I would very much like to know how the hell this got published by the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) - By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

. . .

Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

This is . . . what's the correct word?  Right, lunatic.  Obama's connections to Bill Ayers are, to be sure, overblown by his opponents.  And I doubt they're doing the McCain campaign much good.  But connecting Barack Obama to a white radical hippie is not, as the article implies, the same thing as the Willie Horton ads.  Ayers was not a black panther, nor a member of Hamas. Palin is trying to paint Obama as an effete closet socialist, not a radical muslim.  Suggesting otherwise is far less credible than the original attack it criticizes.