BURLINGAME, Calif. — Sarah Palin defended her claim that Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists,” saying the Democratic presidential nominee’s association with a 1960s radical is an issue that is “fair to talk about.”
Obama has denounced the radical views and actions of Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground group during the Vietnam era.
On Sunday, he dismissed the criticism from the John McCain campaign, leveled by Palin, as “smears” meant to distract voters from real problems such as the economy.
Palin launched the attack Saturday, repeating it at three events and signaling a new strategy by McCain’s presidential campaign to go after Obama’s character.
Obama and Ayers have served on the same Chicago charity and live near each other. Ayers also held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s, the event cited by Palin.
But while Ayers and Obama are acquainted, the charge that they “pal around” is a stretch of any reading of the public record.
And it’s simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts. Obama was 8 years old at the time the Weather Underground claimed credit for numerous bombings, including one that killed a San Francisco policeman.
At a rally in North Carolina, Obama countered that McCain and his campaign “are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance.”
During her stop in California, Palin was asked about an Associated Press analysis that said her charge about Ayers was unsubstantiated.
“The Associated Press is wrong,” Palin said. “The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn’t been talked about.”
In fact, Obama was questioned about Ayers during a prime-time Democratic debate against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton prior to April’s Pennsylvania primary.
Palin, recharged after last week’s debate, is animating the party’s conservative wing with harsh attacks against Obama.
On Sunday, she was headed for a rally in Omaha — Nebraska is one of the two states in the nation that can split their electoral votes.
