It did seem odd. For days before the presidential debate, Sarah Palin was talking about Barack Obama and Bill Ayers. Over and over (enough to illicit calls to "kill him" and label him a "traitor" at the McCain/Palin rallies). And yet, the debate came Tuesday evening and not a peep from John McCain. I wrote the next day:
And what happened to William Ayers? All the tough talk from Sarah Palin and John McCain this week about Obama's character, and not a word about it last night? One can only assume a couple things; McCain has no confidence in the argument, he feels it only works for a hyper partisan crowd (that can be incited to call out "traitor" and "treason" about Obama) or, finally, McCain was terrified that if he raised the William Ayers issue, Obama would follow suit and bring up McCain's Keating Five scandal.
And the attacks from Palin/McCain began again the next day. Hmmm, makes you wonder whether Senator McCain was afraid to raise it at the debate. I wasn't the only one who noticed:
Barack
Obama: "Well I am surprised that — you know, we've been seeing some
pretty over the top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the
last several days — that he wasn't willing to say it to my face."
Tom Vilsack: "If John McCain were so concerned about things like Mr.
Ayers, why didn't he just simply turn to Barack Obama and directly
confront him?"
Joe Biden: "In my neighborhood, when you've got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him."
Kevin Drum has some theories on what the Obama camp is up to:
I guess the Obama folks figure there are three things that could happen. First, McCain does nothing and ends up looking like a coward. Second, their taunts get under McCain's skin so badly that he goes over the edge and does something really stupid. Third, McCain takes the bait and decides to bring up Ayers at the next debate.
As Drum notes, the first two options play to Obama's advantage. (Just an observation: the harshest attacks from the McCain campaign are coming from Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain. I don't know what to make of that.) One can only presume Obama has an answer ready should McCain bring up Ayers in the next debate, and he's had it ready for a while.
One more observation: Obama doesn't seem too afraid that the Ayers accusation will come up. In fact, it sure seems like he's daring John McCain toraise the issue.
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