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

[Indie2008]

Two very revealing moments for McCain were, first, when he revealed his indignation that Rep. John Lewis would dare question McCain's character and motive regarding inciting his audience. He could barely contain himself. The other was his lame attempt to justify Sarah Palin as his VP choice. Only able to cite her "work with special needs children", and her husband being a pretty tough guy.!

[1Smartchik]

It was so funny when Roland Martin said if John McCain wants any apology then call John Lewis,it was so funny!

[harriettubman]

Yeah, Todd Palin thinks he's the assistant to whatever position his wife gets. LOL...

[bob8788]

Obama is so cool , he should be a freaking movie star , he would go far

http://www.barackobamacans.blogspot.com/

[amistad]

Obama doesn't need to look for a second job; he will be too busy serving as President of the United States.
Perhaps McCain should got out to Hollywood to try to restart his career....

[BushDoctoring]

1. When McCain says "My campaign is about economy", Barack nearly fell of his chair. LOL
2. Should talking eloquently be mocked?
3. McCain doesn't get it that most independents don't buy into hero/country first bs.

[unislam]

cuz after all, independents are, uh independent?? you who are independent dont' need a talkin head to tell you we all get to share the wealth and he alone will create jobs with gummit assistance.

the hero/country first IS BS for you who mock soldiers from the comfort of your college campus dorm room. You'll eventually get a job, albeit at the mosque, cleaning the blood and brains from the marble "cleansing area" walls

gotta ethnic cleanse this hell hole we collectively call amurika, yeah come on

this is all a video game to you BushDoctoring, isn't it?
have you hacked any code today?
serve your country

[woodwakr]

To 'Unislam':

I don't know what medications you are on, so I'll say this slowly and carefully...

Being a hero and putting country first isn't BS. It's only BS when it's being used, as McCain is doing, in a BS way.

Everyone in the USA, top to bottom, 'shares the wealth.' Everyone pays for roads, schools, hospitals, defense, air traffic control, safety testing, research, etc. And everyone uses them.

It is a fantasy of deranged right-wing nut-jobs that college students and liberals mock soldiers. This does not happen. It's a Limbaugh/Rove-type invention to make you angry at them for something they haven't done.

[1Smartchik]

He had to bring that up again, I forgot what it was,but he did and what about the pandering with disabled kids, he has never ever said anything about helping kids with special needs and last night he kept repeating it. He is so , I don't even have the words.

[Stephanie71]

I love how Obama called him on his spending freeze; asking him how he was going to pay for his programs to help special needs families if he was going to freeze spending on anything new.

[swanie]

Also remember that Ayers WAS NEVER CONVICTED of anything ! ! !

Unlike the Keating 5, McBush who CONFESSES to his captors, and so on.
.

[missjabez]

I am at a loss to understand how McCain can condescend to Obama, a man who has degrees from Columbia and Harvard, and who did not graduate at the bottom of his class! McCain kind of reminds me of Hillary in the primaries;he believes he is entitled to be POTUS, and he can't believe that this young upstart is getting in his way. He's finding like Hillary did, that his attacks against Obama just don't stick. McCain is old enough to be Obama's father, but Obama strikes me as more mature and controlled. It was obvious last night that McCain was furious, and was ready to explode.

[1Smartchik]

They are saying Obama is too calm, I am a Leo like Obama and I am like that it takes a lot to get me angry. I don't get angry a lot.

[polarbearlost]

I see Obama as controlled and presidential. He is in control of situations.

[unislam]

degrees from columbia and harvard do not make successful business people, nor leaders of community organizations.
EXPERIENCE
Ask yourself, do you like being interrupted, as yo homeboy just couldn't help himself from doing?
How many times did yo messiah take the floor from the HONORABLE MC CAIN? At least 5 times let me remind you.
I don't like being interrupted either - you people find it ok because you have such a short term memory and you need to speak before you lose your focus.

MC CAIN was absolutely composed.
NObaaama was ruffled

Go and look yourself

[MichaelDeane]

What is it with you knee jerks?

Experience? In what, confessing to your captors? Changing positions to maximize your chances at winning? Totally denying who you are and what you once stood for? Projecting by claiming "Country first" when yopu run a "Me first" campaign?

Get a clue and wake up to President Obama!

[Rimser]

What debate were you watching? The one I saw showed McGrumpy at his blood-boiling finest with Obama cool as as cucumber. And think, for a minute (if you can) -- do you stand by politely while someone makes up lies about you or do you call them on it? Of course not. As near as I can tell, McGrumpy left his honor on the campaign trail in 2000 (probably in a rest stop somewhere).

[jelly450]

McCain is Not HONORABLE.

Only the sheep will walk away thinking that McCain was composed and unfortunately this time the sheep will not be enough for him to win this election.

This is our moment, this is our time

[ZeroKiwi]

don't worry, "yo" racial interjections didn't go unnoticed...

[TheBlackCat]

Sorry my friend, no one agrees with you. Every news source is stating Obama won hands down.

I watched the debate on Fox News- this is the station whose focus group said almost unanimously that Palin beat Biden.

However, this time, their focus group almost unanimously stated that Obama won. Also, most of the undecideds in the focus group said that this debate makes them more likely to vote for Obama.

Even McCain's most reliable base, his fox news focus group people, think he's a loser.

[PowerPridePinstripes]

Obama is like Teflon...
... excuse me, Mr. President is like Teflon!

OBAMA / BIDEN '08/'12...

[NaturesNurturer]

Did anyone else just think McCain's strategy came across as bizarre?? He's in mid-sentence talking about it not being important what Ayers has done but it still being important that Obama tell the American people his associations (even though Obama JUST DID THAT) and then he just switches over to 'Obama is going to raise your taxes.' I was like, "HUH?"

This man is scary. PTSD rears its head again like Putin. ;p

[scrutiny1]

McCain is sounding more and more like Palin. I'd hate to be subjected to a conversation with the two of them. Both of them are out of touch and neither know what they're talking about.

[dayala]

I agree, in mid-sentence he states he doesn't care about Ayers a radical from the '60's, I wish Obama had been fast-thinking and interjected "then why have you spent the last 3 weeks building your entire campaign around him instead of focusing on the economic issues that are of paramount concern to the American people?"

when McCain said he's not Bush...blah...blah I wish Obama would have seized that opportunity and said...."by your own admission you supported Bush 90% of the time, you avidly endorsed and advocated strongly for the Iraq War, you stated you were an staunch supporter of deregulation and voted with the Bush policies that gave us the collapse of Enron, Worldcom and now Wall Street...your record speaks for itself Sen McCain".

[dayala]

something else, when McCain started in with the "if you had participated in the Town Hall Meetings with me......bl­ah...blah"

I wish Obama would have said:
"look the American people are concerned about jobs, healthcare, energy costs...etc and not the "because you didn't do what I wanted you to do therefore I am going to attack you" mentality.

I can't believe in the final debate McCain was still obsessed with the town hall meetings that Obama smartly decided was not a good strategic move. Every attempt McCain tried to control the strategy of the Obama campaign backfired.

[lillyhammer]

Bringing up the townhall meetings AGAIN and saying that the tone of the campaign would be different if only Obama had participated, shouts volumes about Mc "you hurt my feelings" Cain's demeanor.

[polarbearlost]

I thought I was falling asleep inbetween words until I realized McCain was switching topics so quickly. It was bizarre, uncontrolled. He is an angry old man indignant that Obama DARE run for president.

[Stephanie71]

Much like his campaign. When one angle of attack isn't working switch to another.

[Samshade77]

After Mr. Obama explained the situation , Mr. Mccain reverted back to talking points lol. wow.

[Missmn]

The headline is deceiving: the question was asked by Bob Schieffer.

Obama was masterful at answering this question: calm and factual and it pissed McCain off and I think here more than any other place is where McCain lost his footing. He never regained it and spent the rest of the night frantically (one might say erratically) lobbing attacks at Obama that didn't hit.

The assertion that A.C.O.R.N. is somehow threatening to unravel the fabric of Democracy was, I thought, just amazing. Desperation is not a pretty thing.

[1Smartchik]

I thought he said he was going to bring it, he didn't do anything. He was passive aggressive about Ayers and when Obama said that's not true about Ayers, the news people did not catch that part, because Obama said it kind of low.

[MrKINOKO]

Part 1...

Simply go back to the old newsreels of the 1950's, substitute McCain for Joe McCarthy, the "Commie Hunter", and substitute ACORN for "Communism", and it's blatantly obvious that McOutOfTouch is attempting to pander to the Shuffleboard posse ( people like the old woman in Minn. with the "Arab" thing ) by evoking "The Red Menace", equating Obama to the Rosenbergs, and playing to that rusty ol' GOP ace of "us against them". Fortunately for an America on the brink of becoming 'Rome 2' , only the most rabid of Palinites are buying it this time. This "Commie Hunting" is the same insidious attitude that led the US Government to STAGE THE GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT in the waters of N. Vietnam, that ultimately cost us 58,000 American lives, untold numbers of Vietnamese civilians/soldiers, and our standing in the world community as a society of fairness and unreproachable honor. ACORN is an innocent victim in this debacle, victimized by the same type of unprincipled individuals as we have here in NYC, where the Police Officers write you tickets like crazy at the end of the month to meet their city-mandated "quota"...as much as they vehemently insist otherwise. My advice to you, ACORN? Sue McCain for defamation of character...it's a slam-dunk case for you.

[TheBlackCat]

It's so true. Watching Mccain at this debate I was really reminded of the newsreel I've seen from the famous McCarthy hearing in which the "have you no sense of decency left, sir?" line was spoken. McCarthy kept going after Welch not even for anything HE'D done, but because some lawyer he had worked with had been part of a "questionable" society in college. Then even after Welch said the whole decency line and clearly stated that it was ridiculous that McCarthy was going after HIM for something a COLLEAGUE of his had done in COLLEGE, McCarthy didn't even blink, just kept right on the same line of attack as if Welch hadn't said anything.

McCain with Ayers was just like that. Granted Ayers had definitely been involved in a dangerous radical group whereas Welch's associate had simply gone to a few meetings in college that never resulted in any kind of violence. But Obama was right on the mark in saying that the fact the McCain is trying to try him for guilt by association (when MANY MANY high profile Republicans held the SAME ASSOCIATION with Ayers) says a LOT more McCain than it does about Obama.

[MrKINOKO]

Part 2...


And a piece of advice for Mr. McCain: wrap up Joe the Plumber, ACORN, Ayers, Rezko, et al, up in a big mooseskin parka, bundle up Sister Sarah in it, and ship the whole package back up north to Alaska...along with whatever tattered remants of your shoddy campaign that are still holding on by it's last fingernail. It's over.

[MrKINOKO]

omg...am I being censored?

[vippy]

Too bad that Obama did not pick up on Palin's Huband, Todd, who McCain said is a great guy - his
association with AIP is embarrassing. I figured Obama was very eloquent the way he answered
the question about vice presidents.

[gvc]

I don't agree. O's tactic was to marginalize the attacks. Launching his own would amplify and legitimize them. He did right.

[lola85]

I thought Obama handled the Ayers and AKORN topic beautifully, especially when he said that topic of Ayers took up so much of McCain's campaign that it told us more about McCain that it did about him. Well done.

Great job Obama!!!!!

Obama/Biden '08
Keep HOPE alive

[georgebush4obama]

sam stein, don't spin, Obama brought it up, thus, it undercut mccain's promise to bring it up.

[boogiewoman]

McMean thinks in his mind that her deserves to be Potus. All he could say about his running mate, she is a reformer. Yea you betca, he doesn't even know her kid has Downs Syndrome. What a scary man he is.

[Tropiholic]

mc*gaffe isn't cut out for tv, his mannerisms, demeanor and face are best suited to radio.

[duze]

Didn't work for Hillary the first time, didn't work this time. The long conversation that she admitted she had with John McCain was nothing more than prep for the questions she wanted highlighted in McCains campaign. Again the Clinton's refuse to leave the building. The Clinton's are not the Democratic Party, they need to get over it. All of Hillary's so-called support was as transparent as she is. Support Oama, yeah right.

[pleasethinkwomen]

I agree completely. Outward *just enough* show of support to seem like they (HC and BC) are on the team, and continual sabotaging under the radar (mostly) in an effort clear the path for 2012. Anyone wonder where James Carville has been these past months? My guess is that he is leading the charge.

[McChimp]

enough with attacking the Clintons, you are about as low as McCain's campaign.

[jfh]

Enough with the attacks on the Clintons ---- with you idiots no matter what the Clintons do it is NEVER enough

and if they do EXACTLY what you want them to do you post $h*t like these two idiots pleasethinkwomen and duze

[onenvrnos]

I could hardly stand to watch this debate. McCain is SO condescending--not just to Obama, but anyone of color or to anyone who dare challenges his sacredness. Somehow, he thinks he really is above the fray--when in fact, he instigates it and stokes it. Yuck is what I felt watching this condescending jerk.

[Mahi Joe]

That is the one word that kept popping into my mind the entire time I watched and listened to McCain, CONDESCENDING. McCain has this aura of arrogance about him that suggests that he is not the type of person who would listen to others unless they were in 100% agreement with his ideology. McCain's attitude reeked of dismissiveness.

Obama on the other hand did what he did best. Gave straight honest answers to all of McCain's unfounded accusations and put the record straight. I am so glad Obama chose to stick to the high road. It truly showed anyone who watched who really had leadership qualities and who did not.