When George Bush ran against John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary, a Republican consultant by the name of Jeff Larson coordinated a campaign of automated negative phone calls taking aim at McCain and his family. At the time, McCain called the calls, “scurrilous stuff.” Now, however, McCain has retained the services of the same Jeff Larson and his firm, FLS Connect, to conduct a similar robocalling campaign against his opponent, Barack Obama.
The call, which is being made to prospective voters in such swing states as Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana and Illinois, after informing listeners that it’s from McCain and the RNC, focuses in on the tenuous connection between Obama and former member of the Weather Underground, Bill Ayers, now a professor of education in Chicago.
The voice on the message says that the listener, “need(s) to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home, and killed Americans.”
You can hear the call here:
This robocalling campaign, it’s worth noting, seems to have begun just after McCain, during the candidates’ third and final debate, stated that the connection to Ayers, who he referred to as a “washed up” former terrorist, didn’t strike him as relevant. Here’s the video:
Perhaps McCain will have more luck with the phone calls, but, judging from the response of independent voters watching the debate, the mention of Ayers worked against him. We’ll see.
One Comment
What’s with McCain’s constantly taking notes? Is this some kind of Alzheimer’s thing?