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With only three weekends to go until Election Day, Virginia McCain supporters have given us a first hand glimpse of the hate-filled politics some of them espouse.
State Republican Party chairman Jeff Frederick, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, compared Obama to Osama bin Laden Saturday. “It’s scary,” he said. Read Time’s account of how Frederick riled up McCain volunteers here.
McCain campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho gave a half-hearted repudiation of the remarks Sunday. “While Barack Obama is associated with domestic terrorist William Ayers, the McCain campaign disagrees with the comparison that Jeff Frederick made and believes that his comment was not appropriate,” she said.
Obama was eight years old when Ayers was involved in anti-war demonstrations in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. The radical group he cofounded, the Weather Underground, planted explosives at the U.S. Capitol and Pentagon that did not hurt or kill anybody. Ayers, a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, worked with the City of Chicago on education curriculum and served on an anti-poverty board with Obama.
“The Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, like so many McCain supporters, would rather lie about Barack Obama than make the case to the American people why Sen. McCain's plans of continuing Bush's policies for another four years would be good for American families,” said Clark Stevens, an Obama campaign spokesman.
The McCain campaign reacted stronger to a racist column written by the campaign’s Buchanan County chairman Bobby May, which said Obama would bring rappers into his administration and paint the White House black. He lost his official role in the campaign, and Gitcho called the writing “offensive.”
--Neil Simon
State Republican Party chairman Jeff Frederick, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, compared Obama to Osama bin Laden Saturday. “It’s scary,” he said. Read Time’s account of how Frederick riled up McCain volunteers here.
McCain campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho gave a half-hearted repudiation of the remarks Sunday. “While Barack Obama is associated with domestic terrorist William Ayers, the McCain campaign disagrees with the comparison that Jeff Frederick made and believes that his comment was not appropriate,” she said.
Obama was eight years old when Ayers was involved in anti-war demonstrations in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. The radical group he cofounded, the Weather Underground, planted explosives at the U.S. Capitol and Pentagon that did not hurt or kill anybody. Ayers, a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, worked with the City of Chicago on education curriculum and served on an anti-poverty board with Obama.
“The Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, like so many McCain supporters, would rather lie about Barack Obama than make the case to the American people why Sen. McCain's plans of continuing Bush's policies for another four years would be good for American families,” said Clark Stevens, an Obama campaign spokesman.
The McCain campaign reacted stronger to a racist column written by the campaign’s Buchanan County chairman Bobby May, which said Obama would bring rappers into his administration and paint the White House black. He lost his official role in the campaign, and Gitcho called the writing “offensive.”
--Neil Simon