Palin adjusts Ayers attack
Posted: Monday, October 06, 2008 10:49 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Sarah Palin
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger and NBC's Domenico Montanaro
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Palin continued her attacks on Obama for his ties to William Ayers Monday, but slightly changed her wording, saying Obama had worked with the “former domestic terrorist.”
Palin had said throughout the weekend that Obama was “palling around” with Ayers, while media reports suggested the two were not particularly close. On Monday, she avoided the "pal" term, but said the two had worked together. And Palin added more background to her argument, noting that Obama’s aides said the two were friendly.
Video:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is fighting back after GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Obama "pals around with terrorists." NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.
“Barack Obama says that Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood,” she told several thousand people at a rally at Coachman Park. “But that’s less than truthful. His own top advisor said they were, quote, ‘certainly friendly.’ In fact, Obama held one of his first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers’s living room. And they’ve worked together on various projects in Chicago.”
The continued attack comes as Palin opened the door Monday to going after Obama’s association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Although McCain has said he will not attack Obama for his relationship with his controversial former pastor, Palin told columnist Bill Kristol she thought it was fair game.
“Those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that -- with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave -- to me, that does say something about character,” she told Kristol, a New York Times columnist. “But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”
At the church Palin worshipped, the Wall Street Journal reported, "The Rev. Ed Kalnins, pastor of the Pentecostal church, Wasilla Assembly of God, says he has told church members that God put President George W. Bush in office and that America is locked in a 'holy war' with terrorists."
"In 2004, [Kalnins] told church members if they voted for John Kerry for president, they wouldn't get into heaven. He told them, 'I question your salvation.'"
There also was an insert in a bulleting at Wasilla Bible Church, which read, "You'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality," AP reported.
Additionally, there was a video that surfaced of Palin being blessed "by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from 'witchcraft' as she prepared to seek higher office," the AP and others reported. And Palin called the building of a pipeline "God's will" just this past June.
At today's rally, Palin acknowledged things could get dicey in the next four weeks.
“So, Florida, you know that you’re gonna have to hang on to your hats," she said, "because from now until Election Day, it may get kinda rough.”
With Sen. Joe Lieberman by her side, Palin also compared herself to the Tampa Bay Rays, now seeking a trip to the World Series.
“I know that earlier some of the experts this year were kinda tough on the Rays," she said. "I’ve been there. Florida knows a little something about turning an underdog into a victor.”
