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Obama seeks to silence ad tying him to 60s radical

Aug 25, 2008
By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer

Obama Connection to Capitol Bomber William Ayers Topic of New Ad

Opponents Await Release of Documents That May Explain Obama's Links to '60s
Radical

DENVER (AP) - Barack Obama is striking back fiercely and swiftly to stamp
out an ad that links him to a 1960s radical, eager to demonstrate a far more
aggressive response to attacks than John Kerry did when faced with the 2004
"Swift Boat" campaign.

Obama not only aired a response ad to the spot linking him to William Ayers,
but he sought to block stations airing the commercial by warning station
managers and asking the Justice Department to intervene. The campaign also
planned to compel advertisers to pressure stations that continue to air the
anti-Obama commercial.

It's the type of going-for-the-jugular approach to politics many Democrats
complain that Kerry lacked and that Republicans exploit.

Obama's target is an ad by the conservative American Issues Project, a
nonprofit group that questions Obama's ties to Ayers, a founder of the
Weather Underground organization that took credit for a series of bombings,
including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades
ago.

The lone financier of the anti-Obama ad, Texas billionaire Harold Simmons,
was also one of the main funders of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who
targeted Kerry. Simmons, a McCain fundraiser, contributed nearly $2.9
million to the American Issues Project, according to documents filed by the
group with the Federal Election Commission.

Fox News and CNN have declined to air the anti-Obama ad. But by Monday
afternoon, the ad had run about 150 times in local markets in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Virginia and Michigan, according to Evan Tracey, head of TNS Media
Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, an ad tracking firm.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama supporters have inundated stations
that are airing the ad, many of them owned by Sinclair Communications, with
93,000 e-mails. He called the ad false, despicable and outrageous.

"Other stations that follow Sinclair's lead should expect a similar response
from people who don't want the political discourse cheapened with these
false, negative attacks," Vietor said.

Sinclair offices were closed late Monday and officials there could not be
immediately contacted.

"It seems they protest a bit too much," American Issues Project spokesman
Christian Pinkston said. "They're going all of these routes-through threats,
intimation-to try to thwart the First Amendment here because they don't have
an argument on merit."

Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and
Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and served together on the
board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community
groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002.

Obama also was the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a
school reform group of which Ayers was a founder. Ayers also held a
meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for
office in the mid-1990s.

Obama has denounced Ayers' past activities.

"Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as, quote, 'Respectable'
and 'Mainstream,'" the group's ad states. "Obama's political career was
launched in Ayers' home. And the two served together on a left-wing board.
Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is
proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"

In a letter to station managers, Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer wrote:
"Your station is committed to operating in the public interest, an objective
that cannot be satisfied by accepting for compensation material of such
malicious falsity."

Bauer also wrote to Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Keeney, noting
that the ad is a "knowing and willful attempt to evade the strictures of
federal election law."

The campaign's aggressive tactics could draw more attention to a subject the
campaign wants to go away. On Tuesday, the University of Illinois at Chicago
will make available records of Obama's service on the board of the Chicago
Annenberg Challenge. The group was set up to improve the city's schools. The
documents could shed further light on whether Obama and Ayers had a
relationship.

The American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation. It is
permitted by law to air a political ad provided that the majority of its
spending is nonpolitical. It cannot accept money from corporations and it
must identify the donors that finance its ads in reports to the Federal
Election Commission. Pinkston said the group has set aside money to carry
out non-election related work to meet the legal requirements. It filed a
report identifying Simmons as its sole donor for the ad last week.

In the Obama campaign's own response ad, an announcer states: "With all our
problems, why is John McCain talking about the 60s, trying to link Barack
Obama to radical Bill Ayers. McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers' crimes,
committed when Obama was just 8 years old."

The McCain campaign cannot coordinate efforts with outside groups. But the
campaign took advantage of being the target of the response ad.

"The fact that Barack Obama chose to launch his political career at the home
of an unrepentant terrorist raises more questions about Senator Obama's
judgment than any TV ad ever could," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.