Unfortunately, things are too bad for us to be taken in by this same old politics.

Hopefully that means future Republican campaigns won't go back to it. If they learn that lesson, it will be better for all of us.

[PowerPridePinstripes]

Was it just me but didn't McCain allude to Palin having personal experience with Autism...t­hat she knew more about Autism than anyone else... was he referring to her son Trig? I thought her son had Down Syndrome, not Autism? If he was alluding to her son's condition I think it would behoove him to get the correct diagnosis before he mentions it as fact...

[Airforce-1]

I heard the same thing. I think McCain is giving the GOP what they gave him years before Bush and now they are reaping what they did to him.

[harriettubman]

He said it but was wrong. Trig has DS. They probably discussed autism and McCain got it confused.

[BrighterStar]

He was talking about children with developmental disabilities generally.

[bobbysgurl]

He specifically said autism, not "developmental disabilities generally.­" Specifically, my nephew is autistic, and Trig suffers from Downs Syndrome.

[BannedFromCommenting]

And her baby with downs syndrome is still a baby at 6 months old. none of the struggles have manifested themselves yet. So she is hardly any expert. The expert who cut Special Olympics funding by half in her state.

[TrooAmerican]

Maude Hurd, of ACORN ---- What a Spanking you gave McCain. Nice job on the response to his wild unfounded, erratic accusations.

[AngryCenter]

Agree. That was a smackdown. "maverick before he was erratic" "suppress voter turnout". Bingo on all points!

[BrighterStar]

Problem is that what Obama said was not true. His association with ACORN was more than what he claimed.

[UpstateNY]

Do you have any idea what McCain accused ACORN of doing? Or is this more of the same old 'associations' crap?

BrighterStar - I think you are getting dimmer and dimmer. Too bad!

[TheBlackCat]

To quote Oriongirl's succint response to another one of your posts...

There is nothing else to say about this topic. It's been in the news for months and YOU don't like the answer, which has been the same answer for MONTHS.

YOU want YOUR answer because that is the only ANSWER you will ever believe.

YOU can't handle the TRUTH.

[BannedFromCommenting]

How do you know?? You would have to know the truth, to know if Obama was not truthful.
So name your sources, connections and irrefutable facts.. otherwise stop blogging!!

[anothervoice2]

Good job re-circulating the same nonsense over and over again. Circular talk express in overdrive. Now it is a game of throw something and see what sticks. And even if it does not take, try and try again. Keep up the negative slime - shows McBush's true colors -works well for Obama.

[Yarrr]

I think Obama did the right thing by not tearing into Palin. Her approval rating is dropping all by itself, the public sees plainly ehough how incompentent and ethically corrupt she is.

[JMBrodie]

I agree.

Obama has more important things to tend to right now -- like how to fix the mess Bush is leaving behind.

[Vergadoce]

Taking shots at Palin is too easy anyway. The more you talk about her, you give her more respect and credit than she deserves. Then the next day they'd play the "Obama hates women" card. She's like a petulant child who misbehaves because she's in desperate need of attention. I say let her roll around on the floor kicking and screaming in the candy aisle while you go about your business. Not paying her any attention will hurt her more than anything you can say. Even she already realizes that she's stuck on stupid.

[harriettubman]

I loved it when Bob asked Obama if he thought Palin was qualified to be VP and he said the people will decide that. Good answer!

[RhinoCrossing]

McCain had the nerve to suggest that Palin was as smart as almost any American he knows. Clearly, he hangs out with mo-rons.

[harriettubman]

If McCain wins, I can see Palin in the halls of the Capitol telling people what to do in their own offices. Todd will be calling staff meetings inquiring about someone's behavior and then have his wife's assistants' calling to find out why they haven't answered him yet.

[whsmith]

ACORN = "destroying the fabric of democracy". McCain is such a drama queen

[harriettubman]

And when he put ACORN as "the largest voter fraud in the history of this country", I was like huh? ACORN has certainly had its share of problems and it fired the incompetent people but to turn them into some kind of conspiracy is absurd.

[UpstateNY]

Much of the fraud in the ACORN thing was perpertrated against them. Workers falsified registration data in order to be paid more.

The thing is that those 'false' registrations will never vote - most don't exist or live elsewhere. The vote doesn't get affected by this.

[BannedFromCommenting]

You can say that till you are blue in the face, to those that have already decided ACORN = Al QAEDA!!!

Funny ACORN used to be something sweet squirrels gathered, now its this Democracy destroying organization!! LOLOL!!

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Hasselbeck is going to lose her mind on the View today, ROFLMAO

[harriettubman]

E. D. Hill from Fox news was her replacement on the View the other day and does a much better job than EH any day. The woman is mature, cool, calm and collected. She didn't make one excuse for Republicans either. She has her own mind and not that of Sean Hannity.

[reddevil69]

i never see Mcmean adopt daughter anywhere? i see meghan mccain and cindy? where she's at?

[GrammieJ]

they did adopt a child, she has appeared a few times with the family. I think Cindy met her when she was on a "trip" somewhere.
With all their money, she could adopt a bunch of children!

[rofromchicago]

Actually what Cindy McCain did when she brought back Bridget from India was very nobel. Cindy brought back 2 Indian orphan girls. Cindy and John adopted one and named her Bridget. The other child was adopted by a friend. They hid her because she is dark skinned which is common among people of Indian heritage. They are afraid of what the white voters will think about this child. In the 2000 campaign, Bush ran negative commercials about John McCain insinuating that this child was an illegitimate black child that John McCain fathered and then adopted. What Bush did in the 2000 to John McCain and his campaign was despicable. It was actually this attack that was the downfall of John McCain in 2000. White voters ran from John McCain and voted for Bush. That is how we got stuck with Bush.

I am supporting Barak Obama but I think that the adoption of this child - if revealed more to the public would actually put John McCain in a better light especially with those Independent voters, but the McCain campaign has continued to hid her from the public view to protect her from public scrutiny and prejudice that exists among the white voters.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

She is kept in the background, from my understanding she has a disability.

[RThM]

Sure. She's dark-skinned. Can't have her accidentally photographed standing too close. It would confuse his "base."

[harriettubman]

She had a cleft lip and Cindy brought her home from India without even consulting her husband. When McCain met her at the plane, he asked Cindy where the baby was going. Cindy said "I was hoping she could go to our house." WTH??!!!

Bush used McCain's adopted daughter against him in the last election too. He spread that McCain had a black, illegitimate daughter by a prostitute and McCain's numbers plummeted. McCain's daughter is a darked skinned Bangladeshi. He was livid with Bush. That's why people can't believe McCain is so chummy with Bush now. What a mean spirited thing to do.

[LHoney]

Wow, my husband and I adopted twin boys from eastern europe - it took 2 years and about 200 pounds of paperwork. Nice that McCindy can just get on a plane with a baby without her husband's knowledge.­.

[ScottishJohn]

I may have mis-heard but did John McCain not say that Sarah Palin had a history of fighting corruption in Alaska and had resigned a position in protest.
If so, why has she not kept her place on the moral high ground and resigned when she has been found guilty of corruptly using her office.
Is it the case that one person' corruption is another's expediency?
I also thought that John McCain was tapping into red-neck Americanism when, in his closing remarks, he referred to the "Long-line of McCains who had served America".
Was this a none too subtle way of reminding his base supporters that Obama's roots are not to be found in the good old US of A?

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Who gives a D A M N about the "Long Line of McCains" what ever. I'm looking forward to the long line of Obama's.

[RThM]

That 'Long Line of McCains" is a misleading statement calculated to make you assume something that's not entirely truthful. Sure, there's a father and grandfathe­r... but then they start to turn into skeletons that didn't exactly serve the best interests of our union. Pretty short long line, if you ask me.

[Civil KStater]

I actually care. His Father and Grandfather were great Americans who lead our Navel Forces in some very difficult times. John McCain Sr has an airfield and 2 naval vessels named after him. One of the vessels is named for both McCain Sr and Jr. John McCain Sr and Jr are the only father-son to achieve 4 star admiral in the US Navy.

I find it interesting how people from very distinguished backgrounds handle the entitlement. It seems to me both W and McCain III, used their entitlement to get ahead at every turn. And each time they failed they used it to fail up the ladder. You know why he graduated 894th out of 899 in his Naval Academy class? Because he could.

This is why McCain wants the Presidency so bad. Its the only way he could ever reach a rank in the armed services higher than his namesakes. I have a great respect for John McCain but his desperation for the oval office has clouded his judgment and brought to light his hawkish personality.

[GrammieJ]

I thought his reaction to Palin was very revealing. He was searching for words, making up things as he was talking and just could not come up with anything about her that was positive.

I admire Obama for not blasting Palin on her problems with troopergate. Obama is such a gentleman, it showed up in the debate and it shows in her personal life. Michelle and her daughters are very lucky to have such a gentleman in the house. McCain,,,,,well he disrespects women, we can tell that from his remarks. Just shows what a "token" the Palin pick was.

[rovshan]

"Long line of McCains" oh God silly me I forgot we are a kingdom

all hail King Nothing!!

[harriettubman]

Even since the report came out, Palin said she did nothing wrong. DENIAL.

[TheBlackCat]

I agree that I do not care one lick about this. I am from Boston which is hugely populated by immigrants. 95% of the people I know are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation Americans, including myself. Just because your family has a long history in the US doesn't mean anything. What if they weren't good citizens? What if they were slave owners? And even if your ancestors WERE members of the Sons of Liberty themselves­...I just don't understand people who take pride in the accomplishments of OTHERS. I am certainly INTERESTED in and LOVE my Italian heritage and my ancestry..­.but I'm not about to act like what my ancestors did says ANYTHING about me. I am not going to take pride in acts I had nothing to do with.

[collprof]

The exchange of explanations regarding Ayers/Acorn took two minutes on Obama's part but still McCain kept going back to challenging Obama. This subject has been discussed at length for almost two years and prior to that for many months. It's a dead subject. If McCain and Palin continue to use Ayers at rallies after this debate it just proves once again that there is nothing the GOP has to stop Obama except lies and innuendo. Now that these two issues have been taken away from McCain my bet is we go onto Wright and then Chicago politics.

The American informed have heard all of this and they are sick of it and want the issues discussed. The radical GOP will cling to Ayers as rationale for voting for McCain. For them it doesn't matter if JC himself was running. They would call JC a community organizer with no experience and would say he cavorts with known prostitutes such as Mary Magdellan.

Let's see if "kill him", terrorist, traitor, Muslim are still shouted at the McCain/Palin rallies.

[BrighterStar]

Obama's story about ayers has changed and he is still not telling the truth

[TheBlackCat]

Have you even checked this for yourself? Have you gone to factcheck or politifact or any other non partisan fact checking website? Have you read articles from the press conferences Obama held regarding Ayers in which he talked ad nauseum about his association?

No, you obviously haven't, because if you did you would see the results have cleared him time and time again. You just listen to McCain and Palin beat a dead horse and you are so gullible you think "well, Mccain said this- it must be true"

I would NEVER believe something about McCain just because someone said it was true. For instance there was a Rolling Stone article lambasting McCain, but I completely ignored ANYTHING that was just one person's word- I only paid attention to things they could back up with facts, then I checked these facts myself on military.com.

I have respect enough for democarcy to take the time and find out ON MY OWN if something is true or not. You have so little respect for democracy that you think it's okay to just believe what someone tells you because it's what you want to hear, and don't even bother to find out for yourself.

You are the kind of person tyrants DEPEND on to get into power.

[mky267]

I took away a few interesting things from POTUS debate III:

1/ McCain tries to catch the attention of the moderator like a student looking for recognition from his teacher, he certainly doesn't project the 'alfa male' image that we are looking for in a natural born leader. Also in the way he has shown his admiration for David Petraeus tells me that once in office he will surround himself with real leaders and blindly follow their advice.

Obama leaves no doubt that he is willing to take charge of a situation and that he is the one that will be listened to.

2/ Did Obama really say 'Yo' a few times? I thought that was what he said until I realized that he was saying 'You know' really fast.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

LOL, it was "You Know"

[Apphouse50]

CNN has much better side-by-sides showing McSmirk (a/k/a McBlink) than MSNBC. This was one time I was happy that CNN has a larger audience, because they got plenty of viewing time to see McPOW do his nasty, angry old man thing. The CNN clip would likely be a lot better here.

[dayala]

I was glad they did the split screen image, one of the anchors commented other stations were not doing the split screen comparison. McCain looked like he was about to explode at times and was having a hard time containing himself and used facial posturing as a mechanism to release pressure.