Obama Counters Independent Ad Linking Him to Ayers

DENVER — Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has quietly begun airing a television commercial countering an outside group that is spending $2.8 million in an attempt to highlight his relationship with a former 1960s radical. The 30-second TV spot is a response to an ad by the conservative American Issues Project, a nonprofit group that questions Obama’s ties to William Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground organization that took credit for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago. “With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the 60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers,” the Obama ad states. “McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers’ crimes, committed when Obama was just 8 years old.” Though McCain is not airing the anti-Obama ad, the group that produced and paid for it is financed by a McCain fundraiser and one of its board members is a former consultant ... (link)