Palin continues to hit on Obama-Ayers relationship
7 Oct 2008, 1142 Hrs

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Clearwater (Florida, US), Oct.7 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has decided to continue with her anti-Obama remarks in the run-up to the November 4 presidential poll.

In the latest salvo, Palin told Fox News that she doesn't know why Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is off-limits for discussion, calling his anti-American and anti-Semitic remarks 'appalling.'

Palin also isn't backing down on questioning Barack Obama's relationship with William Ayers, the co-founder of the Weather Underground terrorist group.

Palin told voters here on Monday: "Barack Obama says that Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood, but that's less than truthful. His own advisers said they were quote: "certainly friendly". In fact, Obama held one of his first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers' living room and they worked together on various projects in Chicago."

Palin did not say the claim that Obama "pals around" with a terrorist, but did repeat a line she used over the weekend that Obama "sees America as imperfect enough to work with a domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."

Ayers and Obama live in the same Chicago neighborhood and served on a charity board together. Ayers hosted a fundraiser for Obama when he first ran for state office in the mid-1990s.

The Obama campaign has responded that Obama was eight years old when Ayers was planting bombs, and therefore, can't be linked to his past activities.

Ayers has said he never regretted his Weather Underground activities, which led to the deaths of three of his cohorts in a bomb-making accident.

On Monday, Obama said the tactic used by the McCain team signifies a losing campaign.

"I was a little surprised over the last couple of days to hear ... Sen. McCain's campaign say that we want to turn the page on discussions about the economy and campaign, a member of Sen. McCain's campaign saying today that if we talk about the economic crisis we lose," Obama said.

"I have got news for the McCain campaign - the American people are losing right now. They are losing their jobs - they are losing their health care. They are losing their homes and their savings. I cannot imagine anything more important to talk about than the economic crisis. And the notion that we would want to brush that aside and engage in the usual political shenanigans and smear tactics that have come to characterize too many campaigns," he added. (ANI)