The seed has been planted for the second civil war

You may know about Rob Ayers. Ayers is a Chicago activist who Obama worked with in his early years as a state senator, in an effort to get charitable funding for a philanthropic effort. When Obama ran for President, someone dug up that Ayers was associated with a radical militia group in the 60's and was arrested at one point for a conspired bombing. When Obama found out about this, he disavowed Ayers and reassured everyone that he was only involved with Ayers on the most superficial level. It came up once during a primary debate, and all the candidates agreed it was a non-issue.

Well, Palin found out about it this morning. There was a New York Times article chronicling some of Obama's obstacles in the campaign, and it mentioned Ayers. That morning, Palin made a speech to a group of supporters. Here is her exact words: "This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world... Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

She then made the reference two more times in just one day, each time using the phrase "palling around with terrorists."

Now, aside from that comment making absolutely no sense, and is a ridiculous leap to say that because Obama knows someone who was a domestic terrorist that he thinks America is not a force for good, here is what she actually read: "Mr. Ayers and Mr. Obama, who together served on education boards in Chicago years ago... A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.'"

The New York Times, along with AP, immediately launched a response to Palin, stating that her accusation was deliberately misleading, and that The New York Times took great care not to say he was palling around with Ayers, quite on the contrary, and there was absolutely no reason why Obama would have known Ayers' past, which makes the statement that Obama was involved with Ayers because Ayers was a terrorist completely absurd.

Palin was asked for response. Her statement: "The Associated Press is wrong."

The McCain campaign has already produced a TV ad around Ayers and released it to the TV stations to air in a few weeks. The campaign manager has defended the move and Palin's statements.