McCain Links Ayers and Acorn

T.W. Farnam reports on the presidential debate. John McCain ’s campaign and the Republican Party have been asking a lot of questions about the voter registration drive being run by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) and Barack Obama’s ties to Bill Ayers, a founder of the 1960s violent protest group Weather Underground. In tonight’s debate, McCain sought to connect the dots: “While you were on the board of the Woods Foundation, you and Mr. Ayers together, you sent $230,000 to Acorn,” McCain said. As the debate was going on, the McCain campaign emailed to reporters a number of news articles and other background materials on Obama’s relationship to both Acorn and Ayers, including a list of grants from the Woods Foundation, an education charity, to Acorn, which is best known as a community housing organization. The amounts, from 2000 to 2002, totaled $190,000, according to the campaign, which cited the Illinois Funding Service , a subscription Web site.  ... (link)