So….I didn’t really think McCain would pull the Ayers thing tonight during the debate. I figured that, having warned Obama that it was coming, there would be no surprise. Moreover, before the debate, and even before it came up during the debate, I thought Obama was trying to lure McCain into bringing up the Ayers thing so that he could stomp it down. I think McCain knew that too, so he tried to slide it into a spot where Obama wouldn’t be able to respond, but Bob Schieffer sprung the trap for Obama.
Here’s how it went. After some general commentary on negative campaigning by Obama, McCain interjected:
McCain: Well, Bob, you asked me a direct question.
Schieffer: Short answer, yes, short answer.
Schieffer was warning him that they were running short of time, so McCain attempted a drive-by-shooting about Ayers that would run the clock out.
McCain: Yes, real quick. Mr. Ayers, I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist. But as Sen. Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of that relationship.
We need to know the full extent of Sen. Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy. The same front outfit organization that your campaign gave $832,000 for “lighting and site selection.” So all of these things need to be examined, of course.
At that point, time was technically out, meaning they were planned to move on to a new topic and question with no chance for Obama to respond, but Schieffer steps in to create time for Obama’s counterpunch, which of course Obama was prepared for.
Schieffer: All right. I’m going to let you respond and we’ll extend this for a moment.
And then BAM! the trap snaps shut:
Obama: Bob, I think it’s going to be important to just — I’ll respond to these two particular allegations that Sen. McCain has made and that have gotten a lot of attention.
In fact, Mr. Ayers has become the centerpiece of Sen. McCain’s campaign over the last two or three weeks. This has been their primary focus. So let’s get the record straight. Bill Ayers is a professor of education in Chicago.
Forty years ago, when I was 8 years old, he engaged in despicable acts with a radical domestic group. I have roundly condemned those acts. Ten years ago he served and I served on a school reform board that was funded by one of Ronald Reagan’s former ambassadors and close friends, Mr. Annenberg.
Other members on that board were the presidents of the University of Illinois, the president of Northwestern University, who happens to be a Republican, the president of The Chicago Tribune, a Republican- leaning newspaper.
Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House. So that’s Mr. Ayers.
Now, with respect to ACORN, ACORN is a community organization. Apparently what they’ve done is they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn’t really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names.
It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved. The only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.
And that’s how its done, folks.



