Biden calls latest attacks on Obama dangerous

Says McCain campaign is inciting anger

Barack Obama stumped in Indianapolis yesterday, while running mate Joe Biden, in Tampa, criticized the latest round of attacks from the McCain campaign. (Stan Honda/ AFP/ Getty Images)

As John McCain presses his attack on Barack Obama as a mysterious, risky candidate with ties to unseemly characters, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden laid down a marker yesterday, warning that such criticism is inciting dangerous anger among some McCain backers.

McCain; his running mate, Sarah Palin; those introducing them at rallies; and, yesterday, even McCain's wife, have been lobbing personal attacks at Obama this week - and their supporters have been responding with boos and worse.

At an event yesterday in Bethlehem, Pa., McCain's remarks about Obama were peppered with shouts of "socialist"; "terrorist"; and "liar."

"We've all heard what he's said," McCain said of Obama. "But it's less clear what he's done, or what he will do."

"No-bama! No-bama!" the crowd chanted in reply.

"Who is the real Senator Obama?" McCain asked, starting a call-and-response with the crowd in which shouts could be heard of, "He's a bum!" and "He's too liberal!"

Cindy McCain joined in, drawing a chorus of boos directed at Obama, by saying: "I'm proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body. Let me tell you, I would suggest that Senator Obama change shoes with me for just one day and see what it means - and see what it means - to have a loved one serving in the armed forces, and more importantly, serving in harm's way."

Cindy McCain, who said Tuesday that Obama has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American history," was referring to a vote that Obama cast last year against a defense funding bill because it did not include a timeline for pulling out of Iraq. He subsequently voted for a version that included a timetable. Jimmy McCain, then 18, served with the Marines in Iraq last year before returning in February.

Before McCain and Palin took the stage in Pennsylvania, the local Republican chairman referred to the Democratic nominee as "the ambassador of change, Barack Hussein Obama."

Some say that Obama's opponents use his middle name to perpetuate false rumors that he is Muslim; McCain's campaign issued a statement yesterday disavowing "this inappropriate rhetoric, which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November."

McCain's campaign, however, continued linking Obama to William Ayers, who helped start a radical group responsible for a series of bombings of government buildings during the early 1970s and who two decades later served on two nonprofit boards with Obama.

Yesterday, McCain's camp issued a statement from John M. Murtagh, who was 9 when the Weather Underground targeted his father, a New York judge who was presiding over the trial of members of the Black Panther Party. "Barack Obama may have been a child when William Ayers was plotting attacks against US targets, but I was one of those targets. Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family."

In an interview aired last night on Fox News Channel, Palin broadened the critique to include Father Michael Pfleger, who mocked Hillary Clinton at Obama's church, and about former fund-raiser Tony Rezko, who was convicted on corruption charges not involving Obama. "It goes right back again to the candidate's judgment and who he chooses to associate himself with in the past, perhaps the present," she said. "It makes me question who he would associate himself with in the future."

The rhetoric and reactions started earlier this week, with less than a month before Election Day. At a rally Monday in Albuquerque, when McCain asked, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" one supporter yelled back, "Terrorist!" Across the country in Florida that day, Palin's criticism of Obama and Ayers drew resounding boos and prompted one person, according to the Washington Post, to shout out, "Kill him!"

Tuesday, at a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., Palin accused Obama of trying to cut off funding for the troops and of criticizing US troops for killing civilians in Afghanistan. Both claims have been largely debunked, but the accusation prompted one man to yell out, "Treason!"

Biden, who a spokesman said would be Obama's "defender in chief" through Nov. 4, was the one chosen by the Obama campaign to directly address the Republican rhetoric and crowds.

Biden told voters in Tampa yesterday that Republicans have chosen "to appeal to fear with a veiled question, 'Who is the real Barack Obama?' "

He described McCain as "an angry man lurching from one position to another" who is making "unbecoming personal attacks" on Obama. Palin, Biden said, is raising "outrageous inferences" about Obama.

"This is beyond disappointing," Biden said. "This is wrong."

Earlier yesterday on "The Early Show" on CBS, Biden said Palin's accusation that Obama is "palling around with terrorists" was "over the top."

"These guys are once again injecting fear and loathing into this campaign," Biden said. "I think it's mildly dangerous. I mean, here you have out there these kinds of, you know, incitements out there."

Obama, at a rally yesterday in Indianapolis, only vaguely referred to the attacks, saying that McCain and Palin "are out there saying all kinds of stuff."

But on ABC News last night, Obama called the attacks "pretty over the top" and said he was surprised that McCain didn't raise them during Tuesday night's debate - "that he wasn't willing to say it to my face."

Sasha Issenberg of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.