Published: October 6, 2008
CLEARWATER - Clearly feeling renewed confidence after her vice presidential debate with Joe Biden last week, Sarah Palin charged up an enthusiastic crowd with attacks on Barack Obama during a rally in Clearwater this morning.
Palin drove home the McCain campaign's most recent attack theme against Obama, his acquaintance with William Ayers, a professor who lives in his Chicago neighborhood who was a member of a violent, anti-Vietnam War group in the 1970s.
Republicans' pleasure with her debate performance against Biden was obvious as warm-up speakers used the event for an applause line.
"Sarah really did her job on Thursday night and brought it home. … Now it's up to us," said Gov. Charlie Crist.
Palin herself felt assured enough to joke about her previous, less-inspiring interview with Katie Couric.
"I shoulda told them I was just trying to keep Tina Fey in business," she said, referring to the comedian who does a blisteringly accurate impression of her on "Saturday Night Live."
Palin also said McCain has become the underdog in the race.
Political analysts and pollsters have been saying that for a couple of weeks, blaming the nation's economic crisis, but the McCain campaign has denied it.
In a conference call Thursday, for example, top McCain strategists called Obama desperate and said McCain was close to a victory in Electoral College votes.
"Florida knows a little something about turning an underdog into a victor," Palin said today, referring to the Tampa Bay Rays. "How about it, Florida, let us do that for Sen. John McCain."
Clearwater public safety officials estimated about 4,500 people crowded into Coachman Park downtown for the event, streaming in as early as 6 a.m.
That began a two-day tour, with public appearances today in Estero and Tuesday in Jacksonville and Pensacola, plus private fundraisers in Naples, Jacksonville and Boca Raton expected to bring in $3 million.
McCain can't raise more money for his campaign because he is taking public financing, which limits him to spending the $84 million in tax money it provides. Instead, the money will go to the national Republican Party, which will use it to help the joint campaign-party efforts in battleground states including Florida.
Palin called her Couric interview "a probably less-than-successful interview I had recently with kinda mainstream media," drawing boos from the crowd.
"Really, in that interview I was just getting really impatient because I was so convinced that Americans want to hear about the issues that are so important in your life," including the war, the economy and education, she said.
She then accused Obama of being friends with Ayers, whom she called "a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."
Ayers, an education professor in Chicago and neighbor of Obama, was a student radical in the 1970s involved in the Weather Underground.
In 1995, he held a campaign coffee for Obama, and the two have served on boards of charitable organizations together.
Obama has noted that he was 8 when Ayers helped start the group, and his campaign says McCain is trying to divert voters' attention from the economy.
"As the financial crisis broadens, the McCain campaign has decided it's got to change the subject," said former Florida Sen. Bob Graham on an Obama campaign conference call today.
The McCain campaign has said it intends to become more negative in the closing days of the race and has released a TV ad criticizing Obama for his relationship with Ayers.
Palin used words such as "fearful" and "scared" when talking about Obama -- tapping another theme in recent McCain ads -- and questioned his patriotism, accusing him of not supporting U.S. military forces.
"See, John McCain is a different kind of man -- he believes in our troops and their mission," she said.
Palin also took a political risk by bringing up her advocacy of Gulf oil drilling in a Gulf coast resort town.
She said "untapped" energy sources in Florida will be tapped, "along with environmentally friendly offshore production. We do need to drill here and drill now. Now you can chant the 'drill baby drill,' " she added.
U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, a warm-up speaker, had tried to incite the chant, popular among Republicans since their Minnesota convention – but referring to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, not the Gulf.
The crowd didn't seem to object to Palin's proposal.
"It would all depend on where they put them [drilling rigs] exactly," said one attendee, Karen Hadley of Palm Harbor, who owns an engineering company with her husband. "I don't think they would put them right on Clearwater Beach, so I'm not worried."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. WFLA Reporters Mark Douglas and Chip Osowski contributed to this report. Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.
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