SEDONA, Ariz. — Stepping up the Republican ticket’s attacks on Senator Barack Obama, Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday seized on a report about Mr. Obama’s relationship with a former 1960s radical to accuse him of “palling around with terrorists.”
Gov. Sarah Palin at rally in Carson, Calif., on Saturday.
“This is not a man who sees America as you see it, and how I see America,” Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said in Colorado, according to a pool report. “We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for all of us.
“Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
The article to which she referred, in The New York Times on Saturday, traced Mr. Obama’s sporadic interactions with Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weathermen who later became an education professor in Chicago and worked on education projects there with Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee for president.
The article said: “A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers.”
Ms. Palin seized on their relationship after the campaign of Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, said it planned to shift its strategy and try to turn the campaign into a referendum on Mr. Obama.
“Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times and I was interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago,” Ms. Palin said at the fund-raiser in Englewood, Colo. “Turns out one of Barack’s earliest supporters is a man who, according to The New York Times, and they are hardly ever wrong, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. Wow. These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes.”
The Obama campaign responded by noting that McCain officials had been quoted as saying that they hoped to “turn the page” on the fiscal crisis, which has hurt Mr. McCain’s standing in the polls, and to devote more time to attacking Mr. Obama.
“Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift-boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills,” said Hari Sevugan, an Obama spokesman. “What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.”
Todd Palin Agrees to Interview
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Todd Palin plans speak to an investigator looking at abuse-of-power accusations against his wife, Governor Palin, his lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, said Saturday.
Mr. Van Flein said he asked the investigator, Timothy Petumenos, an Anchorage lawyer, to reserve the third week of October to interview Mr. Palin, who refused to testify under subpoena last month in an investigation by the Alaska Legislature.
Mr. Petumenos is heading a parallel effort by the Alaska State Personnel Board into whether Ms. Palin acted improperly when she fired Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.
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