Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

One disappointing aspect of this year’s campaign is that, rather than campaigning on the actual issues, John McCain has decided to run a dishonest Rove-style campaign. His campaign is primarily based upon smears rather than issues, and when he does discuss issues he frequently distorts Obama’s views to engage in straw man attacks. McCain’s smears against Obama are based upon misinformation, often concentrating on attacks not on Obama himself but on people he has had any type of association with, regardless of how trivial.

The irony to this line of attack is not only that John McCain has had far more meaningful associations with extremists (here and here), but that McCain has had associations with some of the same people he has attacked Obama for having associated with. Yesterday Marc Ambinder wrote of an association between McCain and Acorn. Today Andrew Sullivan finds an interesting connection between McCain and William Ayers:

Republican machers Walter and Leonora Annenberg gave the former terrorist $50 million. They also gave money to Rick Santorum, Strom Thurmond and Mitt Romney. Annenberg was Nixon’s ambassador to Britain. If Obama is “palling around with terrorists,” the Republican Annenbergs are funding them.

Yesterday, the McCain campaign put out a press release boasting that Leonore Annenberg had just endorsed him for president. Why is McCain happy to accept the endorsement of a funder of terrorism?

Obama is directly referring to the Ayers connection in a new radio ad:

“Bill Ayers is a professor of education who once served with Obama on a school reform board, a board funded by conservative Republicans tied to McCain,” says the ad’s narrator. “When Ayers committed crimes in the ’60s, Obama was 8 years old. Obama condemned those despicable acts. Ayers has had no role in Obama’s campaign, and will have no role in his administration.”

“And John McCain? With no plan to fix our economy, smears are all he has left,” says the narrator.