Monday, October 13, 2008

Let's drop the accusations...



"He Lied" About Bill Ayers?
McCain cranks out some false and misleading attacks on Obama's connection to a 1960s radical.

Summary
In a TV ad, McCain says Obama "lied" about his association with William Ayers, a former bomb-setting, anti-war radical from the 1960s and '70s. We find McCain's claim to be groundless. New details have recently come to light, but nothing Obama said previously has been shown to be false.

In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they "pal around" together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.

McCain says in an Internet ad that the two "ran a radical 'education' foundation" in Chicago. But the supposedly "radical" group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain's campaign this year. Education Week says the group's work "reflected mainstream thinking" among school reformers. The group was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, started by a $49 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the publisher Walter Annenberg, a prominent Republican whose widow, Leonore, is a contributor to the McCain campaign.

(FactCheck.org, which is nonpartisan, also receives funding from the Annenberg Foundation. But we are in no way connected to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which finished its work long before we came into being in late 2003.)

For full details, please read on to our Analysis section.

Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site: FactCheck.org

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

FactCheck is getting some recognition in the media. In this campaign, it's easy to see who the real liars are. They've been instrumental in that. Thanks for this post.

Looking forward to Ruby Tuesday. Thank you so much for this fun photo meme.

Maggie Moo said...

I really admire how you write posts about your views and never let anyone bully you into not doing so.

And I'd feel that way even if I weren't an Obama fan. :)

Maddy said...

I've been listening to the fact checker on NPR. Sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees.
Best wishes

Gattina said...

This gets ridiculous ! McCain will dig out the content of Obama's diapers if it continues like that !

Raven said...

This Ayer's stuff is such nonsense. Factchecker.org is good.

Someone - can't remember who - pointed out in an article at Huffington Post, McCain has his own terrorist association which is much more substantial than Obama's, so called friendship. That's with J. Gordon Liddy who he recently praised effusively while appearing on his radio show. McCain seems to have lost himself - except for rare moments like when he briefly saw how far his campaign's rhetoric is taking people - but then he seems has allowed his campaign to keep up the ugliness. Sad.