"Palling Around with Terrorists" - Sarah Palin Attacks Barack Obama Relationship with William Ayers

The political process can be and is described in various ways but there is always the understanding that an undercurrent of unseemliness is involved, that something underhanded or hidden lurks just beneath the surface of the apparent and the seen. The hint of the illicit deal or the subtlety of the unsavory nuance or connection is ever present. And attacking one's opponent, whether it be a legitimate, honest endeavor or a thinly veiled character assassination, plays upon this understanding the public has of the process.

And politics is about winning, hence its dirtiness.

According to the Associated Press, Sarah Palin twice Saturday at political rallies charged Barack Obama with "palling around with terrorists," citing a New York Times article that investigated Senator Obama's possible connections with the 60's radical and one time Weather Underground member William Ayers. What Palin does not go on to illuminate, however, is that the Times said that there was no indication that Senator Obama had any dealings with Ayers other than an acquaintanceship due to proximity (both lived in the same Chicago neighborhood), being on the same charity board, and a temporary political connection. There was no indication of "palling around."

In fact, Senator Obama has denounced the political views of William Ayers, who co-founded the Weatherman Underground organization, which committed terrorist acts during the 1960's, including bombings in which people were killed. However, Ayers never served time in prison, although several members of the radical group did. While the organization prevailed, Senator Obama was a child.

Palin's comment in Colorado: "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She made a similar statement later in the day in California.

Some would call the remarks dirty politics. Others would call it politics as usual.

Sarah Palin's terrorist remarks, while misleading and incendiary, are to be expected. The McCain-Palin ticket is dropping in the polls, even losing ground in traditional Republican-leaning states like Florida and Virginia. According to Real Clear Politics, not even the GW/Battleground poll, which is the only poll in the last two weeks to show numbers favorable to Senator McCain, denies Obama the lead, placing the senator from Illinois 3 points ahead of the senator from Arizona.

According to most political analysts, with the economy on the downturn and the crisis involving American financial institutions making daily headlines, Senator McCain has little choice but to take the low road if he wishes to win the presidency. In other words, the McCain-Palin ticket is going to get dirty.

Not that they haven't already with certain political ads, such as the extremely misleading ad that claimed Barack Obama supported a bill while in Illinois for sex education for kindergarteners. The legislation actually called for age-appropriate sex education for pre-schoolers through high schoolers.

And Palin can utter such a remark, where the backlash against Senator McCain would have been extraordinary. She's not running for president, and she is expected to go on the attack. McCain has been trying to suggest that his campaign has been and is above that sort of character-attacking.

Apparently, falling behind in the polls produces a change in the rules of restraint (if they were ever actually there. Remember, Senator McCain hired professional political hit man Tucker Eskew to help coach Sarah Palin). Still, McCain can back away from the remarks and still say he is conducting a clean campaign, that he has no control over the remarks of his running mate.

Which, of course, is not true. Almost every move in a political campaign is orchestrated. If the remarks had been something the campaign had not wanted said, they would not have been repeated in California.

There is another aspect to the remarks that work in Senator McCain's favor. Senators Obama and Biden cannot reciprocate. They might throw out a line about Sarah Palin's association with an Alaskan secessionist group, but, considering the independent streak of most Americans, such an allegation would more than likely fall on deaf ears. Attacking Senator McCain would be equally ineffective, because of his known war record and veteran status.

But saying Senator Obama pals with terrorists is like saying John McCain consorted with the enemy while in Vietnam. It is an outrageous statement.

The Associated Press found nothing to substantiate Palin's insinuations against Senator Obama. When asked what she thought of the Associated Press' findings, Palin defended her remarks by saying, "The Associated Press is wrong."

Of course, stating someone is wrong is far from providing proof.

Governor Palin continued her character assassination in a stump speech in Clearwater, Florida on Monday morning (October 6), an event that was shown live on CNN.

There are also the psychological implications. The word "terrorist" serves to bring back the non-Anglicized name of McCain's and Palin's opponent. The remarks insinuate the one-consonant difference in the Senator's name and that of the most famous terrorist in history. That he is different, strange, foreign - none of which are true. It conjures up images like those found on the controversial New Yorker cover. It reminds people of all the e-mails that they've seen that state "definitively" that Senator Obama is a Muslim (which he is not). It is, above all else, a ludicrous distraction from real issues.

Still, making such inflammatory remarks, attempting to make Senator Obama look guilty of terrorist associations, are risky at best. They tend to appeal to the extreme base of the party of the speaker, but they can also have a devastating backlash, turning away the undecided and Independents. And it is that segment of voters that will more likely as not decide the election.

Although initial reactions have been dismissal and disgust on the left and among Democrats, it remains to be seen if Palin's remarks about Senator Obama's relationship with Willam Ayers will have any kind of overall effect. It may prove a distraction to Obama's message, drawing him away from his central theme of rebuilding an economy wrecked by the Republicans. It is certainly a distraction from the images of an incoherently floundering and vapid, shallow and ill-informed Sarah Palin that last week could not answer CBS News' Katie Couric's rather simple questions.

And perhaps that - more than anything else - is the point.

But what it amounts to is dirty politics.

Or politics as usual.

Sources:

Associated Press
CNN Television
RealClearPolitics.comJohnMcCain.com