McCain camp: Obama is 'radical,' pals around with terrorists

Pegged to a Times story that adds nothing to the theory that Obama and Bill Ayers were particularly close, the McCain camp is focusing on that association again today, in an attempt to move the conversation beyond the economic issues on which Obama looks to spend the last month of the race.

Palin hit Obama a bit harder on this than McCain has in the past.

"There's been a lot of interest in what I read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago. Turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to The New York Times, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol,'" Palin said today, according to a transcript distributed by the campaign. "These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes. This is not a man who sees America as you and I do — as the greatest force for good in the world.

"This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country," Palin concluded, in the hardest shot of the statement.

The McCain camp also has a second statement out, responding to Obama's attack on McCain's health care plan as "radical."

"On a day when new reports have surfaced about Barack Obama's long association with a domestic terrorist, our Democratic opponent had the audacity to call John McCain's health care plan 'radical.' The American people know radical when they hear it, and John McCain is not the candidate in this election they should be concerned about," said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan responded:

Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills. In fact, the very newspaper story Governor Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Senator Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less "pals," and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was eight. What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.