WE Blog

John McCain’s campaign has begun a concentrated effort to undermine Barack Obama’s character, GOP strategists said. In addition to a television advertisement attacking Obama’s honesty, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists.” She was referring to former Vietnam-era radical William Ayers, who hosted a fundraiser for Obama a decade ago (and whose views and past actions Obama already has denounced).
Meanwhile, Obama is fighting back against what he calls “Swift boat-style attacks” with a Web video about McCain’s membership in the Keating Five and involvement in the savings-and-loan scandals of 20 years ago (which McCain already has called “the worst mistake of my life”).

Sarah Palin and John McCain have tried to blame her disjointed television interviews on the “media elite,” but it just doesn’t fly. Both have accused the media of “gotcha journalism” for asking follow up questions when she has tried to avoid answers. Friday, while pledging to be more available for questions from voters and the media, Palin complained: “If you cease to answer a question, you’re going to get clobbered on the answer. If you choose to try to pivot and go on to another subject that you believe that Americans want to hear about, you get clobbered for that, too.” There a simple solution: Answer questions.