First it was Hillary Clinton. Now it is John McCain taking shots at Barack Obama over his relationship with 60’s radical Bill Ayers. Read more about the Ayers controversy here and watch John McCain criticize Obama about Ayers here. Read more from The Associated Press below.
McCain said he was sure Obama was "very patriotic" but said his relationship with William Ayers, a University of Illinois professor who was once part of the violent Weather Underground group, was "open to question."
Obama said last week his relationship with Ayers went no further than sitting on a Chicago charity board together, as the Illinois senator rebuffed attacks on his patriotism and condemned Weather Underground as "detestable."
Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, highlighted the Ayers link last week during a televised debate, and McCain told ABC television that the professor was an "unrepentant terrorist."
In the debate, Obama said he was also friends with Republican Senator Tom Coburn, who once called for the death penalty for doctors who carry out abortions. "Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements?" he said.
McCain said Obama's evocation of Coburn, a doctor who continues to deliver babies, in this context was "very insulting" and "borders on outrageous."
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued a blistering statement in response.
"Unable to sell his out-of-touch ideas on the economy and Iraq, John McCain has stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000," he said referring to McCain's failed presidential bid eight years ago.