Experts: Obama-Ayers Ad May Be Illegal

By Seth Colter Walls

A new ad raising Barack Obama's ties to 60s-era radical William Ayers may violate election law, according to campaign finance experts interviewed by the Huffington Post.

The spot, released by the America Issues Project (an incorporated 501c(4) committee, according to a report by Politico's Ben Smith), intersperses images of Obama and Ayers, and features a narrator asking, "Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"

"This negative campaign ad is clearly express advocacy, and under a federal law passed in 2003, the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (known colloquially as McCain-Feingold), it cannot legally be paid for with corporate money, including those of a non-profit," said Laura MacCleery, deputy director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "The ad indisputably concerns an election, takes a position on the character and fitness for office of a candidate, and raises no legislative issue. Even this highly skeptical Supreme Court would turn up its noses at the foul odor emitted by this clear abuse of federal election law."

For its part, a Fox News representative told the Associated Press that the network had rejected the spot....(Click here for remainder of article).

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Toby Keith Praises Obama, Says He's A Democrat

RYAN PEARSON | August 19, 2008 04:51 PM EST
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Barack Obama is getting praise from Nashville, courtesy of one big, patriotic country star.

Toby Keith, perhaps best known to non-country audiences for his post-Sept. 11 song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," says he's a Democrat, and was impressed by the senator from Illinois.

Keith has said in the past that the 2002 song _ which included lines aimed at the Taliban like "we lit up your world like the Fourth of July" _ was more patriotic than pro-war.

Asked while promoting his new movie "Beer For My Horses" about the role of patriotism in the current presidential election, Keith replied: "There's a big part of America that really believes that there is a war on terrorism, and that we need to finish up.

"So I thought it was beautiful the other day when Obama went to Afghanistan and got educated about Afghanistan and Iraq. He came back and said some really nice things....(Click here for remainder of article).

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The Anatomy of a Deception: How The McCains Changed Their Baby Adoption Story Just Before 2008 Campaign Began

By Mark Nickolas

As was pointed out yesterday by the Christian Science Monitor, the McCain campaign was called out for lying about the purported urging of Cindy McCain by Mother Teresa herself to adopt two children at her orphanage back in 1991. Turns out, McCain never met or even spoke with Mother Teresa on that trip.

Once confronted by the Monitor about the deception, the campaign quickly erased such claims from the website, as it did with Cindy's family recipes, which were proved to be lifted from the Food Network.

But after doing some research, this deception was no careless accident, but rather another shameless and deliberate attempt by the campaign to reinvent and embellish the McCain family history in time for his 2008 presidential bid.

Here's how the McCain adoption was described by them prior to the 2008 presidential race:

(Click here for remainder of article).

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Who's rich? McCain and Obama have very different definitions

To Pastor Rick Warren's question, Obama says someone making more than $250,000. McCain gives a figure of $5 million per year. His campaign says he was joking.

By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 18, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The rich may be different for John McCain and Barack Obama.

On almost every issue, the two presidential candidates have staked out opposing positions. Their contrasting views on wealth surfaced during their back-to-back appearances in Southern California on Saturday night when each was asked to define "rich."

Obama didn't hesitate. "I would argue that if you are making more than $250,000, then you are in the top 3, 4 percent of this country," he said. "You are doing well."

McCain took a far more discursive approach to answering the question but ultimately settled on a dramatically higher figure: "I think if you're just talking about income, how about $5 million?"

The Arizona Republican quickly added that he was "sure that comment will be distorted," and his campaign said Sunday that he was joking.

Even so, the remark highlighted the candidates' disparate outlooks. Analysts who study income distribution said the answers appeared to reflect shifting political calculations more than economic reality.

Economists said in interviews Sunday that neither candidate was wrong because there are no agreed-upon definitions for the terms that describe income segments....(Click here for remainder of article).

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John McCain and His Houses

Email from the DNC regarding John McCain and his many houses.

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John McCain has a lot of houses. How many?

He can't keep track.

Yesterday, when asked by reporters how many homes he owns, McCain responded, "I think -- I'll have my staff get to you."

This is the latest in a string of striking and revealing comments by McCain. Recently he said that from his perspective "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" right now, then he said that millionaires are not rich as long as they're making less than $5 million a year.

Today, the Obama campaign launched a television ad exposing just how out-of-touch McCain is with the realities American families face.

Watch the ad and write a letter to your local newspaper about John McCain's out-of-touch economic policies:

In an economy where millions of Americans are sinking under high mortgages and rising gas prices, we can't afford another president who doesn't get it.

In John McCain's world, the limits on campaign contributions should rise with inflation, but the minimum wage should not. In fact, he believes there shouldn't be any increase at all in the minimum wage.

How can he help the middle class when he doesn't know who they are? And how can he fix the economy if he doesn't know it's broken?

McCain's money may have bought him a lot of houses, but there's one house we can't afford to let McCain add to his list: the White House. Not on our watch.

Please watch the Obama campaign's ad and write a letter to your local papers about how out-of-touch John McCain is with economic realities:

http://www.democrats.org/howmanyhouses

Keep fighting the good fight,

DNC Rapid Response Team

P.S. -- The answer is at least seven. And they are worth more than $13 million dollars.

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Harry Smith Interviews Barack Obama

Watch CBS Videos Online

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