Obama's link to '60s radical fuels new attacks

WASHINGTON -- Republican John McCain's campaign spent the weekend trying to tie the Democratic nominee to a 1960s radical. "It's really important for Americans to start knowing who the real Barack Obama is," vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Sunday in Long Beach, Calif.

Palin led the attacks that Republicans took up across the television dial. The focus was on Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground who lives near Obama in Chicago, served with him on two charity boards and held a reception for him in 1995.

"It goes to the issue of judgment," Minnesota's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said on ABC's This Week. "What kind of judgment would allow an unrepentant domestic terrorist to host a political event for you in his home?"

Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell shot back: "They're starting to do the politics of personal destruction. The American people and here in Pennsylvania, we're not going to buy that."

On Saturday in Carson, Calif., Palin accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country" and added, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

She said she based her remarks on a New York Times article that appeared Saturday. That article and others describe the relationship between Obama and Ayers as not close.

The new GOP tack comes as the economic crisis increasingly dominates the campaign and new polls show Obama growing stronger in key battleground states. A Columbus Dispatch poll put the race at Obama 49%, McCain 42% in Ohio, while a Minneapolis Star Tribune poll gave Obama an 18-point lead in Minnesota. A Denver Post poll of Colorado showed the race deadlocked 44%-44%.

Two of the biggest opportunities left to shake things up are the debates Tuesday and Oct. 15. "The best chance the McCain campaign has right now is to turn the campaign back into a referendum on Obama. They're going to throw everything they possibly can at him," GOP strategist Todd Harris said.

Obama denounced the tactic Sunday in Asheville, N.C. "Sen. McCain has announced that they plan to turn the page on the … economy and spend the final weeks of this campaign launching Swift Boat-style attacks on me," he said, referring to attacks on 2004 nominee John Kerry's military record. "The policies he's supported these past eight years and the policies he wants to continue are pretty hard to defend. I can understand why Sen. McCain would want to 'turn the page.' "