McCain Camp Response on Obama's Lobbying Comments

Please see our campaign's response to Barack Obama attacks on the McCain campaign's recent policy to remove all registered lobbyists from the campaign, and Senator Obama's pointing to specific cases of dismissed campaigners:

“Just a few years ago when Barack Obama was beginning his career in politics he was launching it at the home of William Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist who his chief strategist said Senator Obama was certainly friendly with. If Barack Obama is going to make associations the issue, we look forward to the debate about Senator Obama's associations and what they say about his judgment and readiness to be commander in chief.

The McCain campaign has recently put a strict policy in place and all personnel are required to be in compliance with it. Many fine people may have a conflict that is not reconcilable. Barak Obama's dragging the names of good people through the mud publicly is the worst type of character assassination, especially when he has not made the names of his policy advisors public. Isn't that exactly the old politics he claims to reject but he is so clearly embracing?” ---Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008

Ayers An Associate of Barack Obama's: "Mr. Obama also fit in at Hyde Park's fringes, among university faculty members like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, unrepentant members of the radical Weather Underground that bombed the United States Capitol and the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. Mr. Obama was introduced to the couple in 1995 at a meet-and-greet they held for him at their home, aides said. Now, along with Mr. Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Mr. Ayers has become a prime exhibit in the effort by Mr. Obama's presidential rivals to highlight what could be politically radioactive associations. In 2001, Mr. Ayers said he did not regret the Weatherman bombings. Even so, in Hyde Park, he and his wife were viewed favorably for their work in addressing city problems. Mr. Ayers was just 'a guy who lives in my neighborhood,' Mr. Obama said recently. The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city's education system. They appeared together on academic panels, including one organized by Michelle Obama to discuss the juvenile justice system, an area of mutual concern. Mr. Ayers's book on the subject won a rave review in The Chicago Tribune by Mr. Obama, who called it 'a searing and timely account.'" (Jo Becker And Christopher Drew, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged On The South Side," The New York Times, 5/11/08)

Obama's Chief Strategist, David Axelrod, Has Noted Obama and Ayers were ‘certainly friendly'. Obama Campaign Chief Strategist David Axelrod: “Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school … They're certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.” (Ben Smith, “Ax On Ayers,” The Politico's “Ben Smith” Blog, www.politico.com <http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Ax_on_Ayers.html> , 2/26/08)

Ayers Is A Former Obama Campaign Contributor And Colleague, Serving With Him On The Woods Fund Of Chicago:

Obama First Met William Ayers In 1995 During His First State Senate Campaign. “In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district's influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” (Ben Smith, “Obama Once Visited ‘60s Radicals,” The Politico, 1/22/08)

* The Meeting Took Place At Ayers' Home And Included A Small Group Of Local Liberal Activists. “‘I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers' house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,' said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn. ‘[Palmer] identified him as her successor.'” (Ben Smith, “Obama Once Visited ‘60s Radicals,” The Politico, 1/22/08)

* The Meeting Launched Obama's Candidacy And Allowed Ayers To Introduce Him “To The Hyde Park Community As The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.” “Dr. [Quentin] Young and another guest, Maria Warren described it similarly: As an introduction to Hyde Park liberals of the handpicked successor to Palmer, a well-regarded figure on the left. ‘When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,' Warren, wrote on her blog in 2005. ‘They were launching him--introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.'” (Ben Smith, “Obama Once Visited ‘60s Radicals,” The Politico, 1/22/08)

* Exact Details Of The Meeting Are Unknown Because Both Obama And Ayers Refuse To Discuss It. “Many details of the 1995 meeting are shrouded by time and by Obama's and Ayers' refusals to discuss it. The exact date is not known, but it was in the second half of 1995, before Palmer's decision – late in her losing congressional primary against Jesse Jackson Jr. – to jump back into the special election for her State Senate seat.” (Ben Smith, “Obama Once Visited ‘60s Radicals,” The Politico, 1/22/08)

From 1999 To 2002, Obama Served With Ayers On The Board Of Directors For Woods Fund Of Chicago. “[O]bama could face questions about his relationship with William Ayers, a former member of the radical group the Weather Underground who is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois in Chicago. … [Ayers] served with him from 1999 to 2002 on the board of the Woods Fund, an anti-poverty group.” (Timothy J. Burger, “Obama's Chicago Ties Might Fuel ‘Republican Attack Machine',” Bloomberg, 2/15/08)

* In 2000, Woods Fund Listed Both Ayers And Obama As Part-Time Directors, Each Receiving $6,000 In Compensation For The Year. (The Woods Fund Of Chicago, IRS Form 990-PF, 9/4/01)

* NOTE: Obama Resigned From Woods Fund In 2002; Ayers Is Still A Member. (Tim Novak and Fran Spielman, “Obama Helped Ex-Boss Get $1 Mil. From Charity,” Chicago Sun-Times, 11/29/07; Woods Fund Of Chicago Website, www.woodsfund.org, Accessed 2/15/08)

“[Obama And Ayers] Have Also Appeared Jointly On Two Academic Panels, One In 1997 And Another In 2001.” (Russell Berman, “Obama's Ties To Left Come Under Scrutiny,” The New York Sun, 2/19/08)