McCain, GOP ads rip Obama over Ayers

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By S.A. Miller

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's campaign intensified attacks Friday on his rival's ties to shady Chicago characters such as 1970s bomber William Ayers, but Democrat Sen. Barack Obama vowed not to let it distract voters from the imploding economy, which he blamed on Republicans.

In a double whammy, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) put out TV ads hammering Mr. Obama's association with Mr. Ayers, co-founder of the leftist Weather Underground, which took responsibility for a bombing spree that included the U.S. Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon a year later.

"When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied," intones a terse female announcer in the campaign's ad. "Obama. Blind ambition. Bad judgment."

Mr. Obama launched his first Senate campaign at Mr. Ayers' home in 1995 and the two served together from 1995 to 1999 on a charity board that distributed grants for alternative education projects and from 1999 to 2002 on the board of the anti-poverty Woods Fund.

The RNC spot highlighted the connections to Mr. Ayers; recently convicted political fixer Tony Rezko who helped Mr. Obama buy his $1.65 million Chicago home; and former U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley, a campaign chairman for Mr. Obama and a member of the city's political dynasty whom the voiceover describes as "heir to the Chicago machine."

"The Chicago way. Shady politics. That's Barack Obama's training," the voiceover says.

Mr. Obama responded on the stump in Ohio, saying Mr. McCain wanted to change the subject from the economy to save his flagging campaign.

"We've seen a barrage of nasty insinuations and attacks, and I'm sure we'll see much more over the next 25 days. We know what's coming. We know what they're going to do," Mr. Obama said at a campaign stop in Chillicothe. "They can run misleading ads and pursue the politics of anything goes. But it's not going to work. Not this time."

Mr. Obama said he was worried "about the Americans losing their jobs, and their homes, and their life savings," while Mr. McCain fretted about his poll numbers.

On the heels of Thursday's massive sell-off on Wall Street, both candidates on the campaign trail presented themselves as the best leader for troubled times and blamed the other for contributing to the economic crisis.