US presidential nominee Barack Obama counter-attacked against a new Republican tactic by saying rival John McCain was more interested in a smear campaign than fixing the US economy.
With McCain losing ground in opinion polls, a campaign strategist was quoted as saying the Republican presidential candidate needed to ‘turn the page’ on the economic issue and make the election about Obama's experience and character.
That effort started yesterday when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused Obama of ‘palling around with terrorists’ in reference to his acquaintance with Bill Ayers, a former member of a Vietnam War-era militant group.
Mr Obama came back at the Republicans at a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, a swing state where the Democratic presidential candidate was preparing for his second debate with Mr McCain on Tuesday.
‘Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance,’ Mr Obama said. ‘They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up.’
‘It's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time,’ he said a month before the 4 November election.
Obama accused of links with terrorist
At a fundraiser in Colorado yesterday, Mrs Palin said the time had come to take the gloves off.
She told supporters Senator Obama ‘is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.’
Her comment referred to William Ayers, who supported Barack Obama's first run for public office in 1995.
The relationship between Senator Obama and William Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s group the Weathermen that committed bombings on the Pentagon and the Capitol, was highlighted in the New York Times yesterday.
Governor Palin's sharp jab is in step with recent Republican campaign statements that the McCain camp plans to launch a fierce assault on Barack Obama with the presidential election only 30 days away.
