Under the realm of those who live in glass houses, they shouldn’t bring up past associations. Today the Obama campaign unveiled a new ad attacking Senator McCain by attempting to link him to Jack Abramhoff, the convicted lobbyist, through Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition whose is tied to the Abramhoff scandal. The McCain campaign didn’t waste any time responding and further complicating the political ambitions of the very junior Senator from Illinois. Brian Rogers, spokesman for the McCain campaign, responded with this:
“Barack Obama’s ad is ridiculous. Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail.
However, if Barack Obama wants to have a discussion about truly questionable associations, let’s start with his relationship with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, at whose home Obama’s political career was reportedly launched. Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group responsible for countless bombings against targets including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and numerous police stations, courthouses and banks. In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, ‘I don’t regret setting bombs… I feel we didn’t do enough.’
“The question now is, will Barack Obama immediately call on the University of Illinois to release all of the records they are currently withholding to shed further light on Senator Obama’s relationship with this unrepentant terrorist?”
The McCain campaign is doing what the Clinton largely chose not to do, that is, make an issue of all of the unsavory characters in Obama’s recent past. While McCain too has some past associations that have lurked in his long political career, Charles Keating for example, those are largely well-known and thus discounted. Apart from the Reverend Wright, who has yet to make a fiery reappearance in the general election, Obama’s past associations are not as well known and for the very junior Senator from Illinois they represent a veritable minefield of potentially derailing distractions.