Obama pals with terrorists: Sarah Palin

{image-Sarah Palin_05102008.jpg news.oneindia.in}London, Oct 5: Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has accused Democratic presidential candidate of hobnobbing with terrorists and appealed to her countrymen not to trust him.

She accused Obama for having links with Bill Ayres, the former terrorist-turned-education professor whose 'Weather Underground' group had bombed the Pentagon in the 1960s, and with whom Obama worked on community projects in the mid-1990s. "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America. Our opponent is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. Americans need to know this," The Telegraph quoted her as saying at a fundraiser in Colarado.

Her party's presidential candidate John McCain's campaign has accused his Democratic rival Barack Obama of "consorting with terrorists."

Sarah Palin's comment was echoed by McCain ally Mike Huckabee, the former presidential candidate, who said: "If you hang out with somebody who has never apologised for bombing the Pentagon and the Capitol and is proud of something he should have been ashamed of, then it calls into question your judgment."

They spoke out after the New York Times ran an article saying Obama had "played down" his links with Ayres. Meanwhile, a Democratic spokesman condemned Palin's "shameless attack" and pointed out that the same story (in the NYT) concluded that Obama "is not close to Bill Ayres, much less pals and that he string condemned the despicable acts Ayres committed 40 years ago when Obama was eight".

The move comes amid growing panic in the McCain campaign and signs that McCain's closest aides do not believe he can win the race for the White House in a "fair fight".

There have been several occasions in the past month when members of McCain's inner circle have said they fear he was doomed. Voters have flocked to Obama in the economic crisis, and McCain has lost the lead in several key swing states that he must win if he is to have any chance of victory in November.

ANI