This baby's not over, folks...
 

It will tighten up, promise.

Obama's campaign needs to be prepared with some punches if there is any indication McCain / Palin's push on Ayers gets any traction.

McCain can be softened on the character & temper issue, Palin has a very big exposure on the Alaska Independence "We're not Americans" Party, to whom she addressed earlier this year.

Or perhaps it will be Obama's attempt to undermine the US govt in Iraq.

Ma'ake's just trying to be nice. He thinks condescension is being nice. I've seen this before. Call him the gentle troll.

McCain finally threw Frank and Dodd under the bus yesterday. I think McCain would be amazed if he acted like a true conservative instead of trying to appease everybody in the middle.

Au 'contraire, amigo. I'm sweating this a bit. I like & agree with CC's points, but I don't like the racism angle that makes eastern votes more of a wildcard, and McCain has come back from the dead several times.

If I were Axelrod, I'd have some punches ready. If the economic issue gets a reprieve & other issues can squeeze their way into the limelight, gotta be ready for a fight in a phonebooth.

The Alaska Independence issue would expose the convenient double-standard, negating the Ayers issue somewhat (assuming it has legs to last).

Barack - "You know, all these allegations of associations with colorful characters are interesting, but the American people have bigger concerns. For example, Sarah Palin's association - this year - with a group that wants to secede from America, who don't consider themselves as Americans, who want to keep the natural resources of Alaska for an Alaska that breaks off from the US might be interesting, but we've got more serious issues to deal with."

Ayers is a POS. How a guy can grow up in a house of enormous wealth, go on to blow up buildings and quite possibly murder people, evade law enforcement and live on the lam for years (probably with the aid of his family, like sheiks helping Al Queda), finally get a reprieve based on the U.S. Constitution, and still hate America and remain unrepentant, as he lives a life of security and luxery as a tenured professor, is inconceivable. These are the kind of hypcoritical radicals I truy hate. Among the few people I actually hate.

That being said, the worst that can be said about Obama in this is that he chooses acquaintances poorly. We've seen this before. But it's not a fitness for president disqualifying event.

I agree.

Exactly. I don't see why this issue should or will matter at all, unless a person thinks that Obama is a closet terrorist himself (in which case, that person is stupid).

Every politician meets with unsavory characters. Is Hagee a good guy? Keating? Falwell? It happens, and it happens a lot. There is no evidence at all that Obama and Ayers are friends that "pal around." They served on a board together. On that same board were several well-known conservatives. I serve on several boards. I know almost nothing about the other people on the boards I serve on.

Obama went to Ayers home to be "launched," as conservatives love to claim. If anyone here has ever worked on a political campaign, you know as well as I do that you visit thousands of homes, frequently knowing almost nothing about the people hosting the events. Obama went because the person who was retiring from the seat Obama was running for indicated she would announce at the event that she supported Obama. Obama didn't go to the house for Ayers, he went to the house to receive the endorsement of the retiring state senator.

It is a stupid issue, which is why it isn't getting any traction. What it is doing is working the conservative base into a hate-filled frenzy. The Republican rallies are turning scary. People at those rallies are acting insane, to the point where the Secret Service has actually asked McCain and Palin to "tone it down."

I really hope that is McCain's next focus.