McCain to Attack Obama's Alleged Ties to Former Radical

Oct. 5, 2008— -- For the past six months, McCain campaign strategists have been saying they are getting ready to play the "Ayers card" — that is, to attack Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for his alleged association with the former Weather Underground radical William Ayers, who admitted bombing government buildings in 1960's.

For six months, they have largely held off. Until now.

It appears the McCain campaign is finally preparing to launch a forceful assault on Obama's character by portraying him as having a cozy relationship with a man it calls an "unrepentant terrorist," even though there is scant evidence that the two men were much more than acquaintances who happened to serve together on two not-for-profit boards several years ago.

But with McCain now trailing Obama in a number of key battleground states and time running short, it appears his campaign is finally preparing to play the Ayers card — whatever it is.

On Saturday, McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, accused Obama of "palling around" with a terrorist.

The Washington Post reported that a new McCain offensive to be launched this week will include an attack on Obama for his supposed connections to Ayers and his relationship with Rezko.

The late-game strategy appears to be try to sow doubts about the Democratic nominee under the general rubric of: "Who is Barack Obama?"

The Obama campaign says it is responding with a pre-emptive strike against McCain, with an ad calling him "out of touch on the economy" and wanting to "change the subject" to negative attacks.

Obama's putative ties to Ayers first came up back in April at the Democratic debate before the Pennsylvania primary, when ABC News' George Stephanopoulos asked Obama about it.

Obama said: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense."

A few days later, on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," McCain commented on it.