Communication Professors Speak Out
Your Subtitle text
"Terrorist" Lie
The most pernicious of the lies the McCain/Palin campaign have launched against Barack Obama have been the efforts to link him to terrorism.
As is well known, Sarah Palin described Obama as “palling around” with William Ayers, who she describes as a domestic terrorist. Campaign material and robocalls falsely describe Ayers as a “friend” and the two of them as having “close ties.” The Obama/Terrorism link and the Obama/Socialist link are the two insidious lies that the McCain/Palin campaign will close their campaign with. On October 29th, the RNC material shown below was received by mail in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Such claims have been refuted repeatedly, even by the very source Sarah Palin cited, The New York Times. The NYT’s in-depth investigation noted: “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, whom he has called ‘somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8’.”
The McCain/Palin campaign is desperately trying to scare Americans.
The Ayers/Obama/Terrorism link encourages voters to think of Obama himself as a terrorist. Notice how the top part of the flier makes it unclear who said “I don’t regret setting bombs”: Obama, to whom the eye naturally moves to after reading the quotation, or Ayers below? The ad concludes with a message the campaign has stressed “Obama: Not who you think he is.”
It is clear from McCain/Palin rallies that some voters have been fooled, even to the point of accusing Barack Obama himself of being a terrorist. The McCain/Palin campaign are responsible for such inflammatory mendacity.
Update: The latest distortion from the McCain campaign is an allegation that Professor Rashid Khalidi is “a political ally of Barack Obama” and “a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization." Once again, these claims have been refuted by sources such as CNN. Furthermore, John McCain himself has “ties” to Khalidi as he helped fund a center that Khalidi ran to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obama answered questions about his relationship with Khalidi months ago, as was reported in major news outlets.*
Watch these clips to see how McCain/Palin are fooling voters:
“McCain Proud of RNC Mailer":
"Bomb Obama," includes "associate with terrorist, you're a terrorist”
Denver Rally, includes "communist," "Muslim," and "terrorist" claims
“Obama bin Laden" and "Osama Obama”
"Hussein is a terrorist name"
And consider the following "joke" that appeared on Amazon.com:
The McCain/Palin campaign and its supporters
are frantically trying to scare Americans.
Don’t let them. Speak out Now against such smears!
are frantically trying to scare Americans.
Don’t let them. Speak out Now against such smears!
*FactCheck by CNN: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/29/is-columbia-professor-khalidi-a-political-ally-of-barack-obama/ ; McCain/Khalidi link: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/the-khalidi-gam.html ; Obama answers Khalidi issues earlier in the year, plus media comments: http://fightthesmears.com/articles/24/KhalidiSmear
This page was written by Edward Schiappa and should not be assumed to represent the views of all the signatories of the Public Statement.
