Bill Ayers is back - just in time for the debate

Jake Turcotte

October 14, 2008

It's October.  And just like Jason Voorhees, some things just can't die.  Like the conversation about Bill Ayers.

Just when it appeared that the A-bomb, the Ayers-card, the guilt-by-association tactic or it's-a-matter-of-judgment issue was no longer -- it is.

Bill Ayers is back.  Yes, that Bill Ayers.  The co-founder of the radical Weather Underground.  The guy who has been mentioned so many times by the McCain team, one not keeping track of race might think Ayers was a campaign spokesman.

Over?

It appeared as though with the tone of the race getting hostile on the road and the absence of any mention of Ayers in the past couple days, that he was played-out.

When McCain didn't bring up Ayers at the second presidential debate, both Obama and Biden said they were surprised he didn't come up.

Biden, as is usual, took it a step further when discussing the issue on the campaign trail.

He told a crowd, "John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him.  In my neighborhood, you got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him."

That neighborhood was probably Scranton.

Not over

Regardless, Ayers is back says McCain.

Speaking to KMOX radio today, McCain said, "I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised I didn’t have the guts to do that, because the fact is the question didn't come up in that fashion.  I think he's probably ensured it will come up this time."

McCain reiterated why he believes Ayers, now a college professor, is still a valid topic nearly 40 years after founding the group

"It's not that I give a damn about some washed up terrorist and his terrorist wife that on 2001 said they wished they'd bombed more," McCain explained.  "What I care about -- and what the American people care about -- is whether [Obama] is being truthful with the American people."

Lack of suspense

So this probably means that McCain has his sound bite ready to go.  And Obama will have his scripted retort, too.

Here's guessing there will still be some emotion in the exchange, however.  It can't be as dreadfully boring as the second debate, can it?