McCain to Attack Obama's Alleged Ties to Former Radical

But the expected major attack never happened.

Then, this past summer, a conservative group called The American Issues Project, some of whose members had ties to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that attacked Sen. John Kerry in 2004, spent $2.8 million on television ads in Ohio that sought to link Obama to Ayers.

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Independently, in late August, Schmidt told ABC News that the McCain campaign planned to start hitting Obama with both Ayers and Tony Rezko, a Chicago developer and Obama friend who was convicted on federal corruption charges in June.

About Ayers, Schmidt said: "(Obama) understates his relationship with him. He does have a relationship which is deeper than what's previously said about it. It's a fair issue to discuss."

Again, the promised attack didn't come. What may have held it off is that the McCain camp and the Republican National Committee, which has also been looking for damage evidence of a Obama-Ayers relationship, has never been able to find much more to than what is known: Obama was at Ayers's house once 13 years ago. They served together on two boards. Their children went to the same school.