Cannon Thinks Ayers Wrote Obama Book

GOP House Member Chris Cannon (R-UT) sought help from an Oxford University professor to prove that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's best-selling books.

Dr Peter Millican, a philosophy don at Hertford College, Oxford, has devised a computer software program that can detect when works are by the same author by comparing favourite words and phrases...

Millican took a preliminary look and found the charges “very implausible”. A deal was agreed for more detailed research but when Millican said the results had to be made public, even if no link to Ayers was proved, interest waned.

Rightwing Group Distributes DVDs

TPM:

Citizens United, the conservative group headed by notorious Whitewater scandalmonger David Bossie, is distributing hundreds of thousands of DVDs attacking Barack Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers in newspapers in Ohio, Nevada, and Florida this week, a group spokesperson confirms to us.

...We checked in with Citizens United spokesperson Will Holley, who confirmed to us that the DVD was distributed in the Dispatch today, and will be disseminated in copies of the Cincinatti Enquirer and Plain Dealer tomorrow, followed by the Palm Beach Post and the Los Vegas Review Journal on Friday.

The DVD, a trailer of which is here, features media figures fawning over Obama and conservative commentators mocking them over their affection for the Illinois Senator, as well as footage of select Wright rantings. It also discusses Ayers and Tony Rezko, and warns viewers that there's more to know about Obama's shadowy ideology and associations than he has let on.

What About Annenberg?

David Shuster asks GOP strategist Jennifer Millerwise-Dyck about McCain's association with Leonore Annenberg. Annenberg chairs the foundation that provided the grants for Bill Ayers and is listed among the 100 ambassadors supporting John McCain.

News Briefs, 10/17/08

Autumn temperatures in the Arctic are at record levels, the Arctic Ocean is getting warmer and less salty as sea ice melts, and reindeer herds appear to be declining, researchers reported yesterday.

First Read: In a victory for the state of Ohio, the US Supreme Court has overturned a lower court order, freeing the state from a requirement that it share information about voter databases with county election boards.

The United States said Friday that North Korea has stepped up disablement of a nuclear reactor it had been threatening to reactivate.

Home construction took its third tumble in a row during September, falling to the lowest level in 17 years, and a sign points to further decline in the fourth quarter.

Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched.

WP: A leading House Democrat alleged yesterday that a top fundraiser for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has been involved in apparent war profiteering by inflating prices on jet fuel in defense contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

RCP: 3,200 academics around the country have signed a petition in defense of Bill Ayers, saying that those who criticize the unrepentant former domestic terrorist who now teaches at the University of Illinois - Chicago are are trying to "intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue.

Washington Post endorses Obama.

Pants on Fire

Politifact does some fact checking on claims about Obama's association with Ayers and concludes with this nugget:

This attack is false, but it’s more than that – it’s malicious. It unfairly tars not just Obama, but all the other prominent, well-respected Chicagoans who also volunteered their time to the foundation. They came from all walks of life and all political backgrounds, and there’s ample evidence their mission was nothing more than improving ailing public schools in Chicago. Yet in the heat of a political campaign they have been accused of financing radicalism. That’s Pants on Fire wrong.

Guilt By Association

When shown a clip of Palin attacking Obama's association with Ayers, Paul Begala explains why it might be a bad idea for John McCain to use guilt-by-association tactics against Obama. (H/T: Ben Smith)



McCain's guilt-by-association attacks using Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson have already backfired when the media discovered Rick Davis' ties to Freddie Mac.