Obama Breaks Recent Silence on Ayers
“Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fact that he had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I was eight years old at the time and I assumed that he had been rehabilitated,” he told radio host Michael Smerconish. “This guy is not part of my inner circle, he doesn’t advise my campaign, he’s not going to advise me as president,” Obama added, and criticized McCain for focusing on Ayers when the economy is in turmoil, calling the issue a “red herring.” “The fact that Senator McCain wants to make this the centerpiece of his campaign is pretty remarkable. We are going through an enormous challenge right now.”
“…associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.”
After the jump: A new Obama ad airing in North Carolina…Obama’s plan for small businesses…how Obama predicted this week’s GOP attacks four months ago..fact-checking a new “527″ ad that links Obama to the early release of sex abusers.
New Ad Airing in North Carolina
Obama Pledges Credit Help to Small Businesses
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) - Barack Obama says if he’s elected president, small businesses will get some help to make it through the current financial crisis.
At a campaign appearance in Ohio, the Democratic presidential candidate noted that with credit markets frozen, small business often struggle to get the short-term loans they need to make their payrolls and other payments. He says an Obama administration would provide “affordable, fixed-rate loans to small businesses,” much as the government did shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
He says his plan would temporarily waive fees for borrowers and lenders. That, he says, would “unlock the credit that small firms need to move forward, pay their workers, and grow their business.”
Read more of remarks he made today here.
Below: Obama predicted these past two weeks back on June 30th:
Here Come the 527 Ads:
More on the above ad from Politico:
An ad running in Pittsburgh by a third party group claims Barack Obama voted as a state senator to give early release to sexual abusers.
The spot is being paid for by a newly-incorporated outfit, The Committee for Truth in Politics. The group was registered by a William Peaslee, a former top aide at the North Carolina GOP and currently a Raleigh-area attorney. Peaslee’s group has also been in on the air in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina going after Obama on abortion.
Asked about the accusation, Obama’s campaign said the Democrat had simply registered his vote incorrectly and corrected the record that same day.
The state Senate floor transcript from the day, March 11th, 1999, includes this from Obama: “For purpose of correction. I pressed the wrong button on that. I wanted to vote Yes.”
The mishap was brought up in Obama’s 2004 Senate run, and, as he later recounted in his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” his adviser David Axelrod presciently predicted it would arise again in the form of an ad:
“As is standard practice these days, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had prepared a fat binder of opposition research on me before I was even nominated, and my own research team spent many hours combing through my record in an effort to anticipate what negative ads the Republicans might have up their sleeves. They didn’t find a lot, but they found enough to do the trick— a dozen or so votes that, if described without context, could be made to sound pretty scary…Running down the list, I came across a claim that while in the state legislature I had voted against a bill to “protect our children from sex offenders.” “Wait a minute,” I said, snatching the sheet from David’s hands. “I accidentally pressed the wrong button on that bill. I meant to vote aye, and had it immediately corrected in the official record.” David smiled. “Somehow I don’t think that portion of the official record will make it into a Republican ad.” He gently retrieved the poll from my hands. “Anyway, cheer up,” he added, clapping me on the back. “I’m sure this will help you with the sex offender vote.”
