Palin: Obama "palling around with terrorists"

It's "time to take the gloves off," Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Saturday before launching an attack that sought to link Barack Obama to a violent, 1960s-era radical group.

No ramp-up time was needed for Palin, fresh off last Thursday night's debate. She hit the ground in Colorado and California, 'spittin' fire' as the folksy governor might say.

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," she said, referring to a co-founder of the 1960s-era Weather Underground, an organization the FBI labeled as a domestic terrorist group.

The co-founder, Bill Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, served on a board with Obama and held a fundraiser for him in 1995. Obama has condemned the actions of Ayers, and many media organizations have discounted any ongoing relationship between the two.

New York Times

In discussing Obama and Ayers, Palin cited the newspaper that the McCain-Palin campaign regards as a foe.

"I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in the New York Times, so we are gonna talk about it," she said. "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 US Capitol. Wow. These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes."

Swift-boat

In an email to reporters, Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan condemned Palin's remarks and included a listing of media outlets that dispute the charge of any meaningful relationship between the two men.

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