By Michael M. Grynbaum
NORTH OLMSTEAD, Ohio — Underscoring the McCain campaign’s aggressive attacks on Senator Barack Obama’s character, Gov. Sarah Palin accused the Illinois senator today of “putting ambition above country” at several private fund-raising events in Ohio.
In making her remarks, Ms. Palin cited a disputed report in The Washington Times today that said Mr. Obama, on a trip to Iraq with other members of the Senate, had encouraged an Iraqi official to delay an agreement that would extend the presence of American troops in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s campaign denied that claim, as did other attendees on the trip.
Ms. Palin portrayed the events in a darker light. “We learned this morning that Iraqi officials are saying Senator Obama tried to make a secret deal with the Iraqi government,” she said at a fund-raiser outside Cincinnati, although the article in The Washington Times does not make that specific claim.
“Obama apparently tried to undermine our government’s official efforts to reduce troops in Iraq,” Ms. Palin said. “If this is true, again, it is a stunning example of putting ambition above country.”
She repeated the attack line at a fund-raiser later in the afternoon in Cleveland, where the accusation was met with rumblings in the audience. “He tried to influence negotiations with Iraqi leaders in a way that would set back America’s cause there while advancing his campaign here,” she said. At both events, she described the allegations as “stunning.”
The Obama campaign, which faced these allegations in mid-September, reiterated its denials today. It called them categorically untrue, citing spokesmen for other senators who attended, including Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island told ABC News at the time that Mr. Obama informed the Iraqis at the beginning of the meeting that he spoke with one voice with the Bush administration.
Ms. Palin’s comments came as the McCain campaign, facing weaker poll numbers, continued its attempts to raise questions about Mr. Obama’s trustworthiness and judgment, complete with new ads. Both Republican running mates have been hitting Mr. Obama this week for his association with William Ayers, the 1960s radical who once hosted a fundraiser for the Illinois senator. The two men were never close.
Private fund-raisers are often used as forums for candidates to try out new lines for their stump speeches. At her first appearance in Cincinnati, Ms. Palin stumbled over her delivery of the new attack
lines and received a muted response from the crowd, which an organizer said had raised nearly $1 million. At one point, she admitted, “I’m probably just preaching to the choir here but this is probably good practice for me.”
At both events, Ms. Palin also nodded toward to her campaign’s recent downward trajectory in the polls. “Things are getting kind of – not tense – but things are getting – as things come down to the wire obviously, things are getting more important in terms of message, and in terms of the opportunity we have to lay out the contrast between the two tickets,” she said in Cincinnati. She also said repeatedly that the Ohio race “will come right down to the wire.”
The Republican donors in attendance, some of whom paid $2,500 a plate to see Ms. Palin speak, responded most enthusiastically to her pledge that Mr. McCain would be more aggressive in attacking his opponents. “One of the things I keep hearing is, ‘Tell John McCain to take the gloves off,” she said. Her next line was drowned out by applause.
Reports that angry supporters at a Palin rally had called Mr. Obama a “terrorist” had not appeared to faze Ms. Palin, who delivered most of her scathing lines with a smile and a persistent “tsk tsk” tone.
“It’s not negative and it’s not mean-spirited to be out there bringing to light the other candidate’s record and the other candidate’s associations, which are very very troubling for America,” she said in
Cleveland, where she spoke in a formal ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton. “And it’s not negative to talk about those things, and to also ask that the media do its job too, of asking the questions of Barack
Obama, especially of those associations.”
The scene inside the Ritz, where about 150 formally dressed supporters dined on a buffet of baked salmon, sliced steak, and coconut-frosted fruit salad, was a marked contrast from the protest who greeted Ms. Palin’s motorcade outside the hotel. About 30 people chanted “Bush! McCain! More of the same!” and “Health Care for All!” as she made her way inside.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/with-donors-palin-keeps-up-attacks-on-obama/Coconut-frosted fruit salad? Sounds like something an elite might eat!
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