John McCain's "Ayers Connection"

Yesterday morning, the McCain campaign released a list of 100 former ambassadors who've endorsed his run for president. The second name on that list was Leonore Annenberg, currently the president and chairman of the Annenberg Foundation, widow of ambassador and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, and "chief of protocol" at the State Department under Ronald Reagan.

If that last name sounds familiar, it's because it also graces the name of the Chicago education board where Barack Obama and William Ayers sat in the room six times together. Oopsie. . . the McCain-Palin ticket (and particularly Palin) has repeatedly faulted Obama recently for having served on that board with Ayers, who was a founding member of the radical 60's Weather Underground group when Obama was in grade school.

Regardless, Ayers was cleared by authorities decades ago, and has been rehabilitated in Chicago society, carving out a niche in education circles. A former Republican representative in Illinois told NPR on Monday, that smearing Obama for his board association with Ayers is "nonsensical."

"It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier ... It's ridiculous," Republican Rep. Diana Nelson said. "There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

Obama responded to McCain and Palin's bogus attacks the following day:

Obama: "Say it to my face, John McCain"

Obama Plays Offense for Second Day in a Row

For the second straight day, Obama is taking the offensive on energy. Once again, he is painting the presumptive Republican nominee as a stooge of Big Oil, a clone of George Bush, and a roadblock to any meaningful policy reform:

McCain put Obama on $100 bill in JUNE

John McCain protested Barack Obama's statement "I don't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills", calling it the race card. Well. . .I wwonder why he played that exact same card in a June 27, 2008 attack ad:



Jed Lewison points out:

(Side note: As you can see, the video's still image is of Obama on currency. Note that the image doesn't occur until about three-quarters of the way through the video. The way YouTube works, the default image occurs at the midpoint. In other words, McCain's campaign affirmatively choose this image.)