McCain supporters rail against Obama
Posted: Thursday, October 09, 2008 4:28 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
MOSINEE, Wisc. -- After this afternoon’s town hall the McCain campaign might be satisfied that their recent attacks on Obama are starting to seep into the public consciousness, or at least the consciousness of conservative voters in Waukesha.
At the campaign’s second joint town hall event featuring both McCain and his running mate, several McCain talking points were echoed back to the candidates by questioners including Obama’s “shady” associations, which were brought up twice by members of the audience.
One questioner railed against “the socialists taking over our country” who he later identified as “Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the hooligans” in Congress’ Democratic majority, and an Iraq War veteran in the audience even brought up Obama’s comments about troops in Afghanistan “killing civilians” that are often used as an attack line by McCain.
“We’re all wondering why that Obama is where he’s at, how he got here,” one questioner asked McCain. “I mean everybody in this room is stunned that we’re in this position. We are all a product of our associations, is there not a way to get around this media and line up the people that he has hung with?”
This question prompted McCain to address Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers for the first time on the campaign trail, although he avoided using his name and instead focused his attack on “whether Sen. Obama is telling the truth to the American people or not.”
“With your help and the people in this room, we will find out just as Sen. Clinton said in the primary that we should find out about this association,” McCain said. “Look, we don’t care about an old, washed up terrorist and his wife who still, at least on Sept. 11, 2001 said he still wanted to bomb more, that’s not the point here. The point is Sen. Obama said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. We know that’s not true. We need to know the full extent of the relationship.”
A local African-American conservative talk radio host named James T. Harris also brought up what he called Obama’s “soft spot,” which he said included “ACORN,” “the good Rev.Wright,” and other “shady characters that have surrounded him.”
“I am begging you, sir," Harris said. "I am begging you. Take it to him.”
Earlier in the event, several attendees in the balcony of the local sports complex were yelling “ACORN” so loudly that McCain was compelled to address it.
“Now, let me just say to you, there are serious allegations of voter fraud in the battleground states across America," McCain said. "They must be investigated and no one should corrupt the most precious right we have, and that is the right to vote.
"My friends, you’ve seen, you’ve seen the allegations, the multiple registrations under the same name, the more registered voters than the population. You’ve seen these are serious allegations, my friends, and they must be investigated, and they must be investigated immediately, and they must stopped before November, the 4th, so Americans will not, will not be deprived of a fair process in this election. Thank you.”
