Straight Talk Express is Stuck in the Mud

Oops! McCain Sat on Board of Racist, Anti-Semite Organization

NBC's Tom Brokaw talked to Paul Begala about how the McCain campaign is attacking Barack Obama's association with William Ayers, who was a member of the Weather Underground. Brokaw played a clip of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin criticizing Obama's connection to Ayers by referencing a New York Times article published on the subject.

"It turns out one of his earlier supporters is a man who, according to The New York Times, is a domestic terrorist," Palin said.

After pointing out that Obama was eight years old when Ayers' planned the attacks, Begala believes "guilt by association" attacks are dangerous territory for McCain.

Begala said, "This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign. You can go back -- I have written a book about the candidate. A dozen researchers go through him. I didn't even put this in the book. John McCain sat on a board."

"It was the U.S. Council for World Freedom. It was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub who wound up involved in the Iran Contra scandal. It was an ultra conservative right-wing group."

"The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League, the parent organization which ADL said had increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racist and anti-Semites."

This video is from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast October 5, 2008.